Fresh Air is Blowing & the Sun is Shining for Clean Energy Projects
THE Rudd government’s renewable energy backflip will unlock billions of dollars worth of investment in new windfarms, with wind energy companies Pacific Hydro and AGL ready to revive more than $6 billion worth of stalled projects in five states, while the Solar Flagships program has attracted a huge amount of interest, with 52 applications to build Australia’s first large-scale solar-thermal and solar-photovoltaic power plants.
Rick Wallace in The Australian (1 March 2010):
THE Rudd government’s wind energy backflip will unlock billions of dollars worth of investment in new windfarms, the wind power industry says.
Wind energy companies Pacific Hydro and AGL nominated more than $6 billion worth of stalled projects in five states that could be revived after the federal government’s decision to rejig its renewable energy scheme.
Proposed windfarms across the country had been put on hold amid an investment strike caused by the commonwealth’s controversial inclusion of solar panels in the scheme.
The price of the certificates issued under the scheme has since crashed from $60 per MWh to about $35 because the heavily subsidised solar panels and heaters have distorted the market.
A lobbying campaign from the wind industry, which hit its peak when AGL boss Michael Fraser labelled the scheme a “fraud”, finally caused the Rudd government to buckle last week.
Climate Change Minister Penny Wong announced that domestic solar panels and water heaters would be stripped out of the large-scale renewable market, a move the wind industry says will drive up the price of renewable certificates and hence the viability of projects.
The certificates, along with the power, are onsold by producers to retailers, who are mandated to buy a certain proportion of renewable energy. Pacific Hydro’s Australian general manager, Lane Crockett, said the industry had been at the crossroads, but now had a future, as long as the changes passed through parliament. “The investment will flow, the jobs will be kept and created and we will end up with a better energy system as a result of broader energy security,” he said.
“We will be reassessing all of our (stalled) projects.”
Mr Crockett said Pacific Hydro had $1.7bn, or 560MW, of projects at an advanced stage and another $1.2bn, or 400MW, in the pipeline.
AGL — which has an estimated 1365MW, or $3bn, worth of projects under renewed consideration — also welcomed the changes. “We will obviously need to see the detail, but at face value it looks like a proposal that will see us make those investment decisions we have been holding back on,” chief executive Michael Fraser said.
AGL also has several billion dollars worth of wind projects in the pipeline, including the Macarthur windfarm in western Victoria, expected to be Australia’s largest if it goes ahead.
The $800 million project, with 365MW capacity, is one of four that AGL has in advanced stages with at least another three further away from development, but under renewed consideration.
The government’s about face came after the chief executive of Vestas — the largest producer of wind turbines in the world — joined the lobbying efforts, meeting Penny Wong in Canberra last week.
Vestas’s Ditlev Engel, speaking after the meeting, said Australia had enormous wind energy potential and said not utilising it was “like going to Saudi Arabia and not drilling for oil”.
“Some of the best wind resources in the world are in Australia,” Mr Engel said. “It’s got to be harvested, it’s commonsense. We understand you have a lot of coal, but look at what you have in terms of wind resources and it’s an energy resource that doesn’t consume water at all.”
Source: www.theaustralian.com.au
Giles Parkinson “Green Chip” in The Australian (1 March 2010):
Solar interest flares
THE Solar Flagships program has attracted a huge amount of interest, with 52 applications to build Australia’s first large-scale solar-thermal and solar-photovoltaic power plants.
The applications have been spread evenly across the two technology groups, with between six to eight to be short-listed by a seven-member panel in the next few months before the two winners are announced later this year.
The Transfield group has proposed to transform the 180MW Collinsville coal-fired power station in north Queensland to a solar thermal plant boosted by gas, using technology from the German-based Novatec Biosol, in which it has a controlling stake. US firm eSolar confirmed it had submitted a plan with BeSolar, Snowy Mountains Engineering Corporation, John Holland and Siemens.
The shortcoming of the Solar Flagships program is that only one from each technology grouping will be selected, so if projects such as Transfield’s miss out, their plans will simply be shelved. Many in the industry wish for a broad-based incentive such as a loan guarantee. In the US, the Obama administration has announced a $US1.5 billion ($1.67bn) guarantee for a 400MW plant — the world’s biggest — to be developed by BrightSource Energy, another Flagships applicant.
Some eyebrows were raised at the inclusion on the solar energy selection panel of a manager of a BP oil refinery and the head of an Alcan aluminium smelter, along with a former 23-year BHP veteran. But it may be that many experts with a more direct connection with the industry are involved in one or more of the competing proposals.
Not deep but meaningful
ONE of the more interesting developments in the geothermal industry has been the new focus of major renewable energy companies such as Origin Energy and AGL on shallower, more conventional developments. Origin announced last week it had teamed up Geodynamics, its partner in the deep “hot rock” geothermal developments in the Cooper Basin, to look at shallower geothermal resources. Origin is throwing $4.5 million at the cost of drilling two wells over the next two months, while AGL has also secured shallower resources in a handful of exploration permits in NSW and Victoria.
The deeper “hot rocks” resources remain a holy grail for the industry because of the potential rewards. But the experimental and risky nature of its development, as highlighted by Geodynamics problems at Habanero, has caused some resentment in the industry. Many begrudge the high-risk tag now attached to the industry, given that shallower, more conventional resources can be more easily harnessed for smaller-scale energy and industrial heat applications.
Another reason for Origin to pursue shallower resources is that the partnership will need more projects in the Cooper Basin to make any resource there commercially viable, considering the cost of transmission to the nearest grid line.
Riding the wave
ASPIRING ocean energy producer BioPower plans to install a commercial wave farm at a new site near Port Fairy in Victoria. It is to announce today that it will initially install a 250kW bioWave ocean wave energy system, followed by a 1MW unit. BioPower sees scope for a 100MW development.
Source: www.theaustralian.com.au