now accounts for nearly half the national market and is apparently growing at 1,000 installations a day. That, though, is more to do with the fact that it is the only state to keep its feed-in-tariff intact – a net tariff of 44c/kWh. All eyes are on the Newman government to see what it does with that. Solar markets in other states are only now readjusting to having tariffs removed, although there has been a boost in activity ahead of July 1.

Just to emphasise that Newman gets no credit for supporting solar, Parkinson reported yesterday:

The newly elected Queensland state government has backed down on its threat to pull funding from the $1.2 billion Solar Dawn project, after apparently discovering that it was locked in to the $75 million funding commitment.

Premier Campbell Newman promised to repeal funding for the 250MW solar thermal project near Chinchilla – one of the two Solar Flagships winners – along with a range of other clean energy funding promises made by the previous state government. “If we can exit this project and save, I think it is A$75 million, we will,” Newman said at the time.

Believe it or not, cloudy Australia is leading sunny Germany in small rooftop solar installations.

According to data drawn to our attention by Warwick Johnston of Sunwiz Consulting, Australia installed more small-scale solar than Germany in calendar 2011 – 795MW of rooftop systems of 10kW or less (the average size in Australia ranges from 1.5kW to 2.2kW) compared to 759MW in Germany.

The flip side to that story is that commercial- and industrial-scale solar in Australia is virtually non-existent, whereas it forms the largest part of the market in Germany. Commercial scale – 30kW to 100kW – is just starting to get traction in Australia.

And to help overcome that disparity, our friends at 100% Renewable spent all yesterday lobbying federal politicians to support Big Solar for Australia! 100% were presenting the results of their community surveys that they carried out, explaining and questioning people about large-scale solar plants. Andrew Bray reports:

So the results were emphatic: 94 per cent of the 12,000 people surveyed supported building big solar plants in Australia. In fact, it was such a no-brainer that many people were surprised to learn that while the Chinese and Americans are building 500 megawatt solar plants, Australia’s largest completed project is a little over 1 megawatt.

Interestingly, a similarly large amount supported the idea of a government fund to help get those plants built. While people understand that the private sector will do the heavy lifting, they also expect the government to provide leadership and funding to make it happen.

While these seem extraordinary figures, they are in the same ball park as other polls that have tested support for renewable energy, such as one run by Essential Research last year that found 89 per cent support for renewable energy.

Renewable energy in general, and solar energy in particular, is wildly popular.

Land for sale by Cullerin Range windfarm, on the Hume Highway.

Summary:  Four major and statistically reliable studies by different respected and independent organizations in different countries spread over a decade have found no correlation between operating wind turbines and negative property values (two found positive impacts in fact).

• The prestigious US-based Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found no correlation.
• The respected UK-based Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors in combination with the Oxford Brookes University found no correlation.
• The US-based Renewable Energy Policy Project found positive correlations between wind turbines and property value increases.
• A University of Illinois Masters in Applied Economics thesis found statistical evidence that fear of an impending wind farm affects property values, but that operating wind farms do not, and that property values near operating wind farms increase faster.
• Fear of wind turbines impact on property values before the wind turbines are erected and shortly afterward seems to have a short-term impact on property values and sales. If so, anti-wind advocacy groups are complicit in this – arguably intentionally — by publicizing and promoting fear of property value impacts.

Torresol Gemasolar: solar thermal with storage operating now in Spain

by Green Left Weekly

The Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) is being set up under the Clean Energy Future legislation (the carbon price package). It will provide $10 billion to support renewable and low-emissions energy.

That’s the message that most climate-concerned people have been hearing from the Labor government and the Greens.

Unfortunately, it now seems overly optimistic. The recently completed CEFC expert review shows it may give most of its support to gas projects.

Sadly, most people have missed this, distracted by worry over the CEFC being abolished or changed by a future Abbott government.

Even critics of the carbon price “Clean Energy Future” legislation thought the CEFC would deliver the sweetener in the package. I wrote in July last year: “We can be confident that this will deliver a significant boost to the construction of renewables.” My confidence was misplaced.

Renewable energy

Half of the CEFC funds most go to renewable energy, while the other half can go to “low-emissions” technology, defined as causing at least 50% lower emissions than current electricity generation.

The “renewable energy” component of the plan is problematic. The CEFC review defines it this way: “Renewable energy technologies includes: (a) hybrid technologies; and (b) technologies (including enabling technologies) that are related to renewable energy technologies.”

“Hybrid technologies” means renewable energy in combination with gas. Is this cleaner than coal? It may be well under 50% the emissions of coal, but also has 100% less chance of going to 100% renewable energy over the 40-plus years lifetime of the gas infrastructure.

One example of a hybrid gas-renewables project is the power station proposed for Chinchilla in Queensland.

Instead of building a concentrating solar-thermal (CST) plant that can store significant heat and run overnight, the plan was to augment the sun’s direct daytime heat by burning gas.

Emerging information shows that gas fracking has high rates of leakage (sometimes called “fugitive emissions”). This leaking methane is a very powerful greenhouse gas — more than 100 times the effect of CO2 over a 20 year period. Chinchilla is in the heart of Queensland’s coal seam gas mining zone.

A possible “low emissions” technology that could also qualify as less than 50% of current emissions would be tri-generation (trigen). Trigen is a gas power plant that uses its waste heat to drive an old-fashioned absorption refrigeration plant and normal heating, to run city airconditioning systems.

Unfortunately trigen’s airconditioning system is not especially energy efficient when compared to modern heat-pump based building airconditioning, running on grid electricity. It’s unlikely to actually have fewer emissions than simply upgrading these units and installing some renewables.

Trigen substitutes polluting gas pipelines for a potentially renewable electricity grid. It entrenches the gas industry deeper into our cities and our power supply. It may even help the gas industry to “greenwash” its public image.

Gas is not a new, emerging technology worthy of support. Gas power would keep Australia on a very high path of emissions compared with world averages.

No change to overall targets

Projects built with CEFC will not be additional to Australia’s existing renewable energy target. So any renewable energy built will not be extra; it might just be a different technology (such as photovoltaic solar panels instead of wind turbines, for example).

This could only be a good outcome if the CEFC supported concentrating solar thermal plant with heat storage (so it can run overnight) — this is the new technology that could be the bridge to 100% renewable energy.

It would take the building of a few initial solar thermal plants to bring its building costs down to a reasonable, commercially viable level.

But the CEFC is clearly not aiming at that result. It is expected to apply commercial principles in choosing between projects. Cheaper, less crucial renewable technologies, and of course “hybrid” technologies, are likely to be funded.

The best case for building a concentrated solar thermal plant is at Port Augusta, where the old Playford coal power station is likely to shut down soon anyway.

While this proposal has widespread community support, it will struggle to force the CEFC to back it.

In fact, because the CEFC has been set up to make it immune from political interference, its charter may mean that no amount of community campaigning can swing it to the really important jobs.

Greenhouse mafia in control

The conclusion is that the CEFC will probably do nothing to break the grip of the fossil fuel industry “greenhouse mafia” on Australia’s politics and energy supply.

First, because it has so much potential for supporting “clean” gas, not really clean renewable energy.

Second, because it is unlikely to support the one breakthrough technology — concentrated solar thermal with storage — that can begin to replace the “baseload” fossil fuel generators.

If we want a 100% renewable energy supply, the hard work still remains to be done.

Friends of the Earth (FoE) is an environmental and social justice community organisation.

FoE has been campaigning in Australia for nearly 40 Years.

We rely on the support of members and donors to survive.

Right now Friends of the Earth needs your financial support to continue campaigning on the BIG Issues in 2012.

The green battle lines are drawn, we are ready to fight. Are you ready to dig deep and support our work?

Donate or become a member today!

Friends of the Earth rally for wind energy, Melbourne, 29.9.2011

Pacific Islands Aiming For Energy Self-Sufficiency

BY PHIL MERCER – SYDNEY – Citizens on the South Pacific island atolls of Tokelau are to become the first in the region to rely entirely on renewable energy.  Officials say a hybrid system of solar energy and coconut oil will be supplying enough power for every resident on Tokelau by the end of the year.  The pledge comes after 20 small island nations announced new plans to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels at a conference organized by the United Nations in Barbados.

Tokelau officials say the atolls will stop using imported fossil fuels and become self-sufficient in energy later this year.

$1 million saving 

It is estimated that oil imports account for up to 30 percent of national income in some isolated parts of the Pacific.

The use of coconut biofuel and solar panels will save Tokelau about $1 million each year, and will provide far more electricity than the population currently needs.

Nileema Noble from the United Nations Development Program says Tokelau is making a bold statement about sustainability.

“We here have a tiny nation of people – 1,400 people – telling the world essentially you know what, get on with it,” said Noble. “Move away the discourse away from the small island states being vulnerable to one which says we can do things for ourselves, we can take action and, of course, have overcome enormous barriers of distance and isolation to make this happen.”

The tiny New Zealand administered territory is among several small Pacific island nations that are threatened by rising sea levels and want to become carbon neutral.

Other small islands examples

The island nations of Samoa and Tuvalu are aiming to get all of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020.   The Cook Islands plans to start converting to solar panels and wind turbines, while most houses in the South Pacific archipelago will begin to use solar water heaters.  The changes are in part funded by grants from Japan and New Zealand.

East Timor’s government has promised that no households in the capital, Dili, would be using firewood for cooking by 2015 and said 50 percent of the country’s electricity would be from renewable sources by the end of the decade.

The push for energy efficiency was a focus of a U.N.-sponsored energy forum in Barbados.  It brought together more than 100 heads of state, ministers and campaigners from 39 countries across the Caribbean and Africa, as well as the Pacific and Indian Oceans.  Twenty small island nations signed a statement calling for access to modern and affordable sources of renewable power that would protect the environment and boost economic growth.

The declaration has been adopted ahead of next month’s U.N. Conference on Sustainable Development to be held in Brazil.

During the 2010 Victorian election campaign it was clear that the Coalition decided it couldn’t get ahead of the Greens and ALP on environmental issues and so ran silent, leaving the debate largely to an inner electorate argument about Hazelwood. Its ‘no target’ approach meant it tried to appear moderate, constantly promising to release a full environment and climate policy (which never surfaced) and even pledging support for several government initiatives.

But after 18 months in power the Baillieu Government’s real environmental agenda has become all too apparent.

Since winning office it has steadily pushed a slash and burn operation through the previous government’s environmental legislation, killing off the 20% greenhouse gas emissions reduction target, slashing the solar feed-in tariff, cutting staff in biodiversity, enacting a wind farm policy that effectively knee-caps the industry, and allowing cattle back into the Alpine National Park.

As a result it is facing a determined and united green movement, which will work hard to make environment and climate key election priorities in 2014.

What makes 2014 different is how things are un-folding in rural Victoria. In a significant strategic error, a growing number of the Coalition’s actions have also badly let down its own supporters, and the ramifications of this are likely to play out far from the usual inner city and leafy green suburbs. Even cost of living campaigns in recently claimed metro seats could be eclipsed by a rural and regional backlash.

public forum on CSG, Modella, West Gippsland, March 2012

Take the coal seam gas (CSG) issue for starters. A big issue across the ‘coal belt’ but barely reported in metro media. What is fascinating here is that rural communities are finding common cause with green activists, just as with the Lock the Gate Alliance in the northern states. Coalition representatives have been noticeable by their absence in their own constituencies at forums and in the media debate, while the people speaking at public meetings are more likely to be environmental activists. Federal and state Greens MPs have played a key role in a number of community campaigns against coal and gas. The ALP has called for a moratorium on CSG. Meanwhile, Deputy Premier Peter Ryan, a National in a seat where concern over CSG and new coal is huge, continues to declare that existing legislation will protect farmer’s rights.

No astute political observer can believe that this position will be tenable for much longer.

And it gets worse for the government:

The recent announcement of the closure of Department of Primary Industries offices at Ararat, Birchip, Camperdown, Cobram, Kyneton, Ouyen and St Arnaud is a further body blow to many small towns.

The same applies to the two kilometre wind buffer and ‘no go’ zones that are already resulting in lost investment and jobs for local tradespeople in small towns throughout the state.

Slashing the solar feed-in tariff will prevent struggling rural and regional families from being able to reduce their household energy bills and hedge against future price rises.

The government clearly thinks it can get away with implementing retrograde environmental policies but I suggest they have overlooked two key factors that may yet come back to haunt them in 2014.

The first is the assumption that Liberal voters don’t care about the environment. Certainly not all do. But as any politician will know, it’s about margins, not absolute numbers.  And with Ted Baillieu’s approval rating already plummeting, 2014 is shaping to be a close election.

In some electorates, up to 30% of Liberal voters allocate their preferences to the Greens even when the Liberals have issued a how to vote card against them. A common statistic cited is that the preference ‘bleed’ is about 1 voter in 5. For those who pay attention to environmental debates, the Baillieu government is on the nose and this could well impact on where many Liberal voters put their preferences on election day.

The second element was harder to spot back in 2010 as it only came into focus last year. In recent times there have been a growing number of proposals for new coal and gas operations across the southern half of the state, with more than 20 exploration licenses currently issued for CSG in Victoria.

In the public realm, the state government ignores the mining issue, while a growing number of local councils have supported motions against coal, gas, or both. The Victorian Farmers Federation, long an ally of the Coalition, has finally come off the fence and called for land owners to have the same right of veto for CSG drilling that they have over wind turbines.

Communities have been fighting new coal proposals in western and southern Victoria and increasingly they are winning. In 2011, communities south of Colac faced offagainst mining company Mantle, which had the common sense to make a strategic retreat.

Mt Gellibrand, near Colac: a wind farm has commenced construction here, while CSG exploration has met stiff resistance in the area

As anger grows across Coalition held seats, and as companies jostle to turn their visions of an enlarged fossil fuel industry into real drill rigs and open cut mines, a key battle ground in the build up to the 2014 state election will be the farmland of southern Victoria.

Next week the final report of the Inquiry into Greenfields Mineral Exploration and Project Development in Victoria will be tabled in parliament. This is the government’s opportunity to show it is listening to community concerns.

The government must understand that anything less than a moratorium on coal and gas and full inquiry will not be enough to alleviate community concerns.

Cam Walker is campaigns co-ordinator with Friends of the Earth.

With the price of solar falling rapidly, it’s exciting to see number of communities around Australia exploring the feasibility of community solar. Ranges Energy has already set up a community energy co-operative and are continuing to look for a viable site. Climate Action Moreland held their first public meeting to discuss community solar in March 2012. Yarra Climate Action Now are running a public community forum on Saturday 19 May from 11am-1pm in Clifton Hill. Locals Into Victoria’s Environment (LIVE) have been meeting with Port Phillip Council to discuss a potential community solar farm for the new roof going on the South Melbourne Market.

A range of other community organisations and councils are also seriously exploring the feasibility of community solar including Adelaide Hills, Campbelltown and Victor Harbor Councils in South Australia, Hobart City Council in Tasmania, North West Renewable Energy Community Group in Mildura, GV Community Energy in Murchison, Arid Lands Environment Centre (ALEC) in Alice Springs and SEE-Change in Canberra.

Embark believes there is enormous potential for wide-scale deployment of community solar, however a number of barriers still need to be addressed. To make solar viable at community-scale, Embark is developing the basic tools and templates that groups and councils will need to develop their projects. We’ve built a basic financial model that groups can adapted to suit your specific circumstances. Contact Taryn Lane via email taryn@embark.com.au if you’d like to learn more.

Over the next 12 months, we will be working on a set of legal templates (constitution, lease agreement, power purchase agreement, share offer document) and a streamlined accounting solution that will help to dramatically reduce the legal and compliance costs. We will keep you updated on our progress as we develop these tools so let us know if you’re thinking about your own community solar initiative.

the final forum at Castlemaine

Last week’s Community Wind Forum in Castlemaine Town Hall marked the last of 6 held across Mount Alexander area in the past 3 weeks.

“We are very grateful to the 170 community members who’ve participated in the forums.  We’ve received a lot of very valuable input from the community that will help guide the future direction of the project.  We’ve heard from people about what the possible benefits, as well as the challenges, of delivering a successful project will be”, said Mick Lewin, Chair of the Mount Alexander Community Wind Working Group.

Local residents conveyed feedback on the vision to set up a small community-owned wind farm in the Mount Alexander Shire.  Many perspectives were raised as well as a number of questions.  Questions will be answered publicly by the Mount Alexander Sustainability Group (MASG) over coming weeks via a ‘FAQ’ on their website (www.masg.org.au/communitywind).

“While some people have concerns that we will work hard to address, the response from the community has been overwhelmingly positive” said Project Coordinator, Jarra Hicks.

“What we’ve heard loud and clear is the importance of getting out there and talking with people, getting the community involved and upholding strong values of cooperation and communication.”

In addition to the forums, MASG is currently conducting an online survey, to give more people the opportunity to have input into the project.  The survey is open until the end of May and is available at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/MountAlxanderCommunityWind.

The results of the community forums and the survey will be compiled into a ‘community feasibility report’ and help guide the future project plans.

MASG is calling on those people who wish to support the vision of the project to sign up as a supporter and to donate funds to help move the project forward.  All donations are tax deductible and can be made on the website for at the MASG office: 233 Barker St Castlemaine, (03) 5470 6864.

“We thank all those who’ve contributed to this important community conversation and look forward to keep you up to date about the progress of the project” said Mick Lewin.

The following is from ABC Asia Pacific News. Many small island states face immersion if the sea levels keep rising; the whole world has to follow their lead if we are to have any impact!

Image from www.worldviewofglobalwarming.org

Pacific pledge to switch to renewable energy

Pacific Island nations have pledged to dump diesel and similar fuels they use to produce energy and replace them with renewable power sources.

Tuvalu, Tokelau and Cook Islands’ leaders outlined their renewable energy targets this week.

The Deputy Prime Minister of Tuvalu, Kausa Natano has told Pacific Beat the implementation of renewable energy schemes in small island states is very important.

“I think everyone’s supported the idea of energy efficiency as it will save a lot of funds from their budgets and could be used for other social developments in respective countries,” he said.

Their pledges came at a meeting of small island states in Barbados, West Indies.

Their nations plan to rely on sources like coconut biofuel, solar energy and wind energy by the end of the decade.

Their declaration will be taken to the Rio Plus 20 Earth Summit in Brazil next month.

Michelle Gyles-McDonnough, of the United Nations Development Program, told Radio Australia’s Pacific Beat it was “tremendous leadership on the part of small island developing states.”

“They have stepped out, they have set themselves targets that they are willing to work towards to achieve,” she said.

“We had some donor partners – Denmark, Norway, the United Kingdom – that actually also made the commitment to support these small island states as they move forward to try and support the transformation of their societies.”

He says donor partners – Denmark, Norway and the United Kingdom – have committed to support the small island states in their transformation.