Beyond Zero Emissions has officially launched its "Zero Carbon Australia Stationary Energy Plan".

The is a detailed and costed blueprint for transitioning our stationary energy sector to 100% renewable energy in ten years. The technologies utilised in this plan, which are predominantly concentrated solar thermal with molten salt storage, are commercially available now.

To download the full 200-page Plan click here (8.4MB). For a 16-page synopsis of the Plan click here (2.2MB). Hard copies can be purchased from the Melbourne Energy Institute.

Several eminent scientists, including Professor Robin Batterham, President of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering and formerly Chief Scientist of Australia, have attested to the technical feasibility of the plan.

Professor Batterham went on to say "With our natural advantage Australia can and should be positioning itself as a global renewable super power for future prosperity. This report will help shift the climate debate to focus on energy; security; affordability; export and of course opportunity. Beyond Zero Emissions offers a new and invigorating message that is much needed”
 

Victorian Premier, John Brumby, has announced a plan to source 5% of Victoria’s electricity from large-scale solar plants by 2020. This would require the generation of approximately 2,500 gigawatt-hours of solar electricity annually.

Mr Brumby also announced an interim target of generating approximately 500 gigawatt-hours annually by 2014.

Achieving this is expected to require the construction of between 5 and 10 new plants to be built in the state’s north and west.

The solar electricity plants include an existing proposal to build a station outside Mildura by 2015. This 154 megawatt proposal was resurrected by Sydney company Silex after original backers Solar Systems went into administration.

Mr Brumby said the plan would make the state the nation’s leader in renewable energy.  ”We will be producing in Victoria as much solar as will the rest of Australia under the (Federal Government’s) Solar Flagships program,” he said.

The government estimates that the plan would increase household electricity bills by between $5 and $15 a year from 2014, and inject up to $2 billion into the state economy.

Australian Cleantech has released a report titled "Prosperous Sustainability" which forecasts the development of energy technologies in Australia up to 2050.

The main findings of the report include:

• Current wind technology will maintain a high level of activity through to about 2015, after which it starts to be replaced by second generation wind technologies. There will be no further installation of current technology wind after 2022.
  Second generation wind may consist to vertical axis or Darrieus turbines or other improvements on the current large scale horizontal axis turbines. This technology is forecast to take over from the existing wind technology progressively from 2015, increasing in activity through to about 2025 but reducing to low level of ongoing activity by 2035.
• Small-scale solar rooftop is forecast to increase in activity through to 2012 driven by feed-in tariffs. It will then reduce, finally becoming obsolete by 2020 as other solar technologies become more economic.
  Building integrated solar is forecast to continue to grow through to the end of the forecast period as applications continue to be extended from roofs and windows to a greater variety of surfaces.
• Large scale solar concentrating is not predicted roll out until 2018 but it will be to a major component of the industry by 2050, although down from its peak in the late 2020s.
• Geothermal is forecast to start to become significant from 2015 with an increase in the roll out in the 2030s as technology improvements increase its efficiency.
• Wave and tidal power are expected to grow through to about 2030, after which they start to decline in importance as other technologies, with fewer mechanical parts, emerge as cheaper options. By 2050, they are seen as only having niche application in some  specific geographic situations.
• First generation biofuels is expected to have steady activity on a global basis through to 2012, after which it will go into decline as it is replaced by gen-2 biofuels using algae and cellulosic technologies. Once these technologies have been proven, they are forecast to experience growth through to 2025 and then to remain steady for 10 years before going into decline with only niche uses of biofuels by 2050.
• Energy efficiency and green building are forecast to be a major part of the solution and to continue to grow and innovate throughout the entire period with a continuing focus on reducing energy requirements and using more sustainable materials.
• The smart grid is forecast to expand throughout the period with large capital projects as old grids are progressively upgraded. Widespread roll-out will begin 2012 and will significantly expand in the 2020s. There are likely to be many iterations of what is considered ‘smart’ in a grid and it is only towards the end of the forecast period that it might become fully interactive.
• The major roll out of battery electric vehicles is expected to commence in 2012 and continue to grow throughout the forecast period.
• Carbon equestration is forecast to have only modest activity throughout the period driven by the need for carbon offsetting projects. It is not forecast to grow as many of the other technologies will start to become cost competitive and there will consequently be a decreasing level of carbon to be offset.
• Hydrogen, nuclear fusion and other new technologies may become significant parts of the equation after 2030.

A copy of the report may be purchased from www.auscleantech.com.au/ACT_Reports.html

Sydney Theatre Company has begun installation of the theatre’s new $5.2 million solar power project. When complete 70% of the theatre company’s power will be provided by the 1,906 panels, which will generate some 500KW.

The installation is a major part of the 3-year Greening The Wharf project which will transform The Wharf, the Company’s home on Sydney Harbour, into a unique demonstration of how buildings, including heritage-listed ones, can be made more sustainable. The project, which will deliver the majority of Sydney Theatre Company’s energy and water requirements from sustainable sources, is believed to be a first for any theatre company in the world in its scale and comprehensive approach to sustainability.

New South Wales Minister for Climate Change and the Environment, Frank Sartor said: "The funding will transform the historic, heritage-listed Walsh Bay finger wharf into a publicly accessible green technology showcase. Every visitor to The Wharf will see the green technology in action and appreciate how it can deliver efficiencies with equal, if not better, performance."

The Australian Federal Government has announced that the CSIRO will receive $47.3 million for the development of solar and geothermal energy technologies to power a radio-astronomy observatory and its supporting computer centre.

The funding will support renewable energy infrastructure projects for the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory and the Pawsey High-Performance Computing Centre for Square Kilometre Array (SKA) Science in Perth.

The Pawsey Centre in Perth, which is located at the CSIRO’s Australian Resources Research Centre, will become one of Australia’s largest direct heat geothermal demonstration sites.  Researchers plan to address the heating and cooling requirements, not only of the SKA data centre, but the entire geosciences facility. They will also conduct research on the performance and longevity of geothermal wells.

Both the Murchison Observatory and the SKA computing facility are part of the Australasian bid to host the $2.5 billion Square Kilometre Array, which involves 20 countries and will investigate galaxy evolution, dark matter, and the existence of life. Australia and New Zealand are in competition with a Southern African SKA bid, involving several Afrcan coutries. A decision is expected to be made in 2012.

According to CSIRO chief executive, Megan Clark, the newly announced projects will also accelerate the Australian development of renewable energy technology for uses beyond the SKA. She said that "This project will also allow the practical application of research by scientists and students from all over Australia in renewable energy, as well as in astronomy, computer science, engineering, geology and environmental management."

Artisi’s impression of the Murchison radio telescope (via CSIRO)

The City of Sydney is to reinvest the $2 million a year which it current spends of greenpower into renewable energy systems for its buildings and operations.

Projects under consideration include a glass and solar panel shade canopy in front of Customs House at Circular Quay and solar panel roofs on other council buildings such as depots, aquatic centres and other community facilities.

Mayor Clover Moore said that "Rather than just offsetting our electricity emissions, this strategy invests the money we would have spent on carbon offsets into building renewable energy projects for the city".

This scheme is in addition to the city’s programme of developing tri-generation plants to reduce the need for council buildings to rely on electricity from coal-fired power plants.

Tenders are being called this month to establish tri-generation plants in seven locations around the CBD at Town Hall, Customs House and five aquatic centres. The plan is to create a network of such plants providing up to 325MW over a 15-year period, which could connect to neighbouring buildings and the entire CBD.

Allan Jones, who took the English city of Woking off the grid and implemented similar plans for London, is now the council’s Chief Development Officer for Energy and Climate Change. He says there are numerous advantages to the plan. It will cut emissions by about 70 per cent, reduce and possibly eliminate the need for new coal-fired baseload generators and eliminate losses from transmission.

(Also see our previos artticle "Lessons from London")

The Victorian Minister for Environment, Climate Change and Innovation, Gavin Jennings, has launched the Victoria-Suntech Advanced Solar Facility at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne.

Heading up the VSASF will be Professor Min Gu, Director of the Swinburne Centre for Micro-Photonics, and Dr. Zhengrong Shi, Suntech’s Chairman and CEO, who is also a fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering.

According to Professor Gu, the facility will allow Swinburne researchers to work closely with Suntech throughout the research and development stages. This will ensure that their technology can be easily transferred to the production line and complement Suntech’s industry-leading PlutoTM solar cell technology.

Dr. Zhengrong Shi commented that “As solar reaches grid parity, in Australia and around the world, we are powering a revolution that will permanently redefine how the world uses energy.”

Delta Electricity and Macquarie Generation are planning to set up two 1,000 megawatt fossil fuel based power plants in New South Wales because they claim that the State does not have the adequate renewable energy potential.

In fact, NASA estimates put solar readings in New South Wales at 6kw/m²/day which is equal to the solar radiation received in Southern California and similar to Spain. Southern California and Spain are the largest solar power production regions in the world.

The New South Wales Department of Industry and Investment website states that "NSW has an excellent wind resource. Background wind speeds in NSW are comparable to northern Europe, where a large portion of international wind generation is currently installed". Yet, only about 150 megawatts of wind power generation is currently installed or under constrruction in the State.

A geothermal anomaly south of Muswellbrook in the State’s Hunter Valley is believed to have similar potential, although on a smaller scale, for extracting energy from hot dry rocks as South Australia’s Cooper Basin which is regarded as one of the best such sites in the world.

And, of course, the State boasts one of the world’s great hydroelectric schemes in the Snowy Mountains.

The Australian Government has announced the eight projects which it has shortlisted under under Round One of its Solar Flagships program.

In the first round of the $1.5 billion federal grant program, two large-scale solar power plants, with a total capacity of about 400 megawatts, are to be built. "Round Two" of the program is planned for 2013-14. That phase is expected to focus on promising solar technologies that are ”not quite demonstration-ready’".
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The Australian budget for 2010-11 has committed the Government to invest $652 million over four years in a new Renewable Energy Future Fund, which will form part of the Government’s expanded $5.1 billion Clean Energy Initiative which includes the previously announced $1.5 billion Solar Flagships program and the $2 billion Carbon Capture and Storage Flagships program.

Two new projects will be funded under the Renewable Energy Development program:

• $32 million for CS Energy to build a 23MW solar boost to coal-fired turbines at Kogan Creek, near Chinchilla in western Queensland; and
• $60 million for N.P. Power Pty Ltd to build a 40MW concentrated solar thermal demonstration plant at Whyalla, South Australia, using "Big Dish" technology.

Five new solar reasearch and development projects will be funded through the Australian Solar Institute:

• $5.0 million for a project run by the University of New South Wales to overcome the performance limitations of commercial solar cells;
• $2.25 million for a project run by BT Imaging Pty Ltd to improve the performance of photovoltaic manufacturing;
• $4.95 million for an Australian National University led applied research project in collaboration with industry to help develop the next generation of solar cells;
• $2.25 million for a project run by Sapphicon Semiconductor Pty Ltd to develop a high-efficiency, integrated solar module on a transparent substrate; and
• $4.0 million for a project run by CSIRO and the Australian National University to develop advanced solar thermal energy storage technologies.

A new Resource Exploration Rebate of company tax will be available for geothermal energy exploration. Large areas of Australia are being explored for geothermal energy.

The Government also plans to impose a new 40% tax (replacing some State fees which will be refunded) on "super profits" by mining companies. Since coal and gas miners are the most "super profitable" Australian miners, this can be seen as largely a form of carbon tax.