24 March 2017, Renew Economy, Fear and loathing about renewable grid in Coober Pedy. There is uproar in Coober Pedy, the iconic mining town deep in the South Australian desert that is known as the Opal Capital of the world. What should have been a positive story about a project to shift the town from diesel to a renewable-focused mini-grid based around wind and solar and storage is causing outrage among consumers and councillors, and embarrassment to the developer and the federal agency that backed it. Last year, as we reported at the time, the final plan for the Coober Pedy Renewable Diesel Hybrid project was unveiled, featuring 4MW of wind, 1MW of solar and a 1MW/250kWh battery to provide up to 70 per cent of the power needs of Coober Pedy. The idea was that it would dramatically reduce the amount of diesel consumed from the existing 3.9MW diesel power station, reduce costs, and provide a possible blueprint for the rest of Australia to follow. But what should have been a flagship project for the country – as ARENA CEO Ivor Frischknecht touted it at the time – looks like turning into a disaster for the town and an embarrassment for the renewable energy industry; and a legal dispute between the council and the developers. It has now emerged that the cost that will be charged to the council, which owns the local grid, and which will subsidised by the government, will be more than double other alternatives. Graham Davies, from Adelaide-based Resonant Solutions, who completed an assessment on behalf of council last year, says that the average cost of generating electricity, not including distribution but including rebates, will be 48c/kWh. The deal signed by council will translate to total cost of $192 million over 20 years, a saving of a dismal $5 million over the diesel only grid staying as is for 20 years – which would simply not happen. The company’s own presentation on the project, made last May, appears to confirm that there is little difference between the ongoing cost of diesel and the solar, wind and storage grid. (see graph below). Renewable energy experts say that is absurd. Read More here
Tag Archives: Renewables
23 March 2017, Renew Economy, Fairfax joins media hysteria over post-Hazelwood “blackouts”. The warnings of blackouts provoked by the imminent closure of the Hazelwood brown coal generator in Victoria– already so prevalent on right wing blogs, the Murdoch media and the ABC – reached fever pitched proportions on Thursday. Fairfax Media led the front page of The Age newspaper (see image right) with an “exclusive” story that warned of 72 days of potential blackouts across the state over the next two summers. “Victoria’s energy security has been thrown into question, with the state facing an unprecedented 72 days of possible power supply shortfalls over the next two years following the shutdown of the Hazelwood plant next week,” the story by Josh Gordon begins. And how does it come to this breathless conclusion? Fairfax, like other media, such as the ABC’s political editor, Chris Uhlmann, is basing the forecasts of blackouts on this graph that appears on the website of the Australian Energy Market Operator. It purports to show – in the light red at the top – the periods when Victoria could face a shortfall of supply. The graph for South Australia is even more dramatic. But is that really what is says? Blackouts all summer? Not at all, says the AEMO – a reply they would happily give anyone who bothered to ask. It actually shows the most extreme demand scenarios that it can think of – a one in ten year likelihood in this case – and graphs that over and above what it considers to be the “average” supply. Repeat. That is average supply, not total supply available. Assuming this would lead to blackouts is a bit like saying that someone who walks to the ocean edge at low tide risks getting wet when the tide comes in, and they don’t move. There is plenty of excess capacity that can meet that demand. This graph, is a section known as its Mtpasa forecasts, is basically a heads up that the tide will come in, and generator owners might want to think about maintenance planning, switching them on etc etc, to take it into account. Read More here
22 March 2017, Yale Climate Connections, Company turns piped water into electricity. To reach your tap, water flows through a network of pipes. One company is using the pressure in those pipes to create energy. Bergan French: “We take the excess pressure that would otherwise be thrown away, and we convert it into electricity.” That’s Nina Bergan French, CEO of Lucid Energy. Her company installs turbines inside gravity-fed water pipes. They provide energy without interrupting service. Bergan French: “It’s a whole pipe system with one or more turbines in it, with a generator sitting outside the pipe, connected to either the grid or a battery backup.” Unlike most hydropower, the system does not pose risks to wildlife or its habitat. And unlike solar and wind …Bergan French: “This technology works 24/7. If the water is flowing, we’re making electricity. It’s not dependent on day and night. It’s not dependent on the weather.” A pilot project in California powers street lights. And another in Oregon makes enough electricity to power about 100 homes. French says the company is working on making the turbines more efficient. She expects that they will have a commercially viable product ready for testing by the end of the year. The goal is to provide a source of renewable energy that can be easily integrated as cities upgrade their water pipes. Read More here
15 March 2017, The Guardian, Renewables roadshow: how Daylesford’s windfarm took back the power. From the fertile spud-growing country of Hepburn Shire, 90km northwest of Melbourne, has sprung what many hope will become a revolution in renewable energy in Australia. On Leonards Hill, just outside the town of Daylesford – famed for its natural springs – stand two wind turbines that not only power the local area, but have also added substantial power to the community-owned renewable energy movement in Australia. The turbines, cheesily called Gusto and Gale, constitute the very first community-owned windfarm in Australia. It borrows the idea from a long tradition of community-owned power that was forgotten in Australia, but lives on strongly in Denmark. “In Denmark there’s over 2,100 versions of this,” says Taryn Lane, the community manager for Hepburn Wind, the cooperative that owns and operates the windfarm. “Their model – this way of owning your own energy generator locally – emerged in the late 70s, so they have been doing it for decades.” It was at a community meeting for a large corporate-owned windfarm, like the one near Hepburn, that the idea for Hepburn Wind emerged. Strong community opposition, often encouraged by the fossil fuel industry, has at times been a roadblock for large windfarms built by traditional energy companies. Lane says the Danish founder of Hepburn Wind, Per Bernard, attended the meeting with a few people from Daylesford, and they saw the community express a lot of opposition to one of those projects. “They were quite disappointed that that was our local area’s first response to large-scale renewables development in the area,” Lane says. Bernard figured that if they adopted the Danish model, where the windfarm was smaller, and the local community owned it, support for clean, clean wind energy would grow. The idea of communities owning their own power generators is not new in Australia, according to Lane, it’s just been forgotten. That was the way electricity was first introduced into much of the country, with smaller decentralised generators, owned by the local communities. The mayor of Hepburn Shire, Sebastian Klein agrees. “Hepburn actually used to own its own power generating sources. We used to have our own generator in the main street of Daylesford [and] we used to have our own hydro station down at the lake,” he says. Read More here