18 November 2016, Energy Post, Why the future belongs to decentralised renewables, not centralised hydrogen and giga-scale nuclear. What the future of our energy system will look like continues to be a subject of heated debate. According to one well-established tradition, writes Professor John Mathews of Macquarie University in Australia, the route to decarbonisation will run via massive nuclear power systems to the hydrogen economy. But China and to some extent India are emerging as the principal practitioners of an alternative vision of energy growth, underpinning their vast industrialisation efforts with conventional renewables that are the products of manufacturing. According to Mathews, the world is much more likely to follow the second route. Renewables, he argues, are benign, provide energy security, create jobs and above all are the least expensive option. How we envision the future of our energy systems is important as this tends to drive our policies and decisions. In a new scientific paper, “Competing principles driving energy futures: Fossil fuel decarbonisation vs. manufacturing learning curves”, published this month in the journal Futures, I contrast two broad energy visions. Read More here
Tag Archives: Renewables
22 November 2016, One Step off the Grid, Victoria town (Newstead) calls for partners for 100% renewable energy plan. he Victorian town of Newstead is seeking proposals from potential project partners who could help refine its plan to reach 100 per cent renewable energy within 5 years, and which could act as a blue-print for other towns in the state to follow. Newstead, a town of around 500 people, is considered a flagship project project for the state, and is looking to build up its renewable energy capacity and then integrate these into the local grid with battery storage and new “energy market” ideas. Tosh Szatow, director for Energy for the People, which is advising the township, says the call for expressions of interest is designed to flush out ideas from solar companies, retailers, trading platforms and others that could be adapted to the town’s plans. “We have sketched out a plan, and know what a model could look like,” Szatow says. “Now we want to test some of this thinking and identify some of the partners that could help in the project.” The Newstead plan is seen as a fore-runner for other towns and cities in the state, and elsewhere in Australia. And far from being a rogue proposal, the idea has the support of the state Labor government and even the local network operator, Powercor, which is co-operating on data, network capacity and tariff design. Read More here
19 November 2016, One Step off the Grid, Enova reaches major milestone, looks to expand and try peer to peer trading. Australia’s first community-based electricity retailer, Enova Energy, has reached major milestone of 1,000 customers, and is already looking to expand its geographic base and push into new areas such as peer to peer trading. Enova, based in Byron Bay in the northern rivers region of New South Wales, says it has reached its 1,000 customer level several months ahead of target, as it seeks to reach its break-even goal of 4,000 customers within the first two years of operation. CEO Steve Harris says the retailer has also attracted a higher number of business customers – 70 so far – which will help revenues, and possibly offset a small impact on margins from rising wholesale prices and high prices for large scale renewable energy certificates. Harris says there is clearly a groundswell of community interest in alternatives to the big oligopolies, and a fair deal on renewable energy. Nova, which describes itself as a “community owned renewable energy company”, pays 10c/kWh for solar feed in tariffs, more than 50 per cent above most retailers. “The higher feed in tariff is paying dividends for us. But it’s about community and it’s about environment. Households and businesses are showing they are quite happy to switch from their existing provider,” Harris told One Step Off The Grid in an interview. Harris says Enova is also benefiting from partnerships, such as a solar bulk buy program on the south coast of NSW, and another solar initiative in the ACT. Read More here
15 November 2016, Energy Post, Biofuels turn out to be a climate mistake. Biofuels are usually regarded as inherently carbon-neutral, but once all emissions associated with growing feedstock crops and manufacturing biofuel are factored in, they actually increase CO2 emissions rather than reducing them, writes John DeCicco of the University of Michigan. According to DeCicco, biofuels are actually more harmful to the climate than gasoline. Ever since the 1973 oil embargo, U.S. energy policy has sought to replace petroleum-based transportation fuels with alternatives. One prominent option is using biofuels, such as ethanol in place of gasoline and biodiesel instead of ordinary diesel. Transportation generates one-fourth of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, so addressing this sector’s impact is crucial for climate protection. Many scientists view biofuels as inherently carbon-neutral: they assume the carbon dioxide (CO2) plants absorb from the air as they grow completely offsets, or “neutralizes,” the CO2 emitted when fuels made from plants burn. Many years of computer modeling based on this assumption, including work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, concluded that using biofuels to replace gasoline significantly reduced CO2 emissions from transportation.Biofuels are far from inherently carbon-neutral Our new study takes a fresh look at this question. We examined crop data to evaluate whether enough CO2 was absorbed on farmland to balance out the CO2 emitted when biofuels are burned. It turns out that once all the emissions associated with growing feedstock crops and manufacturing biofuel are factored in, biofuels actually increase CO2 emissions rather than reducing them. Read More here