Renewable energy boost to power Victoria's four biggest regional cities

In a huge boost to Victoria's electricity supply, renewable energy companies will compete to supply Victoria with 650 megawatts of power – enough for the energy needs of every household in Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo and the Latrobe Valley.

Two large solar farms will be built in Victoria to power Melbourne's trams. 

The competitive "reverse auction" will be the biggest of its kind in Australia, as corporations tender for the contracts to power 389,000 households.

This is expected to trigger investment of about $1.3 billion in renewable projects such as construction of wind and solar farms.

Expressions of interest will open in October.

Read Adam Carey’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “Renewable energy boost to power Victoria's four biggest regional cities.”

Victoria weather: Severe weather warning issued for damaging, destructive winds

A severe weather warning for damaging and destructive winds has been issued for much of Victoria on Saturday, with the state also expecting unusually warm winter temperatures.

A warning for damaging winds has
been issued for a large part of Victoria.

The Bureau of Meteorology said Saturday would be the windiest day so far this winter, with damaging winds of 60 to 70 kilometres per hour expected for many areas including Melbourne, Hamilton, Stawell, Kyneton, Ballarat, Geelong, Wonthaggi and Falls Creek.

Stephen King from the BoM said peak gusts in those areas could reach 100kph.

"Victoria [is] expecting the windiest day this winter," he said.

"We're expecting winds to strengthen early Saturday morning in the western and central districts, and it'll reach the eastern parts of Victoria by early afternoon.

Read the ABC News story - “Victoria weather: Severe weather warning issued for damaging, destructive winds.”

Commuters call for massive V/Line car park at Geelong in $1b bid for rail cash

A Victorian rail group is calling for more
 than $1 billion of investment in the
 state's rail network. 

A 20-hectare, 4000-space car park should be built in Geelong, and more than $1 billion needs to be spent on rail across the state to speed up commuting from satellite towns, according to local lobbyists pitching for extra funding from this year's state budget.  

The new Corio Parkway railway station, the group says, would "be designed to overcome a chronic shortage of commuter car parking in the Geelong area". Melbourne Airport has about 24,000 public carparking spaces, while the biggest railway station car park in Victoria, at Tarneit, has 1000 spaces.

Read Darren Gray’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “Commuters call for massive V/Line car park at Geelong in $1b bid for rail cash.”

Australia’s car industry ignored the elephant in the room: carbon emission

Anna Mortimore -
ignoring the
elephant in the room.

Ford’s closure of its Geelong manufacturing plant on Friday is part of a broader story about Australia’s manufacturing sector. But one side of this story has so far been overlooked: the role of Australia’s lax attitude to vehicle emissions.

Globally, car manufacturers are taking climate action seriously by significantly improving fuel economy, in turn reducing a car’s CO₂ emissions.

Repeated policy failure and a marked reluctance by the Australian car industry to shift from manufacturing mostly high CO₂-emitting vehicles contributed to Ford ending operations. The Australian car industry ignored the elephant in the room.

This effectively contradicts former-Treasurer Joe Hockey’s assertion that climate change has no impediment on economic growth, as Australia gets left behind in a world embracing action on climate change.

Read the thoughts of a lecturer from the Griffith Business School at Griffith University, Anna Mortimore, on The Conversation - “Australia’s car industry ignored the elephant in the room: carbon emission.”

Everyone's gone, but the oppresive heat remains

The players are gone, the crowd's
 gone, but the oppressive heat,
and a flyer posted by Beneath
 the Wisteria supporters, remains.

The players are gone, as is the crowd, but the heat remains.

Saturday’s Australian Football League pre-season match played at Shepparton’s Deakin Reserve between Essendon and Geelong attracted more than 5000 people who braved a 37 degree day to see the action.

Saturday was the first day in at least of week of extreme heat when the average temperature in Shepparton was predicted to be 38.5°C.

The temperature today, Sunday, March 6, was 38.2°C and the present heatwave has been described by the Bureau of Meteorology as “severe”.



Heat and Sport flyers, fly off the blocks

John Pettigrew (back) hands
out a flyer at Shepparton's
Deakin Reserve today.

Flyers pointing the risks and dangers of playing a vigorous sport on a hot day “flew off the blocks” at the Australian Football League’s pre-season match played today in Shepparton.

Shepparton’s Beneath the Wisteria had two people at the main pedestrian gate leading to the city’s Deakin Reserve and all 150 flyers were gone in just 40 minutes.

Thousands flooded into the ground and so although the few flyers distributed seemed comparatively inadequate, John Pettigrew and Robert McLean felt that if the flyer’s message reached and changed the views of just one person, it was a worthwhile effort.

Shepparton’s hot day (it was 37ºC, at least) drew comments and complaints from many people entering the ground, with some suggesting the game should have been cancelled and others arguing it should have been played in the evening.

An Essendon supporter who had driven up from Melbourne said she and her husband would have come even if the game was played at night.

A direct connection was made on the flyer between climate change and heat, pointing out that people, regardless of age or fitness, frequently became up to 70% less effective once the temperature passed 35ºC.

The flyer.

It also noted the northern Victoria was officially in a heat-wave scenario once that part of the state experienced three successive days of 32ºC. For Melbourne that was just 30ºC and in the Mildura area, in the north-west part of the state, it was 35ºC. The average temperature in Shepparton this week is predicted to be 38.5ºC, as pointed out on the flyer.

The importance of greenery, in this case primarily trees, was evident today for although Deakin Reserve might be ideal for what it is intended, shade and cool spots were at a premium.

Provision of trees has not be a high priority, but it is something which will need to be addressed as climate change tightens its grip.

The result today: Geelong easily defeated Essendon.

(The idea to hand out the flyers came from supporter, Alan English).

Geelong to host climate festival

A

new festival will encourage Geelong to “rise to the challenge of climate change”, organisers have announced.

The inaugural Act on Climate Change Festival would “provide the answers and create a new, positive path” for the city, event co-ordinator Dan Cowdell said.

Read the Independent story - “Geelong to host ‘climate festival’.”