W.A. plans Australia’s biggest solar+storage micro-grid in Onslow

Western Australia’s regional utility Horizon Power has launched a project to deliver what it claims will be Australia’s largest solar and storage-based microgrid once complete in early 2018.

The project, to be developed in the northwest town of Onslow, will bring together a new 5.25 MW gas-fired power plant, with a mix of distributed and utility-scale solar, to be coupled with battery storage.

“This will be Australia’s largest distributed energy microgrid, creating a new era of energy competition and efficiency for households and businesses,” said WA Energy Minister and Treasurer Mike Nahan, in a statement announcing the project.

The project will see Onslow, a town used as a launching base for the massive Wheatstone LNG project owned by Chevron, powered 50 per cent by renewable energy by early 2018.

But Nahan said it was likely that would grow to around 70 per cent renewable energy, which is about the mark being reached, or planned to reach, in smaller projects in King Island, Tasmania, and Coober Pedy in South Australia.

Read the RenewEconomy story - “W.A. plans Australia’s biggest solar+storage micro-grid in Onslow.”

Energy efficiency workshop tonight in Shepparton

Greater Shepparton City Council has started changing their street lights to energy efficient lights as a part of the Watts Working Better project and residents can switch onto energy efficiency by attending a free workshop tonight, 18 March.
The Energy Efficiency workshop is the next level of thinking when it comes to energy efficiency in your own home.

This two hour workshop will take you beyond the brochures, developing your understanding of energy and electricity and how this relates to your own appliances and electricity bill.

The workshop will be delivered by an expert facilitator with a sound understanding of sustainability and considerations when making sustainable purchases, Rob Carolane.

Rob has maintained an independent power supply at home for over 30 years and is familiar with the dilemmas faced when comparing capital, operating, and lifecycle costs of decisions.

Sustainability and Environment Officer with the city council, Travis Turner, said Mr. Carolane will work with people to help them understand the considerations for making wise decisions about lighting and other energy-using purchases.

The workshops are free to all residents and are part of the Watts Working Better project; more workshops will take place in other participating councils.

The workshop will be held tonight, Wednesday, March 18, at Kids’ Town on the Shepparton-Mooroopna Causeway for two hours from 5:30pm. Light refreshments will be available from five o’clock.

Those planning to attend should RSVP to Romola Hopman at 5832 9700.

Further information is available  for the city council's website.

Building for tomorrow - ideas in Benalla

Building for Zero Carbon Emissions and Low Energy Bills

 “Australia's buildings could halve their energy use within a decade, to make a major contribution to reducing the nation's carbon emissions – and save money on energy bills in the long run as well.”

This is the major message of the ‘Zero Carbon Australia Buildings Plan’, the latest report from Beyond Zero Emissions. The report continues, “We can choose to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to lock in fossil fuel use, or retrofit our buildings for the future now.”

 Trent Hawkins, the lead author of the plan, will present the report at a general meeting of the Benalla Sustainable Future Group on Thursday,  October 24, at The Uniting Church, Carrier Street, Benalla at 7.30 pm.

 Trent Hawkins says, “Imagine buildings efficiency programs in the near future which include the features of a "virtual power station", with solar panels, heat-pump boosted solar hot water, reverse-cycle air conditioning, bulk and foil insulation, air sealing, induction cooktops, and efficient LED lighting. Our plan also includes auditing and upgrading existing, poor performing air conditioning units at little or no cost to consumers, as part of a comprehensive plan to build the one big community wide "virtual power station".

 The ‘Zero Carbon Buildings Plan’ has been developed by Beyond Zero Emissions and Melbourne University’s Melbourne Energy Institute. Beyond Zero Emissions Inc. is a not-for-profit research and education organisation known for its work designing and implementing a zero emissions economy for Australia. Its goal is to transform Australia from a 19th century fossil fuel-based, emissions intensive economy to a 21st-century renewable-energy-powered clean-technology economy.

 How often do you wonder why tougher environmental standards for buildings aren’t more actively enforced and why we are still building low-performance buildings?  At a time when the cost of electricity continues to rise, high-performing energy efficient homes offer much needed respite from cost-of-living pressures, while responding to the challenges of the climate crisis.

Whatever your incentive, energy efficient building design and sustainable performance is an absolute no-brainer. It would reduce Australia's total carbon emissions. It would present energy savings for bill payers and more healthy and comfortable homes.

The Zero Carbon Buildings Plan demonstrates that there are no technical barriers to zero emission buildings in Australia. This is achieved through a planned energy efficiency retrofit of the existing building stock and onsite renewable energy generation.

Members of the public are welcome to hear more details of the Zero Carbon Buildings Plan at the Benalla Sustainable Future Group Meeting on Thursday,  October 24,  at the Uniting Church, Carrier Street, Benalla at 7:30 pm. For further information contact John Lloyd on 5765 2476 or andrewslloyd@iinet.net.au

Considering energy and considering climate change

A core group of 16 gathered Beneath the Wisteria today (Saturday, April 28) to energy, its use and within that how we could best mitigate climate change difficulties as the decades unfolded.

Beyond those intensely and intimately involved with the conversation, a few others listened from the fringes, coming and going.

Several others also apologized, and of those two sent in the views on energy use, including one of those driving GV Community Energy, Geoff Lodge, whom some will remember was at the March gathering, helping us understand some of the realities about renewable energy, primarily solar.

In an email Geoff said:

I will be an apology for this morning’s activity.  I trust it will go well.

My thoughts on energy include a series of complimentary measures;

·         Energy efficiencies in buildings, manufacturing and transport,

·         A paradigm shift in personal lifestyle/values so as to move towards a lower consumption of materials,

·         Generation of energy from low carbon & renewable sources,

·         Decentralized generation of energy,

·         Community ownership of energy generators.

Cheers,

Geoff Lodge.

Alan Wilson was another apology and in providing his views on energy use said in what he described as “Opinion from one absent friend”:

The supply of energy in the form of electricity is essential to our civilization. Any idea of doing away with it is not going to happen.  However, to avoid overheating the globe we have to learn how to make it in large quantities without putting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere – mainly CO2, but also methane

Before we go to work on this, we need to define the context:

1.  We are a democracy:  nothing will happen until the people agree that it should – We haven’t reached this point yet, so education about the problem is still uppermost.   Only then can government make the rules for it to happen.  Our first step has to be in education about how global warming works and why simple physics make it inevitable if we continue along the current path.

 2.  We are a free market economy: It has to be economic for private enterprise to operate.   Large plants will generally be more economic than small ones and they will be placed where it is most efficient to do so: wind turbines along coast and ranges, solar at places like Mildura.  Having said that there will be niche markets for smaller local initiatives, such as co-generation, roof-top solar or efficiency savings, but they will not be game changers.  We should think about what could we, in the Goulburn Valley, might be most efficient at doing in our back yard. 

 3.  Both the economy and the problem are global:  We can’t get far out of step with other nations. International influence and diplomacy remain important, but these also depend on No 1 above.

 4. The government can bend economics to a certain degree by either taxes or subsidies.   They can assist in the development of new technologies that will be essential to the solution.  They should not rule out any new solution, nor support weak solutions, on ideological grounds. We should support the government in putting big dollars into research and pilot plants.  Don’t decry big business –only big corporations can command the resources needed to do the job.

Convenor Robert McLean said:

The use of energy, which in Australia is almost exclusively the outcome of our exploitation of fossil fuels, which are the absolute villain in relation to carbon dioxide emissions and so the worsening of human-induced climate change.

Considering that we should be absolutely focussed on finding some form of a base-load energy resource that will allow us to maintain some semblance of life as we know it.

Therein is the difficulty - sustaining life as we know it – most everything we like and enjoy depends almost entirely on energy that is produced by fossil fuels.

I admire and applaud efforts that encourage people to use one form or another of a renewable energy, be that solar, wind, geo-thermal, wave or the myriad of other sources that regularly come up in conversation.

Despite the enthusiasm some have for the different energy sources, I don’t know of any one, or even a combination of several, that will meet the world’s present base-load energy needs.

However, there is one fossil fuel that will meet all our needs and if the appropriate procedures are followed it is largely free of carbon dioxide emissions – it is nuclear power, but not as it is commonly understood and presently used.

The US government was just a few years away in the mid-1990s from completing a rather complex project to build a nuclear powered Integral Fast Breeder Reactor (IFR) when the Clinton Government pulled the pin on what was happening – I don’t know why, but I can only suspect it was pressure from the fossil fuel industry.

The IFR, like all nuclear power plants is virtually carbon dioxide free; produces very little radio-active waste compared to what exists and what it does, is far less dangerous than that from present nuclear power plants; IFRs are designed to ensure they will not melt down, if does something does go wrong they automatically close down; they do not require a nuclear energy that is easily refined for use in weapons; they will successfully run on nuclear waste  presently accumulating around the world and in fact the world has sufficient waste from existing power plants and decommissioned nuclear weapons to power plants around the world with base-load energy needs for millennia.

There is now something of a groundswell in support of the IFR and several books explaining their advantages are presently available – including “Prescription for the Planet: The Painless Remedy for Our Energy &Environmental Crises” by Tom Blees, also “Plentiful Energy, The story of theIntegral Fast Breeder Reactor”, by Chuck Till and Yoon Chang."

U3A's Allan Wilson encounters Beneath the Wisteria

University of the Third Age participant, Allan Wilson, heard of the Beneath the Wisteria blog just this morning and after a quick look, made these observations.

Allan, who has a scientific background and conducts a monthly “Big Issues From Science” session for U3A members, has made some thoughtful observations, although he was somewhat uncomfortable about what he said being taken too seriously as they were largely “off the cuff”.

What he has said, is thought provoking and warrants consideration by Beneath the Wisteria supporters.

Allan wrote:

The present position expressed on the blog appears to be a 'back to nature' view point that I think defies human nature. 

People talk energy efficiency and walk around the house turning off the lights in empty rooms, but then go out and buy another car as well as air condition the whole house. 

Beneath the Wisteria blog
 seems to have a 'back
to nature' view point.

Energy efficiency will rise, but so will total consumption.   Our civilisation is built on energy - that is energy external to our own muscle power. 

We might listen to what people say they will do, but it is usually more informative to follow what they actually “do”.

By all means build energy efficient houses, but they will be only a small part of the solution.  It pays to never forget that we live in a capitalist structure: Price of power and alternatives will rule.  When in doubt 'follow the money'
Solar Power: I am still unsure that this is the answer to much. First, the present subsidies distort our view of its cost - we need to look at everything on a no subsidy basis.  Two, the daily supply profile is dreadful. 
It is difficult to look ahead, with new technologies coming in from various directions, but one that I think is imminent is the electric car. 

This has all sorts of ramifications:

1.  Home charging: leading to the need to redesign the power supply arrangements.  If the right arrangements are in place(a big if), it should be possible to recharge directly from home without entering the grid - perhaps using two sets of batteries - one in the car an one in the garage.  Need here to support the coming smart meters, so that cars are charged off peak.  

2.  Parking lots with recharge points attached.
This follows into a discussion of new smart meters, which should be one of the saviours of the future - allowing people to set up all sorts of things at home based on taking in power when it is cheap (variable tariffs in half hour blocks).  I don't know why there is opposition to these.

This will lead to all sorts of home energy storage systems - some of which will simply be heating or cooling based and others electricity storage.  Co-generation of power and heat from small household units based on gas would also come into use.
I would put my mental energy (pardon the pun) into thinking about how to generate power without blowing carbon into the atmosphere.

To that end, putting a price on carbon would seem to be the right path, except that it fails if even a minority of countries of the world opt out of doing so. 
On climate change and carbon, there seems to be a mismatch of directions here. 

The oil, gas and coal industries of Australia are building up for gigantic expansion over the next 20 years.   But the climate change policy makers say we need to be building low carbon energy economy, starting now so that the carbon outputs to atmosphere start to taper off in 20 years. 

Once the carbon dioxide (and equivalents in methane and other pollutants) is there they can't be recaptured.  

When I see the amounts involved (9,000,000,000 tons carbon as co2 a year) and the trajectories of increase, I get very pessimistic for this globe 100 years hence.