Nation’s biggest wind farm could be built between Geelong and Ballarat

The biggest wind farm in the southern hemisphere will be built about 130 kilometres west of Melbourne, powering an estimated half a million homes a year by 2025, if the Andrews government gives the project the green light.

Graphic: Stephen Kiprillis

The proposed wind farm would sprawl across 167 square kilometres of farmland near the small town of Rokewood in south-west Victoria, about 40 kilometres south of Ballarat.

It would have 228 wind turbines, each 230 metres tall at their highest point. By way of comparison, just four skyscrapers in Melbourne are taller.

Read Adam Carey’s story from The Age - “Nation’s biggest wind farm could be built between Geelong and Ballarat.”

Carbon capture offers a false hope that we can sustain our use of coal

Last week, the Andrews government announced it was launching a "world-first" project to produce hydrogen in the Latrobe Valley.

Australia's PM, Malcolm Turnbull.

The project is being developed by a consortium of Japanese energy and infrastructure companies led by Kawasaki Heavy Industries, with the support of the Victorian, Commonwealth and Japanese governments. It aims to convert brown coal into hydrogen, which will then be transported to Japan for use in fuel cell electric vehicles and power generation.

On face value this attempt to turn our remaining coal resource into new export opportunities might seem like a good idea. But once you drill into the issue it becomes complex very quickly.

Firstly, there is the awkward fact that this project won’t be able to be commercialised unless carbon capture and storage (CCS) becomes viable at a commercial scale. Despite absorbing more than $1.3 billion of taxpayer funds since 2007, no one can say with certainty when, or if, this technology might be ready. So we’re potentially funding dead-end research. Despite the fact that industry reps keep promising it's "almost ready", after spending $1.3 billion of our money on this technology, with very little to show, when do we say enough is enough?

Read Cam Walker’s comment from today’s Age - “Carbon capture offers a false hope that we can sustain our use of coal.”

Victorian coal to keep lights on in Japan, says Turnbull

On one of Victoria’s hottest mid-April days on record, Australian and Japanese leaders gathered at the base of Loy Yang, the state’s biggest power plant, to launch a project to secure the long-term future of its vast brown coal reserves.

Malcolm Turnbull says brown coal might
one day keep the lights on in Japan.

If this $496 million pilot project to convert the Latrobe Valley’s brown coal into liquid hydrogen pays off, there is hope that a new export industry will be created that will fuel the valley’s coal-dependent economy for many decades to come.

Speaking at the launch of the project between Australia and Japan in the Latrobe Valley, Prime Minister Turnbull highlighted the government's agnostic position on energy, one of the main tenets of the National Energy Guarantee, which has been used to increase the role of coal in Australia's energy mix.

Read the story from The Age by Adam Carey and Cole Latimer - “Victorian coal to keep lights on in Japan, says Turnbull.”

World-first coal to hydrogen plant trial launched in Victoria

A world-first trial to use brown coal to make hydrogen has been launched in Victoria's east as a pilot 'clean energy' project that is expected to create 400 jobs — but critics and coal industry experts alike said new measures will be needed to tackle the carbon emissions generated.

The Loy Yang brown coal mine in Victoria's Latrobe
 Valley. The mine is owned by AGL.

A demonstration plant will be built in the Latrobe Valley as part of the $496 million project to develop technology to produce hydrogen from the region's vast reserves of coal.

The hydrogen would be shipped from the Port of Hastings to Japan under the deal with Kawasaki Heavy Industries, J-Power, Iwatani Corporation, Marubeni and the Japanese Government.

The Federal and Victorian Governments are providing $100 million towards the cost of the trial.

Speaking from the launch at Loy Yang mine, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said hydrogen was a fuel of the future.

Read the story by Kellie Lazzaro from ABC News - “World-first coal to hydrogen plant trial launched in Victoria.”

Mining firm in talks with government over Clean Energy Finance Corporation oil field funding proposal.

Resources Minister Matt Canavan said carbon
capture and storage can cut emissions and
 retain access to coal-fired power.

The company behind an Australian-first plan to use pollution from power stations to extract oil says taxpayers should help fund the project, despite criticism that it uses an unproven and expensive technology.

The Turnbull government has been in talks with the proponent over the venture, and believes such technologies can lower carbon emissions while keeping coal-fired power stations running.

Read Nicole Hasham’s story from The Age - “Mining firm in talks with government over Clean Energy Finance Corporation oil field funding proposal.”

BMBF Project Puts Automated Electric Vehicle on the Road

The German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) funded project UNICARagil aims to rethink vehicles and their development processes. The goal is a disruptive, modular and agile vehicle architecture and the prototypical implementation of four different application cases from automated family taxis to mobile package delivery stations.

As early as 2013 TUM’s Visio.M drove its rounds remotely operated.

Autonomous electric vehicles will be an essential component of future mobility: they will form the basis for sustainable and intelligent road transport, novel mobility and transportation concepts, improvements in traffic safety and a boost in the quality of life in urban environments.

However, requisite vehicle concepts require a significantly more centralized and efficient data processing and transmission in motor vehicles and, consequently, a departure from established architectures and processes.

Read the Science and Technology Research News story - “BMBF Project Puts Automated Electric Vehicle on the Road.”

Old factory to make power for new

A Goulburn Valley businessman is working on a novel energy project which will use food waste to generate power for a new dairy factory.

The site of the new power plant.

Ian Bertram has received a Victorian Government grant towards the project based at the former Heinz factory at Girgarre which was once a cheese factory.

Australian Consolidated Milk is planning to build a new dairy factory on a green-field site next to the old facility this year and may be the power generator’s best customer.

Read the Country News story - “Old factory to make power for new.”

Australia’s first offshore wind farm wins international funding

Australia's first offshore wind farm, an $8 billion 2000 megawatt project, has secured financial backing from a major international green energy investment fund.

Offshore Energy has joined with Danish fund management group Copenhagen Infrastructure Partnership to develop the renewable energy project.

The offshore wind farm, dubbed the Star of the South, will be built 10 to 25 kilometres off the coast of Victoria’s Gippsland region, in the Bass Strait, and could provide one and a half times the energy of the now-closed Victorian Hazelwood coal-fired power station.

Offshore Energy managing director Andy Evans told Fairfax Media the partnership would transform the company and lift the viability of offshore wind for Australia.

Read Cole Latimer’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “Australia’s first offshore wind farm wins international funding.”

Irrigation plans for Kimberley's Gogo Station facing green wall of opposition

Environmental groups have launched a campaign against a proposed irrigation development on Gogo Station in the Kimberley, claiming the project could do irreversible damage to the Fitzroy River.

Gogo Station wants to expand its irrigated
fodder operation in the Kimberley.

Gogo is planning to use floodwater from a tributary known as Blue Bush Creek, to grow around 5,000 hectares of fodder crops for its cattle, and is currently seeking the necessary approvals from the State Government.

The campaign against the proposal, led by the Broome-based Environs Kimberley, says Gogo's plan to draw water into large storage dams makes no sense and contradicts government plans to create the Fitzroy River National Park.

Environs Kimberley's Jason Fowler said it was a big project that posed a major risk to the environment.

Read the ABC News Rural story - “Irrigation plans for Kimberley's Gogo Station facing green wall of opposition.”

Tesla is powering the Hawaiian island of Kauai with more than 54,000 solar panels

Tesla is powering the Hawaiian island of Kauai with solar panels.

Tesla takes its power to Kauai.

Tesla officially unveiled the project Wednesday morning in Kauai following opening remarks by CTO JB Straubel and David Ige, governor of Hawaii. Tesla partnered with the Kauai Island Utility Cooperative (KIUC) to launch the project.

The solar farm is composed of 54,978 solar panels with 13 megawatts of solar generation capacity. Tesla has also installed 272 of its large commercial battery, Powerpack 2, to store the solar energy to use at night.

The project is expected to reduce fossil fuel use by approximately 1.6 million gallons per year, Tesla estimates. Tesla will begin turning on the massive solar system in phases beginning Wednesday.

Read the Business Insider story - “Tesla is powering the Hawaiian island of Kauai with more than 54,000 solar panels.”

Three ingredients for running a successful environmental campaign

Clearing machinery arrives on site under
heavy police protection, January 2017.

Here in Perth, a battle is raging over a 5km stretch of road known as Roe 8. 

Work on the project, part of the proposed Perth Freight Link, began late in 2016 and as legal avenues to halt construction were exhausted, opponents resorted to non-violent direct action. Some protest “mass actions” have attracted more than 1,000 people from all walks of life and by the end of January, as bulldozers tore through the Coolbellup bushland under costly police protection, well over 100 had been arrested.

Proponents say the road is necessary to improve the safety and efficiency of freight traffic to and from the Port of Fremantle. Opponents point to freight alternatives that will avoid Roe 8’s destruction of Aboriginal heritage, endangered banksia woodland, and important wetlands. 

Critics have also decried the government’s lack of transparency and prudence in decision-making, and highlighted serious shortcomings in environmental policies and laws.

The state’s Labor opposition has promised to scrap the project if it wins government at the state election on March 11, yet to the shock and dismay of many, bulldozing continues.

Read the story on The Conversation by an Associate Professor of History at the  University of Western Australia,  Andrea Gaynor -  “Three ingredients for running a successful environmental campaign.”

Anna and Amandine argue 2030 emissions target is achievable

A

ustralia can reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 50 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030, according to analysis by ClimateWorks.

Anna Skarbek.

Amandine Denis.

The federal government is currently considering what Australia’s post-2020 emissions target should be, and is expected to announce its decision in the coming weeks.

Many other countries have already announced their pledges, and various groups in Australia have called on the government to commit to a strong target.

Building on our Pathways to Deep Decarbonisation in 2050 project, our analysis shows that we can strongly reduce emissions using existing technology and while still growing the economy.

Executive Director at ClimateWorks Australia at Monash University, Anna Skarbek, and the head of research at ClimateWorks,  Amandine Denis, have written about this in The Conversation - “New analysis: Australia can halve emissions by 2030”.

Be a part of the future and explore a life of frugal abundance

Work on an earthbag dome
 - not the one near Moe.

Are you a passionate and knowledgeable permaculturalist? Would you like to live in a developing ecovillage for a year 'rent free' as part of a documentary project? Do you want to explore a life of frugal abundance? If so, read on!

Over the last 12 months the Simplicity Institute has been involved in the development of an ecovillage permaculture farm out near Moe, Victoria, Australia (nearly two hours from Melbourne). To date the communities involved have built a small Earthship, a beautiful cob cabin, and last week we made great progress on an earthbag dome and a pizza oven. There are bees buzzing, beers brewing, water tanks collecting, and communities forming. We've also planted 40 odd fruit trees and have established some large vegetable gardens, with more to come. The 20-acre property has a large dam, a large shed, a large greenhouse and chicken coop, as well as a more conventional house.

These are early days, but much has been done over the last year with many more plans and projects in the pipeline. Our primary aim is to explore what 'one planet' living looks like, to demonstrate it as far as possible, and to use the property as an education centre and activist hub to promote pathways to a radically 'simpler way' to live. We don't want to escape the system; we want to help transform it. Would you like to be part of this adventure?

The Simplicity Institute has been approached by a documentary filmmaker and we are now conspiring to turn this project into an inspiring educational documentary, which records the evolution of the property in these early stages and demonstrates the nature of a highly localised, sufficiency-based economy. We are currently seeking applications from people interested in living out on the property for one year, starting in January 2015, to be part of this documentary.

We are seeking creative, passionate, good-spirited and knowledgeable permaculturalists, who are prepared to explore a lifestyle of radical simplicity and who are committed to making this property and this documentary project a success. The documentary will be filmed over a one-year period, with the participants being filmed exploring the various aspects of 'one planet' living. Among other things, it is hoped that the documentary will demonstrate organic food production, renewable energy production, radically reduced energy consumption, alternative technologies and building methods, composting toilets, low-tech solar hot water, making and mending rather than buying, home production, minimizing waste, building community and local economies, and so forth. We aren't interested in documenting 'light green' living. We are seeking applications from people interested in exploring the 'deep green' alternative. If you are ready to challenge yourself and inspire others, be in touch.

If you're interested in applying, please send a one-page application to entropiaecovillage@gmail.com. Tell us who youare, why you want to be involved, the skills you could bring, and anything else you feel we should know. Applications close 10 November with interviews and decisions soon thereafter. We're aiming to invite up to 6-8 people on the property for the year to establish the small community for this project.

Like all documentaries, this one will require funding. For the rest of the year, the Simplicity Institute will be donating all proceeds from the sales of Entropia: Life Beyond Industrial Civilisation http://www.bookofentropia.com/ and Simple Living in History: Pioneers of the Deep Future - https://www.createspace.com/4907640

Please support this important project by buying copies of these books and sharing these links. We can't do this alone. Christmas is coming up, so perhaps rather than buying junk we could all buy our families and friends copies of these books to spread the important messages of simplicity and permaculture while also supporting this documentary. Thanks for your support.

If you are able to financially support this project in more significant ways, please be in touch at: entropiaecovillage@gmail.com

Simon Ussher and Samuel Alexander

Directors of the Simplicity Institute

513 Dana Street,
Ballarat Victoria 3350,
Australia.

Distant past can determine today's behaviour

Frequently the distant past helps us determine how we should behave today.

Stygofauna, highly specialized organisms that have been around for millions of years, look likely to seriously disrupt Santos’ biggest coal seam gas project in the New South Wales Pilliga Forest.

Those concerned about the almost certain contamination of the area’s aquifers by hydraulic process used to access the natural gas will be celebrating the existence of the stygofauna.

The ABC reported today about the Pilliga project in it story headed: “Ancient stygofauna could halt Santos’ Pilliga coal seam gas project”.

Considering a post carbon future

The Post Carbon Pathways website aims to strengthen understanding of the actions needed to create rapid, large-scale transitions to a just and sustainable post carbon future.
The site has been created to share information and analysis from the Post Carbon Pathways research program housed at the Melbourne SustainabilitySociety Institute at the University of Melbourne.

As the risks of runaway climate change continue to escalate, so too does the urgent need to build public support for a rapid transition to a just and sustainable post carbon society.

The Post Carbon Pathways project is informed by the view that, while increased public acceptance of the necessity of urgent climate change action is crucial, the transformational changes required to rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions also depend on broad recognition that alternative, more desirable futures and pathways are indeed possible.