Stumping up for solar switch.

A number of significant solar farms for the region may be in the wings.

But on a smaller scale, Greater Shepparton City Council has pulled the trigger on $225 500 to install solar panels on its own facilities to help cut costs amid the climbing price of power.

And Shepparton, once known as the solar city, may one day be the solar-powered city, with hopes for more council assets to progressively turn to renewables.

Councillors this week commended the spend for the lump sum contract for solar installation on council buildings.

Cr Bruce Giovanetti said councillors were aware electricity costs were set to climb in the next year.

‘‘It’s great to see council is taking a proactive approach to ensuring we can reduce energy consumption costs as much as we can,’’ he said.

‘‘Hopefully this is just stage one of a number of stages of solar panels on council buildings.’’

Cr Dinny Adem added he was glad to see the transition ‘‘finally taking place’’ to reduce energy costs and the city’s carbon footprint.

‘‘I’m very pleased to see that moving forward,’’ he said.

Following this week’s council meeting, Mayor Kim O’Keeffe argued ‘‘every dollar counts’’ and that the council needed cut costs where possible.

‘‘In this space it is something we need to do,’’ she said.

‘‘Because costs are going to come up against other things that we may have to compromise with. ‘‘This is a great start.’’ 

In November last year, the council predicted the amount it paid for power might increase by up to 50 or 60 per cent in coming years.

A parliamentary inquiry in Shepparton into the health of regional councils’ finances last year heard from council representatives the impact rising power prices had on finances.

While acknowledging the significant price increases experienced, the council said it was on the front foot in managing energy use.

Council’s environment manager Greg McKenzie at the time said energy reduction measures integrated as part of a council plan were expected to reduce energy consumption by 8.5 per cent through to 2020 from 2014 levels.

Mr McKenzie said council energy usage had been predominantly in decline since 2010 and would continue to be, despite major new infrastructure projects in the wings, including the new Shepparton Art Museum and Cosgrove Three landfill.

But despite the decline in use, costs were climbing.

‘‘We recognise that even though our energy usage is declining, our costs continue to rise,’’ Mr McKenzie said.

‘‘The major issue is the volatility of the market. (This is) why council has an energy reduction plan.’’

Story by Thomas Moir from the Shepparton News - “Stumping up for solar switch.”

Victoria to turn to Tesla battery power in time for next summer

Two large lithium-ion batteries will be built and connected to the grid in regional Victoria this year, giving the state’s west a significant renewable energy boost in time for next summer.

Two large-scale batteries will be built in Kerang and Ballarat this year.

The batteries, which will store solar and wind-generated energy,  will be built near Ballarat and Kerang and will have a combined generation capacity of 55 MW and a combined energy storage of 80 megawatt-hours – giving them more than half the power of South Australia's gigantic 100MW Tesla battery.

Read Adam Carey’s story from The Age - “Victoria to turn to Tesla battery power in time for next summer.”

Why the Adani project should be rejected

Adani was always going to be a significant issue in the forthcoming Queensland state election. It is a divisive issue and one where the major players have sought to play excessive, short-term, politics in recent years.

Protestors against the Adani coal mine rally outside
Adani's headquarters in Brisbane. 

With an urgent global challenge to transition to a low carbon society, Paris Agreement and well beyond, any sensible carbon budget to achieve net zero emissions by mid-century would suggest that 70-plus percent of known coal reserves should never be mined. Nor burned for electricity generation. At just this level, it is impossible to justify a new coal mine, let alone one that aspires to be among the world's largest.

Of course, some simply reject the climate challenge, let alone its severity and urgency, while others suggest it can be "delayed" to "better economic times", as if we could wait to (say) 2049, to make the necessary "adjustments" in one big bang.

Clearly, the latter view completely ignores the significant shifts required in government, business, social and individual behaviour, and the time it would require to restructure the industrial, power and transport base of society away from dependence on fossil fuels.

Read the comment by John Hewson in today’s Melbourne Age - “Why the Adani project should be rejected.”

Low-energy homes don’t just save money, they improve lives

Household energy use is a significant contributor to global carbon emissions. International policy is firmly moving towards technology-rich, low- and near-zero-energy homes. That is, buildings designed to reduce the need for additional heating, cooling and lighting. They use efficient or renewable energy technology to reduce the remaining energy use.

Eco-houses at Scotland’s Housing Expo, Inverness.
What is it like to live in a house like this? 

But what about the experiences of people who live in homes of this standard? Are these homes comfortable, easy to operate, and affordable? Do people feel confident using so-called smart energy technology designed for low energy use? What support systems do we need to help people live in low-energy, low-carbon houses?

We worked with other Australian and UK researchers to understand what it’s like to live in purpose-built low-energy housing. As part of this project, researchers from Sheffield Hallam University and the University of Salford in the UK visited South Australia to collect data from Lochiel Park Green Village, one of the world’s most valuable living laboratories of near-zero energy homes.

Read the piece on The Conversation - “Low-energy homes don’t just save money, they improve lives.”

Are these the innovations that will save us from climate change?

Radical ideas and ground-breaking
innovations are needed if we are to 
stop global warming in its tracks.

It’s been a significant – some would say terrifying – year for climate data. Soaring temperatures have pushed planet Earth to its hottest period in recorded history; August 2016 was the warmest August on record and was tied with July 2016 as the hottest month since record-keeping began 136 years ago.

We are now living in a new “climate change reality”, with levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere having breached a symbolic threshold of 400 parts per million on average throughout the whole of 2015. Scientists warn that concentrations of CO2 are unlikely to dip below this mark for generations.

Elsewhere, the Arctic experienced its warmest winter on record and the region’s ice sheets are disappearing faster than expected, with repercussions that go beyond environmental risks like rising sea levels. As two Arctic experts opined in this recent piece: “We live in a connected world, and what happens in the Arctic does not stay in the Arctic.” Societies and economies are also at risk, they argue.

Read the World Economic Forum story - “Are these the innovations that will save us from climate change?”

ARENA tackles the root cause with biomass

The flagrant and irresponsible use of fossil-fuels as an energy source is root cause of climate change.

But now, as author Richard Heinberg said nearly a decade ago, “The Party’s Over”, and subsequently there has since been significant interest in finding another energy source.

Many ideas have been explore and just today the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) announced $2 million funding support to develop a solution for collecting renewable biomass from fast growing trees.

The announcement comes in a story headed: “Renewable biomass from fast growing trees”.

Small numbers, big impact

Global climate differences can be miniscule when described in number terms, but of massive impact when seen on the ground.

Climatic changes so far this year are pointing towards new records, but the rather small numbers escape the understanding of a populace accustomed to measuring things and making judgements of seriousness from numbers that have multiple noughts on the end – that is millions or billions.

Climate change’s impact can vary dramatically with small single digit percentage changes and although the difference maybe small, its impact is on a huge entity and so the result is both significant and so meaningful.

The National Climate Date Centre from the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) lists some of the 2014 numbers in its “Global Analysis - October 2014”.