Renewable Energy isn't the problem - it's coal
In reality, even if South Australia were powered entirely from coal, rather than 40 per cent by renewable energy as it now is, this blackout would still have happened. As South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill said: "This was a weather event, not a renewable energy event ... You have got these essentially ignorant remarks being made by Barnaby Joyce because he hates wind farms and he decided to play politics with a crisis." Too read more click here.
Clean is Cheap?
Hal Harvey, who advises major companies on climate and energy policy, notes that thanks to technological advances, ''the cost of solar energy has dropped more than 80 percent since 2008, wind costs dropped more than 50 percent since 2008, battery costs dropped more than 70 percent since 2008, and LED lighting costs dropped more than 90 percent since 2008. As a result, a clean future now costs less than a dirty one." Continue reading here.
Australia's Government Anti-Renewable?
The federal government plans to strip the Australian Renewable Energy Agency of most of its funding, as well as its ability to give grants, now that Parliament has resumed. Remarkably, the ALP, which established the agency when in government, may allow this to happen. This is an existential threat to renewable energy research, innovation and education in Australia. Read more on this here.
Nuclear is Essential
Nuclear Power Plants provide a constant electricity source regardless of the time or weather conditions. While solar and wind are excellent at compensating for fluctuations in electricity demand, baseload demand is best met by nuclear.
Also, the land requirements for solar and wind make them incapable of being Ontario's sole energy source. To meet our energy demand, a solar farm that is 2,800 km2 or a wind farm that is 11,200 km2 would be required. Toronto is only 680 km2. Read more about not solely relying on Solar and Wind here.
Also, the land requirements for solar and wind make them incapable of being Ontario's sole energy source. To meet our energy demand, a solar farm that is 2,800 km2 or a wind farm that is 11,200 km2 would be required. Toronto is only 680 km2. Read more about not solely relying on Solar and Wind here.
Britain Anti-Renewable
We need to ditch our unrealistic expectations for renewables. They remain very costly and provide little energy. This year, Britain will spend PS4.7 billion on subsidies for renewables, yet wind and solar provide just 1.7 per cent - and all renewables just 6.3 per cent - of UK energy. Moreover, wind and solar will need subsidies for decades to come. Just a cut - not elimination - in subsidies caused new solar sales in Britain to drop like a stone, with 74 per cent fewer solar panels installed. Read more on the matter here.
Natural Gas Essential to switch?
The other significant challenge we face in this transition is that renewables are intermittent. And solutions for storing power when the sun isn't shining and the wind isn't blowing are either dependent on location or very expensive, especially in the case of seasonal storage in extreme climates. Until we have some enormous changes in storage technology we will only get so far with renewables in the energy mix. They need a backup, and gas is the most logical energy source to do that. Read more here.
Energy Usage with a Growing Population
Global primary energy demand continues to increase, entirely because of growing use in the emerging economies of Asia, Latin America and Africa. In the IEA's baseline forecast, overall world energy demand rises by one-third to 2040, while electricity consumption soars by 70 per cent.
On the supply side, by the late 2030s the world energy system is expected to consist of four roughly equal-sized components: oil, natural gas, coal, and low- or no-carbon sources. Renewables will occupy a progressively larger place in the mix. But the IEA estimates that even in 2035, fossil fuels will still satisfy at least 70 per cent of the world's energy needs. Global oil use grows by 15 per cent to 2040. Read more here.
On the supply side, by the late 2030s the world energy system is expected to consist of four roughly equal-sized components: oil, natural gas, coal, and low- or no-carbon sources. Renewables will occupy a progressively larger place in the mix. But the IEA estimates that even in 2035, fossil fuels will still satisfy at least 70 per cent of the world's energy needs. Global oil use grows by 15 per cent to 2040. Read more here.
Could Politics Hurt Renewable Energy?
Could Australian politics sink to a more juvenile level than it did last week after an entire state was hurled back into the dark ages by a freak storm?
Malcolm Turnbull, quite rightly, seized the opportunity to tell the states they had to sharpen up on energy security and consider an achievable single renewable energy target.
It wasn't simply a case of a politician not wasting a crisis, it was a case of a leader reacting immediately to an unprecedented crisis with the potential to recur with even more devastating consequences rather than simply emoting in front of the media. Continue reading here.
Malcolm Turnbull, quite rightly, seized the opportunity to tell the states they had to sharpen up on energy security and consider an achievable single renewable energy target.
It wasn't simply a case of a politician not wasting a crisis, it was a case of a leader reacting immediately to an unprecedented crisis with the potential to recur with even more devastating consequences rather than simply emoting in front of the media. Continue reading here.
Dancing in the Dark with Renewable Energy Targets
Australia, Mr Willox noted, is under increasing pressure to move towards a zero-emissions economy because of domestic politics and international agreements such as the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. This is likely to be expensive because the projected cost of power from new projects, particularly wind and solar, is far higher here than in countries such as the US, Mexico, and Chile. The cost of finance, as well as Australia's high local construction costs, tend to make building any large infrastructure, including power stations, more expensive than elsewhere. Australia's competitive advantage on energy costs is slipping away, Mr Willox warned, if it has not already gone. And while he rightly notes that the cost of renewable energy is falling, the power provided by wind and solar is by definition variable and intermittent in ways that coal and gas are not. Read more on the issue here.
Weather is a big Antagonist
In a First World country such as ours, keeping the power on is the prime responsibility of state governments; increasingly, these days, most Third World governments manage to achieve it as well. Most South Australians left stranded in the dark last week, unable to see, conduct business, work, shop, use lifts, catch public transport or cook would take little comfort in the ideological smugness their state Labor government derives from its ambitious renewable energy target of 50 per cent by 2025. Premier Jay Weatherill assured South Australians last week the statewide blackout was "a weather event, not a renewable energy event". Lightning strikes and wind surges were the cause, he said. Read more here.
Australia Shooting too High
Read my lips: Australia won't meet its renewable energy target by 2020. In fact, it won't get within cooee of the 33,000 gigawatt hours of electricity generated by defined renewable sources as negotiated by former environment minister Greg Hunt.
And to think that Labor considered a target of 45,000GWh was achievable by 2020 - what a joke. Continue reading here.
And to think that Labor considered a target of 45,000GWh was achievable by 2020 - what a joke. Continue reading here.
Ontario Placing High bets on Renewable
Increasingly, it looks like the energy systems are being built in ways that enhance local economies. In order to do this, generation is likely to be based on renewable technologies like solar, wind and micogrids. This is because countries can acquire technologies while minimizing operating costs and the damaging balance of payments challenges that importing fossil fuels create. For example, take a look at many Caribbean countries and the challenges they face around managing their economies with power systems driven largely on imported fossil fuels. Read more here.
Ontario's Plan too Unrealistic?
The future is going to be a lot of fun in Ontario. Just a few years from now, millions of us will be liberated from our evil fossil-fuelled transportation network. Millions of government-subsidized electric cars will whisk us silently to work. Our buses will run on biofuels. Our retrofitted geothermalpowered homes will keep us warm at prices much higher than today's natural gas (which would be banned). Vast tracts of land will be diverted to solar panels, which will transform the sun's rays into clean, green, righteous energy - as soon as we can figure out how to store it and attach it to the grid. Unicorns will frolic in our gardens, and pigs will fly. Continue reading here.
Closing the Generational Gap
Reducing emissions is essential but ensuring electricity supply is important too
Visionary, risky or unavoidable? South Australia's embrace of renewable energy is all three.
Visionary, as Australia needs to use more renewable energy to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Risky because, despite technical progress and the promise of energy storage, renewables still produce intermittently and can be idle at times of peak demand. Unavoidable, as South Australia has exhausted local coal supplies and its old gas-fired plants are being retired. Read more here.
Visionary, risky or unavoidable? South Australia's embrace of renewable energy is all three.
Visionary, as Australia needs to use more renewable energy to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Risky because, despite technical progress and the promise of energy storage, renewables still produce intermittently and can be idle at times of peak demand. Unavoidable, as South Australia has exhausted local coal supplies and its old gas-fired plants are being retired. Read more here.
Reworking the System
There are valid arguments for the government to intervene to ensure an orderly closure of coal plants, but the biggest shift is likely to be forced by allowing and encouraging the growth of a revamped system that is increasingly decentralised. With the rapidly falling cost of solar power and improvements in battery storage, this is now within grasp. This is a future in which households become "prosumers" - both producers and consumers. It requires changes to the national grid to become a much more fluid market, favouring consumers as much as energy companies. Households and businesses should be able to buy and sell electricity on the national grid at the best prices. Continue Reading here.
Solar and Wind may not be the best
Ah, but Asian countries are jumping on the bandwagon. Maybe. China built one new coalfired power plant every week in 2014, and India's coal-powered investment in that same year equalled the total electricity capacity of NSW and Queensland. To summarise - with all of the trillions spent worldwide on wind and solar, wind currently represents 1.2 per cent of global consumption of energy, and solar 0.2 per cent. Continue Reading here.
Some Small Towns could become Abandoned
Alternative-energy backers double down in blame game over South Australia's blackout
Tony Abbott as opposition leader prognosticates about the future of South Australian steel, April 27, 2011: Whyalla will be wiped off the map by Julia Gillard's carbon tax, Whyalla risks becoming a ghost town, an economic wasteland. Read more on the matter here.
Tony Abbott as opposition leader prognosticates about the future of South Australian steel, April 27, 2011: Whyalla will be wiped off the map by Julia Gillard's carbon tax, Whyalla risks becoming a ghost town, an economic wasteland. Read more on the matter here.
Keeping the Lights on
This was a major breakthrough and in the words of the South Australian Labor government's energy minister, Tom Koutsantonis, a "big step forward".
Absent is the Rudd-like hyperbole of the "greatest moral challenge of our time" and in its place a recognition that energy security is back at number one. Reducing emissions is important but not at the expense of the lights going out. Continue Reading here.
Absent is the Rudd-like hyperbole of the "greatest moral challenge of our time" and in its place a recognition that energy security is back at number one. Reducing emissions is important but not at the expense of the lights going out. Continue Reading here.
A Flexible System
The federal government's own renewable energy target is the main reason 40 per cent of South Australia's electricity comes from wind. Wind power is an intermittent power source, as we saw on July 7 when the wind wasn't blowing and the state's capacity of 1500 megawatts of wind power delivered just 13MW.
On that night, the interconnector with Victoria was offline for an upgrade so the electricity price was set by gas - and it was very high. Yet the fault was not the state's substantial move to renewable energy. This transition needs to happen. The issue is with managing its consequences, specifically ensuring that the system can respond flexibly when the wind is not blowing or the sun is not shining on solar panels. Read more here.
On that night, the interconnector with Victoria was offline for an upgrade so the electricity price was set by gas - and it was very high. Yet the fault was not the state's substantial move to renewable energy. This transition needs to happen. The issue is with managing its consequences, specifically ensuring that the system can respond flexibly when the wind is not blowing or the sun is not shining on solar panels. Read more here.
The end of Coal
Coal? Who wants that any more? Ross Gittins, The Sydney Morning Herald, October 14 last year: In a nutshell ... coal's days are numbered. The rapidly falling price of renewable energy such as wind and solar, combined with the growing resolve of China, the US and others to reduce their emissions, put a dark cloud over the future of coal. Continue reading here.
Shorten Shows the Way
Federal Labor leader Bill Shorten's proposal to push for half of all Australia's large-scale energy production to be derived from renewable sources by 2030 is certainly ambitious and possibly unachievable given the prevailing political mood, but it should be vigorously applauded and pursued with urgency. At the same time, Australia's coal resources, while bountiful now and providing a vital source of power and substantial export revenue, cannot remain this country's default option. An epic shift to sustainable energy sources - wind, solar, bio-energy and so on - must begin now. We urge all political parties to commit to accelerating the transition. This project must not fall solely to the left or centrists. Read more here.
A New Logic
THE Productivity Commission put out a report last year on Electricity Network Regulatory Frameworks.
It comprised two volumes of 21 chapters.
The overview begins by stating average electricity price increased by 70 per cent in real terms from June 2007 to December 2012.
It then explains spiralling network costs in most States are the main contributor to these increases, partly driven by inefficiencies in the industry and flaws in the regulatory environment. Continue reading here.
It comprised two volumes of 21 chapters.
The overview begins by stating average electricity price increased by 70 per cent in real terms from June 2007 to December 2012.
It then explains spiralling network costs in most States are the main contributor to these increases, partly driven by inefficiencies in the industry and flaws in the regulatory environment. Continue reading here.
More Jobs
The Ontario government's recent announcement that it will add 900 megawatts of new renewable energy to the provincial grid is welcome news indeed. Projected to come online starting in 2014, the new electricity will be sufficient to power over 125,000 homes every year and create over 6,000 jobs. It shows Queen's Park is committed to building up renewables and is to be applauded. Read more here.