By Christina Zhou – ABC News – 2 July 2019

Shanghai, one of the world’s most populous cities, will today enact strict green policies limiting disposable takeaway utensils and hotel room essentials, as it officially rolls out a major recycling overhaul.

The ban on the provision of a slew of single-use items such as chopsticks, forks, shower caps and toothbrushes unless requested by customers comes amid Beijing’s green push to tackle pollutionand their ambition to become a global leader in clean technology.

While China remains the world’s largest producer of carbon emissions — where air pollution is still responsible for more than 1 million premature deaths a year — the Asian power is also the biggest investor in renewable energy.

The latest report by the UN’s renewable energy advisory body, REN21, shows China led renewable energy investment worldwide for the seventh successive year, contributing to almost a third of the global renewables investment in 2018 at $US91.2 billion ($130.2 billion).

By comparison, the United States spent $US48.5 billion and European investment hit $US61.2 billion.

China’s growing renewable energy supply and dominance in renewable energy technology — including being the world’s leader in the production and sale of electric vehicles — has led some observers to highlight’s China potential as a global green leader.

A report released by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) in January this year argued that countries with the ability to take advantage of new renewable energy technologies can expect to enhance their global influence and reach.

“No country has put itself in a better position to become the world’s renewable energy superpower than China,” said the report.

“In aggregate, it is now the world’s largest producer, exporter and installer of solar panels, wind turbines, batteries and electric vehicles, placing it at the forefront of the global energy transition.”

China effectively ‘exporting their emissions’

PHOTO: Coal consumption accounted for 59 per cent of the total energy consumption in China last year. (Reuters: Jason Lee)

While China has significantly expanded its renewable energy capacity over the past decade, a separate report released ahead of the annual G20 Summit in Osaka last week suggested that the country still had a long way to go to be a true climate leader.

The report by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) and others showed G20 countries have almost tripled the subsidies they give to coal-fired power plants in recent years — despite pledging a decade ago to phase out all fossil fuel subsidies.

As China moves to cut coal consumption and promote renewable power at home, China provides billions of dollars in support for overseas coal plants per year, according to the latest findings.

Ipek Gencsu, research fellow at ODI and lead author of the report, noted that the top recipients — Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan and Vietnam — were “countries which are in earlier stages of their development” and have also signed up to China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

“So in a way, they’re kind of exporting their emissions,” Ms Gencsu told the ABC.

“Our analysis shows China spends $US9.5 billion per year financing coal abroad. They could instead be spending this money on clean technologies.”

PHOTO: China hopes coal-fired power plants will become a thing of the past. (ABC News: Brant Cumming)

Ms Gencsu said while China can be considered a leader in green technologies, it cannot be a “green superpower” or climate leader without tackling their ongoing major support to the coal industry, as well as to other fossil fuels.

“There’s no future in coal. The real business opportunities lie in clean technologies, and that’s where the world is going,” she said.

“Countries are dragging their feet, and governments are dragging their feet and continuing to provide a lifeline to this sector.”

She added that G20 governments had to set an example to developing nations and to keep the world on track to halt the global warming temperature rise at 1.5 degrees Celsius.

China is among 195 signatory countries that pledged to keep global warming “well below” 2 degrees Celsius under the Paris climate agreement in 2015.

In addition to tackling toxic levels of pollution, experts say energy security is another reason why China has prioritised investing in diverse sources and suppliers of energy.

Could China completely run on clean energy?

PHOTO: In the middle of China’s coal heartland of Datong, solar panels fill the hilltops. (ABC News: Brant Cumming)

Sarah Ladislaw, director of the energy and national security program at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, said China’s is the largest market for renewable and nuclear power in the world but still heavily reliant on coal.

“China alone makes up about 50 per cent of global coal consumption, and coal is about 60 per cent of total Chinese energy consumption,” she said.

“China aspires to reduce the role of coal in the economy and it can make significant strides in that direction.”

In 2018, coal consumption accounted for 59 per cent of the total energy consumption — down from 60.4 per cent in 2017, according to a report by the China Electric Power Planning and Engineering Institute.

Meanwhile clean energy consumption — including natural gas, hydropower, nuclear power and wind power — increased from 20.8 per cent to 22.1 per cent.

According to the latest REN21 report, China also leads the world in total renewable power capacity, particularly in hydropower, solar PV and wind power.

The number of new grid-connected nuclear plants tripled in 2018, with 80 per cent of these located in China.

Late last year, China shocked the world when a team of scientists announced that plasma in their Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) — dubbed the “artificial sun” — reached a whopping 100 million degrees Celsius, the temperature required to maintain a fusion reaction that produces more power than it uses to run.

In April, local media reported that a new research facility in Chengdu city would have a machine capable of generating plasma — a hot ionised gas — of up to 200 million degrees Celsius.

Min Yuan, a Beijing-based research associate at the World Resources Institute, told the ABC that zero carbon was not only a long-term vision for China but also for many developed countries due to technical and institutional barriers.

“Globally, there [already] exists zero or net zero carbon pilot projects such as zero carbon buildings, communities, et cetera,” he said.

“But completely phasing out coal — [there] is still a long way to go.”

‘Australia can do much better’

PHOTO: China provides billions of dollars in support for overseas coal plants per year. (ABC News: Brant Cumming)

Ms Ladislaw said the pledges put forward as Paris targets are insufficient to reduce emissions and keep global average temperature rise to less than 2 degrees Celsius, and China is not alone in having a target that can and should be made more ambitious.

“The goal to make targets and plans more ambitious was a critical part of the Paris Agreement and subsequent process,” she said.

“China can do more and I suspect will likely take steps to do more in the coming years.

“It could adopt a more stringent [approach to] the emissions intensity reduction target, set a long-term target on carbon neutrality, create more specific sectoral policies.”

Tania Urmee, a renewable energy expert at Murdoch University in Perth, said a country’s carbon emissions should also be considered on a per capita basis.

She said available data showed China’s emissions per capita were about 7.4 tonnes last year whereas Australia — with a population roughly on par with Shanghai — recorded an emission per capita of 21.5 tonnes.

“From my perspective, Australia can do much better,” Dr Urmee said

“In terms of renewable energy resources, we have more than China.”

Ms Gencsu said while the world has come a long way — with governments making critical commitments — the pace has been too slow to meet the realities of climate change.

“So while we have to appreciate the great work that’s been done by governments, the commitments and the advances in clean technologies, unfortunately, we can’t just sit and celebrate quite yet,” she said.

“We have to keep working hard as the global community, and especially look for leadership from the G20 countries to aim higher, to do better and to absolutely stop financing fossil fuels, because, without that, it’s very hard to say that we’re on the right track.”

Energy Stuff specialises in Residential Solar with emphasis on Repairs, Replacements and upgrades. We also provide new systems, battery storage, Small Commercial, Off-Grid systems and smart monitoring systems. Energy Stuff is a Clean Energy Council Member and only uses CEC accredited installers. We fully comply with the Victorian Govt. Solar Rebate Program and we are supporting clients in their applications to the new scheme starting July 1^st 2019.

For further information please call us on 1300 656 205 or go to our website at http://www.energystuff.com.au

By Danyal Hassain – Daily Mail Australia – 27 June 2019

In April, for the first time ever, the US produced more energy from renewable sources than from coal in a single month. 

According to data from the US Energy Information Administration, hydroelectric dams, solar panels, and wind turbines generated 68.5 million megawatt-hours of energy during the month of April 2019.

This was compared to 60 million megawatt-hours of energy produced from coal in the same month.

The trend comes despite President Donald Trump pledging to ‘bring back’ the coal industry, which has been hit hard by competition from cheaper natural gas and renewable energy.

Coal produced less energy in April than renewable sources, for the first time in US history

The US has been shifting toward natural gas, which is not only cheaper than coal, but also emits less carbon dioxide.

However, experts noted that several coal plants were down for routine maintenance in April, and the month saw an increase in wind generation and a drop in energy demand.

This suggests that coal could easily take over from renewable sources in the following months. 

Despite this, a report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) said that the trend could potentially extend into the month of May.

The trend will happen sporadically throughout the next several years, says the IEEFA, as renewable energy becomes cheaper and the world’s attention focuses on mitigating the effects of carbon-fueled climate change by turning away from fossil fuels.

Renewable energy has closed the gap on coal which has fallen out of favor throughout the last several decades. However, they still constitute a relatively small portion of U.S. production

President Donald Trump had previously pledged to ‘bring back’ the coal industry in the US

Growth in both solar and wind power has been particularly stark with the former producing 48 times more electricity than it did a decade ago due to cheaper equipment and government incentives.

Coupled with a rise in renewables has been a trend of declining coal consumption. 

Last year, coal hit a nearly 40-year low in terms of proportional usage in the U.S.

Coal has fallen out of favor in part due to decreasing costs of natural gas.

In 2016, it was dethroned as the America’s fuel of choice by natural gas, a feat aided in part by a thriving hydro-fracking industry that continues to pump abundant fossil fuels out of the Bakken Oil Shale in North Dakota. 

The US has been shifting toward natural gas, which is not only cheaper than coal, but also emits less carbon dioxide 

The Trump administration on Wednesday completed one of its biggest rollbacks of environmental rules, replacing a landmark Obama-era effort that sought to wean the nation’s electrical grid off coal-fired power plants and their climate-damaging pollution.

Environmental Protection Agency chief Andrew Wheeler, a former coal industry lobbyist, signed a replacement rule that gives states leeway in deciding whether to require efficiency upgrades at existing coal plants.

Wheeler said coal-fired power plants remained essential to the power grid, something that opponents deny.

‘Americans want reliable energy that they can afford,’ he said at a news conference. There’s no denying ‘the fact that fossil fuels will continue to be an important part of the mix,’ he said.    

Energy Stuff specialises in Residential Solar with emphasis on Repairs, Replacements and upgrades. We also provide new systems, battery storage, Small Commercial, Off-Grid systems and smart monitoring systems. Energy Stuff is a Clean Energy Council Member and only uses CEC accredited installers. We fully comply with the Victorian Govt. Solar Rebate Program and we are supporting clients in their applications to the new scheme starting July 1^st 2019.

For further information please call us on 1300 656 205 or go to our website at http://www.energystuff.com.au

By Trivess Moore, Michael Ambrose & Stephen Berry – The Conversation

New housing in Australia must meet minimum energy performance requirements. We wondered how many buildings exceeded the minimum standard. What our analysis found is that four in five new houses are being built to the minimum standard and a negligible proportion to an optimal performance standard.

Before these standards were introduced the average performance of housing was found to be around 1.5 stars. The current minimum across most of Australia is six stars under the Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS).

This six-star minimum falls short of what is optimal in terms of environmental, economicand social outcomes. It’s also below the minimum set by many other countries.

There have been calls for these minimum standards to be raised. However, many policymakers and building industry stakeholders believe the market will lift performance beyond minimum standards and so there is no need to raise these.

What did the data show?

We wanted to understand what was happening in the market to see if consumers or regulation were driving the energy performance of new housing. To do this we explored the NatHERS data set of building approvals for new Class 1 housing (detached and row houses) in Australia from May 2016 (when all data sets were integrated by CSIRO and Sustainability Victoria) to December 2018.

Our analysis focuses on new housing in Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania and the ACT, all of which apply the minimum six-star NatHERS requirement. The other states have local variations to the standard, while New South Wales uses the BASIX index to determine the environmental impact of housing.

The chart below shows the performance for 187,320 house ratings. Almost 82% just met the minimum standard (6.0-6.4 star). Another 16% performed just above the minimum standard (6.5-6.9 star).

Only 1.5% were designed to perform at the economically optimal 7.5 stars and beyond. By this we mean a balance between the extra upfront building costs and the savings and benefits from lifetime building performance.

The average rating is 6.2 stars across the states. This has not changed since 2016.

The data analysis shows that, while most housing is built to the minimum standard, the cooler temperate regions (Tasmania, ACT) have more houses above 7.0 stars compared with the warm temperate states.

The ACT increased average performance each year from 6.5 stars in 2016 to 6.9 stars in 2018. This was not seen in any other state or territory.

The ACT is the only region with mandatory disclosure of the energy rating on sale or lease of property. The market can thus value the relative energy efficiency of buildings. Providing this otherwise invisible information may have empowered consumers to demand slightly better performance.

We are paying for accepting a lower standard

The evidence suggests consumers are not acting rationally or making decisions to maximise their financial well-being. Rather, they just accept the minimum performance the building sector delivers.

Higher energy efficiency or even environmental sustainability in housing provides not only significant benefits to the individual but also to society. And these improvements can be delivered for little additional cost.

The fact that these improvements aren’t being made suggests there are significant barriers to the market operating efficiently. This is despite increasing awareness among consumers and in the housing industry about the rising cost of energy.

Eight years after the introduction of the six-star NatHERS minimum requirement for new housing in Australia, the results show the market is delivering four out of five houses that just meet this requirement. With only 1.5% designed to 7.5 stars or beyond, regulation rather than the economically optimal energy rating is clearly driving the energy performance of Australian homes.

Increasing the minimum performance standard is the most effective way to improve the energy outcomes.

The next opportunity for increasing the minimum energy requirement will be 2022. Australian housing standards were already about 2.0 NatHERS stars behind comparable developed countries in 2008. If mandatory energy ratings aren’t increased, Australia will fall further behind international best practice.

If we continue to create a legacy of homes with relatively poor energy performance, making the transition to a low-energy and low-carbon economy is likely to get progressively more challenging and expensive. Recent research has calculated that a delay in increasing minimum performance requirements from 2019 to 2022 will result in an estimated A$1.1 billion (to 2050) in avoidable household energy bills. That’s an extra 3 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.

Our research confirms the policy proposition that minimum house energy regulations based on the Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme are a powerful instrument for delivering better environmental and energy outcomes. While introducing minimum standards has significantly lifted the bottom end of the market, those standards should be reviewed regularly to ensure optimal economic and environmental outcomes.

Energy Stuff specialises in Residential Solar with emphasis on Repairs, Replacements and upgrades. We also provide new systems, battery storage, Small Commercial, Off-Grid systems and smart monitoring systems. Energy Stuff is a Clean Energy Council Member and only uses CEC accredited installers. We fully comply with the Victorian Govt. Solar Rebate Program and we are supporting clients in their applications to the new scheme starting July 1^st 2019.

For further information please call us on 1300 656 205 or go to our website at http://www.energystuff.com.au

By Michael Mazengarb – RenewEconomy – 27 June 2019

Australia’s first unsubsidised big battery has been installed at Lincoln Gap near Port Augusta, in a major milestone for Australia’s clean energy sector and the emergence of cost-effective zero-emissions energy storage.

The 10MW/10MWh battery has been installed at the 212MW Lincoln Gap wind farm near Port Augusta, owned by independent project developer Nexif Energy, highlighting the potential synergies between renewable energy and battery storage technologies.

The installation of the battery follows the success of other large-scale battery systems co-located with wind farms in South Australia, including the Tesla big battery at the Hornsdale Wind Farm and the Dalrymple North battery located near the Wattle Point wind farm.

The battery system, which has been installed by Fluence Energy will provide fast frequency response capabilities to the wind farm, allowing the Lincoln Gap wind farm to meet new connection requirements for renewable energy projects in South Australia.

The battery system will also provide frequency control services to the National Energy Market, a service that has proven to be highly lucrative for the Hornsdale Tesla battery.

The $500 million project secured non-subsidised debt finance from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, and long-term contracts with ERM power and Snowy Hydro for the sale of renewable energy certificates and electricity, respectively.

“As a new, independent participant to the Australian market, we are excited to implement an innovative contracting strategy that will not only provide renewable power to thousands of Australian homes but also optimise the use of grid-scale battery storage on a commercial basis,” Nexif Energy co-CEO Matthew Bartley said following the securing financial close for the project.

The battery system has been installed by Fluence, a joint venture between Siemens and AES, and is a significant milestone for the Australian energy market, demonstrating the financial viability of large-scale battery storage integrated with renewable energy projects.

“This is a trend we see globally, as power networks around the world look at how do they continue to bring in renewables, which are the lowest cost source of energy, with the needs to balance reliability and dispatchability on the grid,” COO of Fluence John Zaharancik told the Australian Energy Storage Conference earlier in June.

“There are many places in the world where we are starting to see requirements for the combination of some firming and some grid management. Whether its frequency control, voltage control or some other requirement, they are increasingly being put on the renewable energy generator as a requirement.

“In this particular case, this combination will help this grid manage this new wind coming into the system better. This is a system that was commercially financed and wasn’t subsidised by a government in any way.”

The development was welcomed by the South Australian government, as it seeks to ensure the state maintains a reliable and secure energy system while leading the country in renewable energy penetration.

“Nexif’s investment in Australia’s first unsubsidised big battery at its $500 million Lincoln Gap project is incredibly significant in the evolution of Australia’s energy market,” South Australian energy minister for Dan van Holst Pellekaan said

“This is another sign that renewable energy is developing to the point where it can compete with traditional energy sources delivering cheaper, more reliable and cleaner energy for South Australians without the need for Government subsidies.”

Bartley welcomed the completion of the battery installation, which the company expects will support the Lincoln Gap wind farm boost South Australia’s supply of renewable energy.

“Once complete, Lincoln Gap will be home to 59 – or 212MW – of wind turbines and 10MW battery storage capable of producing enough electricity to power approximately 155,000 households in South Australia. The construction workforce has ranged from 110 to 140 people,” Bartley said.

Nexif Energy commenced the first generation at the Lincoln Gap wind farm in April, with the remaining wind turbines at the site progressively being commissioned in the following months.

Nexif Energy was able to secure an agreement with wind turbine supplier Senvion, guaranteeing the completion of the Lincoln Gap project, after the German wind turbine manufacturer announced that it would undertake “self-administration proceedings“.

“Nexif Energy has proactively negotiated with Senvion and made successful arrangements to ensure continued progress on the Lincoln Gap Wind Farm while Senvion addresses its financial difficulties and requirements,” Nexif Energy said in a statement at the time.

“These arrangements will be implemented over the coming days and include the provision of funding for Senvion’s on-site subcontractors through direct payment of amounts owing to continue work on the project, which is quickly taking shape.”

The battery project is the second Australian installation for Fluence, after completing a 30MW/30MWh battery installation in Ballarat, as part of an ARENA supported initiative.

Energy Stuff specialises in Residential Solar with emphasis on Repairs, Replacements and upgrades. We also provide new systems, battery storage, Small Commercial, Off-Grid systems and smart monitoring systems. Energy Stuff is a Clean Energy Council Member and only uses CEC accredited installers. We fully comply with the Victorian Govt. Solar Rebate Program and we are supporting clients in their applications to the new scheme starting July 1^st 2019.

For further information please call us on 1300 656 205 or go to our website at http://www.energystuff.com.au

By Daniel Mercer – ABC News – 23 June 2019

The body that runs the national wholesale electricity market is forecasting demand for electricity from households and businesses in WA will fall for the first time as the extraordinary uptake of solar panels reshapes the power system.

In its latest report on the south-west wholesale electricity market, the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) said it was no longer expecting the use of power drawn from the grid to increase as the state’s population grew.

Instead, AEMO said it was forecasting demand — or “operational consumption” — to fall almost 4 per cent between 2019–20 and 2027–28, bucking long-held assumptions that link power use to an economy’s size.

At the heart of the operator’s latest forecast is the “extraordinary” take-up of rooftop solar power, with more than one in four homes in the south-west grid now having a solar system.

AEMO said the proportion of households expected to have a solar panel installation would exceed 50 per cent within a decade, while the amount of rooftop solar capacity would rocket from about 1100 megawatts to 2500MW.

This would make rooftop, or distributed, solar the biggest source of capacity in the grid by far when taken in combination.

By contrast, the system’s biggest stand-alone generator, the Muja coal-fired power plant in Collie, has a nameplate capacity of 810MW.

The forecast of a fall in consumption comes after years of softness in demand driven by households and businesses using increasingly efficient appliances and installing solar panels.

AEMO said since 2010–11, “total operational consumption” had risen by an average of just 0.1 per cent.

Crucially, consumption among residential and business customers had been falling over the same period at an annual rate of 1.6 per cent and 1.5 per cent respectively.

The agency said that with demand set to fall among large industrial users — the only segment of the market to have grown over the past eight years — overall consumption would be dragged down.

Call for shake-up as Synergy ‘caught in a bind’

Scott Davis, who represents electricity generators and retailers as the WA head of the Australian Energy Council (AEC), said the report brought into sharp relief the changing nature of the state’s power system.

Mr Davis said the trend of falling demand for grid-drawn power and the increasing self-reliance of customers with solar panels also served to highlight many of the problems facing state-owned power retailer Synergy.

It emerged last week that Synergy was facing losses of almost $200 million over the next four years, while it would also have to borrow up to $140 million to fund capital spending.

Mr Davis said Synergy was caught in a bind because consumers with solar installations were using less of the power it generated but its costs — for running its plant and accessing the power grid — were high and largely fixed.

“It links into Synergy’s forecast losses,” Mr Davis said.

“Synergy has a whole lot of fixed costs they’re trying to recover from less sales because of rooftop solar.”

Making matters worse for Synergy, Mr Davis said AEMO had consistently underestimated the rate at which solar panels were being added to the mix, suggesting the utility’s revenues were likely to be hollowed out even faster in coming years.

“Forecasters tend to be conservative,” he said.

“If you look at the forecast historically, I think you’ll find they always under-predict the amount of rooftop solar that goes on each year.”

Mr Davis said the system needed to be shaken up to ensure the costs of generating and supplying electricity at any one time were better reflected in the prices people paid for the service.

Key to this was better accounting for the costs and the benefits of distributed energy resources (DER) such as solar panels, which Mr Davis said offered significant upside if accommodated properly.

But he said current incentives for solar panels were leading to perverse situations.

Power stations forced to pay to stay online

The most notable incentive was the renewable energy buyback scheme, which was administered by Synergy and regional provider Horizon Power and paid eligible customers 7.13 cents for every surplus unit of electricity their solar panels pumped back into the grid.

Mr Davis said customers were paid the same rate for their surplus power regardless of how much or how little it was needed at various times of the day.

An example of where this caused problems was the middle of the day, when solar output was at its highest but demand for electricity was often relatively low, especially in mild and sunny conditions in spring and autumn.

In this scenario, Mr Davis said wholesale electricity prices were sometimes being driven into negative territory, meaning big fossil fuel-fired power stations were having to pay to stay online.

Although he said broader reforms were necessary, Mr Davis suggested the buyback scheme should be overhauled to make sure it aligned with the economic value of any surplus power at the time it was produced.

Such a scenario raised the risk of system reliability and security, he said, given conventional power plants were currently essential to maintaining frequency and voltage levels on the network.

“I think the other interesting thing that ties into this is you’ve still got a lot of subsidies over-incentivising things like rooftop solar,” he said.

“We’re spending a whole lot of money giving these cross-subsidies to solar customers on the demand side and then we’re spending a whole lot of money on the market side to try to change everything to accommodate that.

“Are the signals to DER efficient?

“I think DER does have its place in the market and can add real value to the market, but at the moment I think some of the settings aver over-compensating.”

AEMO confident solutions on the way

AEMO’s executive general manager in WA, Cameron Parrotte, said the rapid pace of change in the state’s biggest grid was creating challenges, but he was more sanguine about dealing with them than he had been in recent years.

He said for all the upheaval being caused in the wholesale market by the boom in renewable energy, WA’s grid had plenty of capacity as a buffer for any supply shocks.

Underpinning this was the state’s so-called capacity market, which is a form of insurance that pays generators for every megawatt of power that can notionally provide at times of peak demand.

But Mr Parrotte said there was also a growing recognition by the State Government that changes needed to be made to the market’s structure to cope with evolving mix of generation types and demand patterns.

Energy Minister Bill Johnston has outlined the Government’s plans to lay out a roadmap for the industry through the Energy Transformation Taskforce, which aimed to bring together the old and the new strands of electricity generation and use in WA.

“I’m feeling a lot more confident in terms of the state’s ability to work through this,” Mr Parrotte said.

“They’re not small changes but I’ve got a lot of faith that the technical solutions — if we don’t already have them then we’ll get them.

“What we’ve got to work through is how to do we optimise that so that we actually can incentivise the investments in the right things that ultimately result in the lowest cost outcome for consumers.”

Energy Stuff specialises in Residential Solar with emphasis on Repairs, Replacements and upgrades. We also provide new systems, battery storage, Small Commercial, Off-Grid systems and smart monitoring systems. Energy Stuff is a Clean Energy Council Member and only uses CEC accredited installers. We fully comply with the Victorian Govt. Solar Rebate Program and we are supporting clients in their applications to the new scheme starting July 1^st 2019.

For further information please call us on 1300 656 205 or go to our website at http://www.energystuff.com.au

By Giles Parkinson – RenewEconomy – 19 June 2019

The latest analysis from Bloomberg NEF dismisses talk of a new coal-fired power generator in Australia, and says that cheap wind and solar, supported by flexible technologies such as storage, and driven by a “people-powered revolution” in rooftop installations, will kick coal out of the generation mix in Australia.

BNEF says its annual set piece analysis, the highly regarded New Energy Outlook (NEO), shows that the share of renewable energy in Australia’s grid will be 57 per cent by 2030, and 84 per cent by 2050.

“This year’s NEO confirms that Australia’s coal generators are on their way out. The only remaining question is when, not if, they exit,” said Leonard Quong, the head of BNEF in Australia.

“The economics of Australia’s electricity system are already re-orientating towards renewables, a trend that’s expected to accelerate.

“The future grid will be underpinned by cheap wind and solar, with batteries and pumped hydro to smooth variability, while gas and long-duration storage will provide additional backup to the market.”

This has been the broad conclusion of numerous other bodies, scientific organisations and independent analysts, even if the very idea that Australia could get to 50 per cent renewable share by 2030 – as targeted by Labor ahead of the recent federal election – is resisted by the Coalition government and the Murdoch media.

The 50 per cent renewables target was demonised by the Coalition and the main business lobbies as reckless and economy wrecking, but it is considered to be the minimum that will be achieved – even under business as usual – by most analysts because of the cheap cost of renewables and the plunging cost of storage and other new enabling technologies.

Consumers will play a key role in this transformation because the economic advantage to households and businesses of installing rooftop solar, batteries and then electric vehicles will be overwhelming.

Quong speaks of an “economic tidal wave” that will re-shape the market.

The NEO is a serious piece of work, resulting from eight months of analysis and modelling by a 65-strong team at BNEF. It is based on real-life events, on announced project pipelines and power system dynamics. It assumes that current subsidies expire and that energy policies around the world remain on their current bearing.

In Australia – and despite all the talk of extending the life of coal plants and even investing in a new one in Collinsville, Queensland – that coal capacity will drop by one-third to 18GW by 2030 and then to just 6GW in 2040.

This will be replaced by a “people powered revolution” that will see the amount of rooftop solar jumping from around 10GW at the end of 2019 to more than 38GW by 2030 – which means that the current record levels of installation of around 2GW a year will continue for another decade.

By 2050, rooftop solar capacity will increase to 61GW, enough to supply nearly one-quarter of the country’s electricity demand, BNEF suggests.

Rooftop solar will be supported by behind-the-meter storage and demand response and together this will represent 39 per cent of all capacity in Australia by 2050.

In total, BNEF sees utility- and small-scale PV surge to 115GW by 2050, and wind to 27GW. Battery storage capacity grows to at least 26GW in 2050, with the vast majority (19GW) installed by households and businesses behind-the-meter.

Gas capacity will also need to increase, from 18GW today to 29GW in 2050, to assist with seasonality and rare periods of extremely low renewable production. Almost all coal capacity will close by 2050.

This amounts to total investment of around $A150 billion into renewable energy generation, of which nearly half will come from households and businesses. “Coal will receive almost no new capital,” it says.

The abundance of cheap renewables will be supported by flexible technologies such as pumped hydro, batteries, gas and demand response that will provide the system with reliable supply.

And BNEF notes that this will be driven by simple economics, and not ideology.

Solar and wind are already less than half the price of a refurbished coal plant, and by 2030 the cost of new solar and wind will be one-third of the price.

Electric vehicles will also make their mark, making up 28 per cent of all new car sales by 2030, and increasing to 61 per cent by 2050.

Energy Stuff specialises in Residential Solar with emphasis on Repairs, Replacements and upgrades. We also provide new systems, battery storage, Small Commercial, Off-Grid systems and smart monitoring systems. Energy Stuff is a Clean Energy Council Member and only uses CEC accredited installers. We fully comply with the Victorian Govt. Solar Rebate Program and we are supporting clients in their applications to the new scheme starting July 1^st 2019.

For further information please call us on 1300 656 205 or go to our website at http://www.energystuff.com.au

By Adam Carey – The Sydney Morning Herald – 16 June 2019

Main image: Loy Yang A is the most breakdown-prone power station in the country.CREDIT:SIMON O’DWYER

Victoria’s brown coal-fired power stations are the most unreliable in the country, breaking down far more often than power plants in the rest of Australia and putting the stability of the state’s energy supply at risk.

New data reveals that in the past 18 months, the Loy Yang A power station in the Latrobe Valley has suffered more outages than any other power plant in the National Energy Market, followed closely by nearby Yallourn.

Energy market analysts said the relative unreliability of those two stations had been exposed by the sudden closure of Hazelwood in 2017, which stripped most of Victoria’s spare capacity out of the grid.

But they also pointed to a rush of wind and solar projects due to connect to the grid in the next two years that will replace the capacity that was lost when Hazelwood was shuttered.

Loy Yang A has experienced an outage 29 times since the start of last year, including a breakdown of one of its four units on May 18 that is expected to take seven months to repair.

Yallourn W has had 26 unit outages in that time. Queensland’s Gladstone plant was the third-worst performer with 18 outages.

Combined, Loy Yang A and Yallourn W provide more than half of Victoria’s electricity. Faults and planned outages at both of those stations in January led to load shedding that affected more than 200,000 customers.

By comparison, Australia’s biggest power station, the black coal-powered Eraring plant in NSW, has had a unit breakdown just eight times in the past 18 months, while Liddell, which is run down and due to close in 2022, has had 13 outages.

The data was compiled by the Australia Institute, a progressive think tank that has been monitoring outages at all of the nation’s coal and gas plants since December 2017.

Sixty-four of 183 breakdowns in that time were in Victoria.

Richie Merzian, the institute’s climate and energy program director, said Victoria’s brown coal-fired power plants were already struggling to provide consistently reliable energy to the state and predicted their performance would deteriorate with age, hotter weather and increasing demand.

“Across the national grid, Victoria’s ageing coal-fired power stations are the most likely to fail and Victorians felt this firsthand in January this year when many were forced into blackout,” Mr Merzian said.

Coal remains Victoria’s biggest source of power by far. In the past year, Victoria’s three brown coal-fired power plants generated 72 per cent of the state’s energy. Wind, the second largest source, generated 9.5 per cent, according to the Australian Energy Market Operator.

But Victoria’s energy market is about to go through a renewables surge as a number of large-scale wind and solar projects come online in the next two years.

In total, 2834 megawatts of new wind power and 1072 megawatts of solar is scheduled to enter the grid between 2018 and 2020, according to analysis by Green Energy Markets.

Tristan Edis, a director at Green Energy Markets, said the influx of renewables into the Victorian grid would help to lower energy prices but would not necessarily push coal out of the market.

There has been speculation Yallourn, which was built in the 1970s, will wind up before its scheduled closure date of 2032, but Mr Edis said the fact its brown coal is cheap to mine and burn, in a time of high energy prices, could keep it operating.

“Yallourn has much lower operating costs than NSW black coal,” he said. “Yallourn’s operating cost is $14 a megawatt hour; Vales Point [in NSW] is $29 per megawatt hour.”

Danny Price, an expert in energy economics and director of Frontier Economics, said the higher number of outages in Victoria compared with other states did not mean the state’s coal-powered plants were becoming less reliable.

“They are getting older and you would expect them to become more unreliable and I think they will become more unreliable, but at the moment there is no evidence to suggest that,” Mr Price said.

Plant shutdowns in Victoria and South Australia had increased the strain on those that remain, he said.

“The big difference though is that because you’ve got much less spare capacity, every time a plant has fallen over it’s now felt right throughout the eastern seaboard, which is something we’ve never seen before, because we’ve always had lots of spare capacity.”

New laws have been created to prevent a repeat of the rapid exit of Hazelwood from the market that caused capacity shortfalls in Victoria and South Australia.

From September, generators will be required to provide at least three years’ advance notice of their intention to close, unless the Australian Energy Regulator grants an exemption.

Energy Stuff specialises in Residential Solar with emphasis on Repairs, Replacements and upgrades. We also provide new systems, battery storage, Small Commercial, Off-Grid systems and smart monitoring systems. Energy Stuff is a Clean Energy Council Member and only uses CEC accredited installers. We fully comply with the Victorian Govt. Solar Rebate Program and we are supporting clients in their applications to the new scheme starting July 1^st 2019.

For further information please call us on 1300 656 205 or go to our website at http://www.energystuff.com.au

By Michael Fowler – The Age – 18 June 2019

Victoria’s solar rebate scheme will be capped to about 3000 homes a month from July 1, in a revamped, first-in best-dressed system.

The state government has changed its solar rebate scheme so that it is now similar to buying concert tickets, and will be available to renters for the first time.

Each month, a total of 3333 rebates for rooftop solar panels will be available through an online portal for homeowners, while 166 will be available for landlords and renters.

Once those subsidies are exhausted, homeowners and renters will have to wait until the next month to apply for a rebate.

The $1.3 billion solar program, which aims to subsidise 770,000 Victorian homes to install solar power within 10 years, was a major promise by the Andrews government before last year’s state election, but has been stifled by cost blowouts, unexpected demand and shonky solar operators.

The new monthly cap comes after 600 homeowners were left high and dry after they paid to install solar equipment but were unable to claim the rebate when the government suddenly halted the program in April due to huge demand.

The government originally expected to provide 24,000 rebates between September last year, when the scheme started, and April.

But it accepted 32,000 applications in that period.

And six solar providers, which exploited vulnerable customers and exposed workers to unsafe conditions, were referred to Consumer Affairs Victoria for prosecution.

The rollout from July 1 will cover close to 40,000 rooftop solar systems over the next year.

In addition to that 2000 rebates will be available for solar panels on rental properties over the year, 6000 for solar hot water systems and 1000 for solar battery systems.

The monthly supply of 3333 homeowner rebates is expected to be snapped up within days – possibly hours – of the first day of the coming months.

Premier Daniel Andrews said his government “fully expected” over-demand, but described it as “a good problem to have”.

Under the changes to the scheme, customers will be required to go through a retailer and get a tick of approval on the rebate before solar panels are installed.

Mr Andrews said his government made “no apology for putting safety first” in the more measured approach.

“I’d prefer to be perhaps criticised for the fact we’ve done this in a careful, methodical way rather than rushing it out and potentially having problems,” he said.

Mr Andrews also promised a more rigorous auditing program of providers and installers from next month. “We will check and double check to make sure this is done properly,” he said.

Mick Harris, the managing director of Melbourne-based solar company EnviroGroup, praised the new scheme because “the floodgates aren’t being completely opened” and backed it to “remove the shonky operators”.

“We in the industry have been crying out for good quality control for a long, long time, and this is delivering that, so we’re very happy with that,” he said.

The rebate amount and conditions will remain the same until December 31 this year – up to $2225 is available to households with a combined income of below $180,000.

The maximum rebate amount will drop to $1888 from January 1, and again to $1850 for the 2020-21 financial year.

Director of smart energy at the Clean Energy Council, Darren Gladman, said the scheme, including the rebate decreases, was the “best the government could do in the circumstances they were in”.

“I think the issue they are dealing with is they want to keep their election promises on a limited budget. The program was a lot more popular than they anticipated, and that causes budget issues, so your options are a bit restricted,” he said.

Mr Gladman said the industry would be watching the first-time rental property scheme “really closely”.

“The rental part of the market is the biggest part of the untapped solar market in Australia … the landlord often thinks the renter will get all the benefit, and the renter says ‘why would I invest if I’m not going to be here later?’.

“The feedback we’ve had from real estate agents is rental properties with solar on the roof are a lot easier to rent. No government has really been able to crack it yet, so full marks to the Victorian government. It really needs landlords to show interest now.”

Energy Stuff specialises in Residential Solar with emphasis on Repairs, Replacements and upgrades. We also provide new systems, battery storage, Small Commercial, Off-Grid systems and smart monitoring systems. Energy Stuff is a Clean Energy Council Member and only uses CEC accredited installers. We are registered with the Victorian Govt. Solar Rebate Program and we are currently supporting clients in their applications to the new scheme starting July 1^st 2019.

For further information please call us on 1300 656 205 or go to our website at http://www.energystuff.com.au