Solar Incentives Slashed Under New Rules

The Baillieu government has cut incentives for rooftop solar panels for next year as part of a shake-up of how small-scale renewable energy is priced in the state.

The changes reduce the Victorian feed-in-tariff for solar to eight cents for each kilowatt hour fed into the grid in 2013 - down from the existing rate of 25 cents - and fulfils recommendations by the state's competition advisory body.

The changes will not affect customers with existing contracts and tariff rates. Households that have paperwork lodged by September 30 with electricity suppliers can also still get access to the existing 25-cent tariff.

A review released today by the Victorian Competition and Efficiency Commission recommends a six-to-eight cents a kilowatt hour tariff be put in place, with the government accepting the top end of that range for 2013.

The tariff will then be adjusted by the government each year in 2014, 2015 and 2016 based on the wholesale electricity price, before moving to a fully floating market price in 2017.

The tariff scheme will also be opened to other forms of renewable energy systems generating 100 kilowatts or less.

The changes fall short of calls by the renewable energy industry that a fair rate of tariff for solar was 12 to 16 cents per kilowatt-hour.

Announcing the changes this afternoon, Energy Minister Michael O'Brien said the falling costs of solar panel systems and rising power prices meant households were taking up solar without the need for over-generous subsidies from other power users.

He said an older 60-cents per kilowatt-hour tariff — closed by the Baillieu government last year — would cost Victorian households $41 million a year to 2024 through electricity bills in subsidies to homes with solar panels.

"People in public housing, tenants who cannot access solar, are paying higher electricity bills in order to subsidise the rooftop solar for other people. Now that wasn't sustainable at those rates, they were over generous," Mr O'Brien said.

Labor's energy spokeswoman, Lily D'Ambrosio, criticised the decision, saying thousands of Victorian families were installing solar panels to reduce their power bills amid increasing cost-of-living pressures.

''The Baillieu government has again shown it just doesn’t care about supporting families who want to reduce their energy costs while also doing their bit for the environment,'' she said.

Thirty Hunter Jobs at XStrata Lost As Miner Wields Axe

Thirty Hunter Jobs at XStrata Lost As Miner Wields Axe

ABOUT 30 Hunter Valley coal miners face the axe after Xstrata announced plans yesterday to slash 600 jobs in NSW and Queensland in response to low coal prices, high production costs and the strong Australian dollar. 
 
Union officials in the Hunter Valley said the mining giant intended to shed about 15 frontline jobs at its Ravensworth underground mine with a similar number expected to go at its Ulan underground mine, north of Mudgee.

Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union NSW northern district president Peter Jordan said members were told both mines would be scaled back from seven-day-a-week operations to five. He said delegates were "optimistic" affected staff could be re-deployed within Xstrata or managed through voluntary redundancies.

But he said there was no indication how many of the hundreds of contractors - who work at about a dozen of Xstrata's sites across the Hunter and the rest of NSW - would be impacted after the company said cuts would include both permanent staff and contractors.

BHP has also announced 300 jobs will go with the closure of its Gregory open cut at Emerald in Queensland.

"Xstrata Coal is undertaking a planned restructuring to respond to industry-wide pressures including low coal prices, high input costs and a strong Australian dollar against the US dollar. Following this review, and in keeping with the cost savings objectives announced at our half-year earnings, we will be reducing our employee numbers by approximately 600," Xstrata said.

Xstrata said cuts would also come from its corporate headquarters in Sydney and consolidating its office-based operations in Queensland.

"We do not expect a material impact on Australian production volumes," the company said.
However it confirmed growth projects at Ravens- worth North, Ulan West and its expansion at Rolleston were "proceeding"..

Mr O'Farrell said the loss of Xstrata jobs was "a body blow".

"It reflects not only national economic conditions, but it reflects a higher Australian dollar, lower prices for resources, and both are dictated by international conditions" he said.

Fotowatio Plans to Build Australia’s Largest Solar-Power Project

Fotowatio Renewable Ventures, the solar-power plant developer backed by U.S. energy investor Denham Capital Management LP, won the right to build a 20-megawatt project near Australia’s capital.

Fotowatio will participate in the Australian Capital Territory’s feed-in tariff program, which rewards generators of solar power by paying above-market prices for the electricity, Simon Corbell, ACT minister for the environment and sustainable development, said today in a statement.

The Royalla solar farm, to be built about 25 kilometers (16 miles) south of Canberra, will become the largest in Australia by 2014, according to the statement. The venture will help in an effort to lower carbon emissions and shift away from fossil fuels, the ACT government said.

Fotowatio, which is based in the Netherlands, sought a new project in Australia after losing a competition earlier this year for federal government funds to build a large-scale solar plant in New South Wales state. Denham Capital in March reached an agreement with Fotowatio to invest $190 million in solar projects in markets including Australia.

Energy Build Costs in Australia Very Worrisome, Says Shell

A SENIOR Royal Dutch Shell executive said today the cost of building energy projects in Australia is becoming "very worrisome" as the European oil giant prepares to decide whether it will spend billions more dollars in the resource-rich nation. 
  
Shell has already committed almost $US30 billion to Australian gas-export projects being built over the next five years. The company's Australian head, Ann Pickard, said the figure is poised to become $US50 billion if final decisions are made on other projects that Shell has on the drawing board.

"So the costs have to stay competitive," Ms Pickard told a conference.

Australia is central to the growth plans of many big oil companies including Shell and Chevron as they attempt to meet intensifying demand for cleaner-burning fuels from fuel-strapped Asian nations such as Japan and rapidly industrialising countries such as China. Natural gas has overtaken oil to count for 51 per cent of Shell's total fossil fuel output.

Australia's vast natural gas reserves, political stability and proximity to Asia make it an attractive place to invest. Over $US175 billion worth of gas-export projects under construction on its coastline stand to catapult the country above Qatar as the world's biggest liquefied natural gas, or LNG, exporter by the end of the decade. LNG is natural gas chilled to liquid and exported by sea.

The industry here though faces challenges. A lack of skilled labour combined with a surge in development activity that's also occurring in the country's booming mining sector has squeezed labour supplies and made Australia one of the most expensive places in the world to produce LNG. And a soaring Australian dollar is making locally-based skills and equipment more expensive for foreign-based companies.

Such cost pressures are building at a time when companies mull whether to start exporting LNG to Asia from North America and East Africa, potentially increasing competition for Australian projects, particularly those not currently under construction.

Shell hasn't yet made a final decision on whether to proceed with a massive LNG venture in Queensland with PetroChina that will attempt to chill gas trapped in coal seams for export. And although Shell's just increased its shareholding in the Browse LNG development in Western Australia, an investment decision on that project isn't expected until next year.

"I'm hoping we can get some more projects going but the costs here are getting to be very worrisome," Ms Pickard told reporters.

Shell is hoping it can source workers more easily and more cheaply by timing a final investment decision on its Queensland LNG joint venture a few years after three rival developments there. Still, Ms Pickard said it's possible Shell could process its gas through a rival LNG plant in Queensland rather than build its own plant.

"That's certainly an option. But the intent of PetroChina and Shell, of course, it to continue with our own project," she said.

As for Browse, joint venture partners including Woodside Petroleum Ltd. (WPL.AU) are spending over $US1 billion investigating the commercial viability of piping the gas to a new LNG plant in the environmentally sensitive Kimberley region.

Shell's decision this week to almost triple its stake in the project by taking Chevron's 17.5 per cent interest has fanned speculating the resource could be processed on a floating LNG, or FLNG, vessel instead. A pioneer of FLNG technology, Shell is targeting first production from the world's first FLNG vessel from its Prelude field, located near Browse, in 2016.

"We'll take the cost estimates and see if we've got a commercial project in the Kimberley or not. Then, obviously in consultation with the government, we'll make a decision on whether we'll go forward in the Kimberley or look at other alternatives," Ms Pickard said.

Clean Energy With a Pinch of salt

A sodium-ion battery being developed in Australia is set to increase solar energy use and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, according to researchers.

Although bulkier than commonly used lithium batteries, sodium-ion batteries will be cheaper, less toxic, and more environmentally friendly, said Manickam Minakshi, a chemistry and mineral scientist at Murdoch University, in Perth Australia.

“Our water-based sodium-ion battery has shown excellent potential for affordable, low-temperature storage,” he said.

Better batteries

Other batteries used for renewable energy storage – such as molten salt or molten sulphur – only work at high temperatures, making them expensive and impractical. Also, like lead-acid batteries, they are very corrosive and environmental pollutants, which aren't problems with sodium-ion batteries, said Minakshi.

The Murdoch team is now moving towards large-scale commercialisation, and the future could see these batteries connected to solar panels in every home. “This is a very exciting time,” said Minakshi.
The new sodium-ion battery has particular potential when coupled with the green power of solar energy. Widespread use of power from solar panels is limited because there are periods known as ‘non-generation’ times, when power cannot be produced. These include, for example, overcast weather or night-times.

Power in the dark

“Using solar energy panels to get power will only make sense when you can store the power when the Sun’s not shining,” said Stephen Thurgate, vice-president of program development partnerships at Sydney’s Macquarie University.

Murdoch’s new sodium-ion batteries could have applications in small networks with their own battery systems or ‘smart grids’ that use information and communication technology to reduce dependence on centralised power stations, said Thurgate.

While commonly used rechargeable lithium batteries have a higher voltage, making them more suitable for transport and vehicular power sources, they come with a lot of issues, said Minakshi.

Sodium: cheap and abundant

Lithium, for example, is more expensive and far less abundant than sodium in the Earth’s crust.
Another advantage of sodium-ion batteries is that they have a higher density, meaning they are able to store more energy for their weight. Combined with their low costs, they could open up affordable green energy to the developing world.

Lithium and sodium share similar chemical properties, but the sodium ion is 2.5 times the size of lithium, and a big challenge for the Murdoch researchers was finding a ‘host material’ for these large ions.

“Ions travel out of the cathode and into the anode to form a current,” said Minakshi. “As an imperfect analogy, you can think of them as mesh filters that ions pass through. We had to find materials with larger gaps in their mesh.”

Paving a path for alternative energy technology

Murdoch’s new development doesn’t spell the death of the lithium battery, which is still ideal for transportation because of its lighter weight, said Danielle Meyrick, deputy dean of the School of Chemical and Mathematical Sciences. “Sodium is slightly heavier and is much more suitable for stationary energy storage applications [such as] industry,” she said.

The sodium-ion technology could also enable the use of renewable energy in households, moving away from traditional energy generation sources.

“This kind of battery facilitates security of supply and continuity of electricity supply to households," said Meyrick. “It facilitates storage in times when there’s no sunlight, when there’s no wind, [and] when there’s no snow.”

Although there is more research to be done on finding the optimum scale of the battery and cell size, Thurgate said the findings were promising.

“The fact that [sodium-ion batteries are] based on readily available materials, that it’s an aqueous solvent [water-based] – so there’s no fear of the thing being flammable – [and] the fact the energy density is very high... are all great,” she said.