Green Energy WA

The future of the federal government’s $1.5 billion Solar Flagships program is in limbo, after both winning consortia failed to meet Thursday’s deadline for financial close.

As predicted here two weeks ago, neither the $1.2 billion Solar Dawn project, which proposes to build a 250MW solar thermal facility in Queensland, and the $923 million Moree Solar Project, which plans a 150MW solar PV facility in the north of NSW, have been able to strike power purchase agreements, the necessary pre-requisite to get finance from the banks.

Both consortia will now have meetings with officials from the Department of Energy and Resources – at least one as early as today – to discuss the next move. Both will push for extensions, arguing that the state of the market in Australia has made it impossible to strike PPAs.

Losing bidders, including two solar PV projects that already had energy utilities AGL and TruEnergy on board, an effective guarantee of a PPA, are standing ready. The two winners are expected to argue that they have made considerable progress in other areas of their projects, including local development approval, and deserve extra time. They will likely point to the precedents in other grants programs (see below) and the unique nature of the scale and type of these projects.

Still, given the political rhetoric around clean energy and government support programs, the issue threatens to become a potentially difficult one for the government over its choice of consortia and technology, and the sheer scale of the project – most other countries have begun their solar rollouts with much more modest projects.

Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson was asked about the program’s status by Climate Spectator on Thursday. He said: “Obviously that’s being handled by my department in association with the Flagships program advisers. If I remember correctly, the process of consultation with the two Flagships selected concludes today. The Department’s responsibility is to assess the outcomes of those negotiations and discussions, and in due course they’ll bring forward a report to me, and on the basis of that report I’ll assess where the program is up to.”

The Moree project is backed by BP Solar, Spanish developer Fotowatio and Australia’s Pacific Hydro, while the Solar Dawn project is supported by French nuclear giant Areva, UK-based Wind Prospect CWP, and CS Energy. Those waiting in the wings include include two ventures between First Solar and TRUenergy and AGL; an Infigen/Suntech venture; and in the solar thermal space, the Solar Flare project including Siemens, Parsons Brinckerhoff and John Holland.

The progress of the Solar Flagships projects is being keenly watched – both in the context of these projects, and for the rollout of large-scale solar in Australia – and it has deep implications for the prospects of a second found of funding in the flagships program, and the structure of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. Many argue that it underlines the case for ditching the grants-based programs that have been the feature of both the Labor and Howard governments in favour of the sort of mechanisms being considered for the CEFC.

The overwhelming feature of the grants-based program over the last five years has been that plenty of money has been announced, but very little spent, as the Grattan Institute concluded in an in depth report earlier this year.

The other major funding program, the Renewable Energy Development Program, is also behind schedule. The funding deed for the $60 million grant for the Solar Oasis solar thermal project in Whyalla is still to be finalised, nearly 18 months after the project was originally due to begin construction. Government spokespeope say that the deed should be finalised shortly.

Meanwhile, there has been little progress on the OPT wave energy project in Victoria, a controversial choice at the time. A spokesperson for the department said the Victorian Wave Partners project has met its first crucial milestone which was to demonstrate the OPT Power Buoy 150 technology in waters off Scotland earlier this year. The consortium is in regular contact with the Department on the progress of the project.

via Flagships stumble: Solar funding stalls on the grid | Climate Spectator.

The company based in Calgary, TransCanada stated that it entered into a $ 470 million investment to buy new solar projects in Ontario.

These proposed Canadian Solar Solutions will forward a total production capacity of 86 megawatts.

The president of TransCanada, Russ Girling, said that the investment has low risks and should generate revenue quickly.

The agreement provides that each of the nine projects will be developed and built by Canadian Solar Solutions and it uses photovoltaic panels that capture energy from the sun and transform it into electricity.

TransCanada will purchase other projects after commissioning the facilities in late 2012 and mid-2013.

The energy company has become the largest independent power producer in Ontario. The province has recently turned to the development of renewable energy – solar, wind, biomass and other fuels – to phase out its coal-fired power generation.

Well known for its network of pipelines that transport oil from western Canada to the United States, TransCanada made ​​the headlines for some time in connection with its proposed Keystone XL pipeline that would run from Alberta to refineries in Texas.

Basma – Green Energy International Correspondent – 20/12/11

GUELPH — A number of impoverished villages in Brazil’s Amazonia region will soon receive a life-changing Christmas present from Canada.

As you read this a shipping container full of 560 solar panels is en route to Brazil aboard the cargo ship MSC Santhya. The panels, worth nearly $1 million, were donated by Canadian Solar Solutions Inc. and manufactured out of the company’s new facility in Guelph.

Once these made-in-Ontario panels arrive in Brazil, they will be transported to a handful of villages and, come spring 2012, installed atop schools, hospitals, and water-pumping stations. The power they produce will be used directly, or stored in golf-cart batteries so the energy from the sun can be used at night.

It’s all part of a program started in 2001 by Brazilian social entrepreneur Fabio Rosa, who, along with help from Canadian investigative journalist Paul McKay, are on a mission to bring clean water, light, refrigeration, basic communications and, ultimately, better health and education to some of the poorest people on the planet.

McKay was a reporter at the Ottawa Citizen when he travelled to Brazil in 2004 to do a series of stories. It was there that he met Rosa and learned about how something as simple as a solar panel could have such a profound impact on the lives of so many.

Solar may have a growing role to play in cleaning up Ontario’s electricity system, creating green jobs, and helping homeowner reduce their environmental footprint – and their guilt.

But in these remote Brazilian communities with no connection to a power grid, solar technology can both enrich and save lives. Medicine, vaccines and food can be kept cool 24 hours a day. Light can come from CFL bulbs and LEDs instead of kerosene lamps that emit toxic fumes indoors. Sun-powered pumps can supply a constant flow of clean water.

The problem is villagers typically make as little as $2 a day. “There are 20 million people in Brazil without access to electricity and they can’t afford the panels themselves,” explains McKay, who in “retirement” is now a green energy advocate running his own foundation that acts as a kind of North American ambassador to Rosa’s efforts.

“Most utilities there have been privatized and are not interested in going after tiny customers in remote places.”

Rosa is offering these villagers an alternative, but to be clear, he isn’t giving the technology away. What he has developed is a low-cost leasing model that makes the systems and the energy they produce accessible to the poor.

Typically, he will install a solar panel, a battery, a charge controller, a few lights, and a water pump in each home and then charge less than $15 a month for what, in essence, is the service this equipment provides.

Keep in mind that these individuals would already be paying $15 a month on candles, batteries, and kerosene that would no longer be required, so there is no additional financial burden. What they get in return, however, is a far better quality of life and work.

Something as simple as the ability to pump water automatically for a cash crop operation can also generate new income for villagers.

The panels supplied by Canadian Solar will go a step further. Instead of being used to support individual households, they will support entire villages by bringing power to schools, hospitals, central pumping stations and even Internet and cellphone stations.

Milfred Hammerbacher, president and chief executive of Canadian Solar Solutions, which is a subsidiary of Canadian Solar Inc., says the decision to get involved came in 2010 after McKay brought Rosa to the company’s factory for a presentation.

The company fell in love with the idea, recalls Hammerbacher.

“It was a great opportunity for us to help out,” he says. “On a personal level, it’s really why I got into the solar business in the first place. There are so many cases where a few solar panels can make such a huge difference in people’s lives.”

Next spring, the company will be sending down a team of employees to help install the systems.

McKay says the donation of so many panels is significant and takes Rosa’s program to a new level. It has taken years to install 300 systems, as Rosa could only raise enough money to purchase five to 10 panels at a time. He also has to raise funds for all the batteries, pumps and lights that go with each system.

He hopes that by having Canadian Solar show such good will, other suppliers and non-governmental organizations will step up to the plate. In that regard, McKay’s and Rosa’s next priority is to get a similarly large donation of batteries to go with the panels.

The potential is there to grow Rosa’s program throughout Latin America and into the poorest regions of Africa and Asia. Indeed, that’s their plan.

It’s an idea that Hammerbacher finds appealing. “This is something we’d like to do on a long-term basis,” he says. “There are many other organizations like Rosa’s around the world that we’d like to support if we can.

“I hope a lot of other solar companies follow.

via GuelphMercury – Guelph solar tiles become Brazilian Christmas present….

RENEWABLE energy costs are likely to be far cheaper than forecast by the government’s energy white paper, new research has found, offering new options for the nation’s future energy mix.

Bloomberg analysis suggests the official figures issued last week overstate the cost of solar power threefold and windpower by 50 per cent.

But at the same time the paper warns that the government has underestimated the price tag for geothermal energy.

The energy white paper forecasts that as much as 46 per cent of electricity will come from renewable sources by the middle of the century.

Up to 15 per cent is expected to come from wind, 23 per cent from geothermal and 3 per cent from solar.

The Bloomberg research suggests the government’s capital costs calculations for renewables are wrong, creating distorted predictions on future energy sources.

“White paper modelling overestimates the current and future costs of most renewable technologies,” Bloomberg analyst Kobad Bhavnagri said.

“Our analysis of the technology experience curves suggests that costs are likely to decrease much faster than the white paper modelling assumes.”

The Bloomberg research suggests that because of consistently falling prices for solar generation – which have dropped 34 per cent since 2009 – forecasts that use outdated starting points will be inaccurate.

“Overestimating current and future capital costs is likely to have produce an unrealistically conservative cost of energy,” Mr Bhavnagri finds.

His research also suggests that the government modelling may not have taken into account the effects of increasing wind turbine efficiency.

“Our expectation is that wind will be one of the least-cost generation options from 2030-50 and that wind energy’s share of generation will be higher than the white paper projections,” the paper says.

The analysis is less optimistic about the place of geothermal energy.

“Having been beset by a string of technical challenges, the cost of geothermal is currently several times higher in Australia than overseas and significantly more than the industry had predicted,” the paper warns.

Greens deputy leader Christine Milne warned against inflated estimates for costs of wind and solar.

“Because renewables have no fuel cost and the technologies are improving all the time, their costs are coming down rapidly while the cost of fossil fuels can only ever keep rising,” she told The Australian.

via Energy white paper overstates cost of renewables, study finds | The Australian.

New Hampshire, U.S.A. — Even as renewable capacity surges ahead despite a down global economy, this past weekend brought a sobering reminder that market forces continue to pull the world toward carbon emissions — and not away from them.

At the annual U.N. climate talks in Durban, South Africa, the Global Carbon Project released a study that shows that in 2010, emissions actually rose by 5.9 percent. This, despite a recession that many believed would have the unintended (and beneficial) consequence of reducing our carbon emissions. The top emitters include China, India, the United States and Europe — the very areas where much of the world’s renewable capacity has been installed or is being developed.

In a potential development that could signal the inevitability of a true global pact on climate change, a top China scientist talked about capping carbon emissions by 2020. The announcement, confirmed in Durban, could bring it in line with Western nations that have signed onto the Kyoto Protocol, and may pressure the United States into rethinking its “Wait for China” approach.

via Asia Report: Mixed Signals Over Emissions | Renewable Energy News Article.