Now that’s a PLAN
Victoria’s Labor Government jacked up its targets for clean energy and emissions reduction, setting the State on course to reach a 95% share of renewables on its electricity grid by 2035 and a 75-80% reduction in emissions by that date.
Source: Victoria’s Labor Government aims for 95% renewables by 2035
Fossil Fuel Industry demands increased corporate welfare. It wasn’t that long ago Andrew Bolt was telling us the planet was cooling and renewables were too expensive. The LNP spent 13 years putting the brakes on transitioning.
Renewable energy becoming cheaper is behind the early closure of AGL coal-fired power stations, Tanya Plibersek says.
Source: Cheaper renewables drive coal closures – Michael West
While the Morrison-Joyce government has spent years ridiculing renewables and struggling to come up with a viable energy policy, Labor has a plan for Australia to seize the opportunities of the age of renewables. It is a plan to build new industrial capacity, back it in with skills training and work with industry to shape change to the national interest. If successful in the coming election we will establish a National Reconstruction Fund to help drive our post-pandemic rebuild.
Source: Anthony Albanese: It’s time to seize a once-in-a-generation opportunity
Hey Morrison you want to shirt-front Putin?
After Hitler invaded the Sudetenland, America turned its industrial prowess to building tanks, bombers and destroyers. Now, we must respond with renewables
Source: This is how we defeat Putin and other petrostate autocrats | Bill McKibben | The Guardian
If the crisis can wait four years, big increases in wind and solar power will replace most NatGas. The IEA site reports that, “The agency says that between 2020 and 2026, renewables will grow by another 60 percent to over 4,800 gigawatts, which is roughly the size of the capacity of all fossil fuel and nuclear [electricity] power plants combined. Over the next five years, renewables will capture 95 percent of the growth in the electricity sector.”
Source: Europe is dependent on Russian Gas during Ukraine Crisis because it didn’t Ramp up Renewables Faster
Local think tanks that previously supported offshore drilling have engaged in a wide-ranging campaign to stop the expansion of offshore wind farms.
Source: Oil-Backed Group Opposes Offshore Wind for Environmental Reasons
In the tradition of Coalition environment ministers, Sussan Ley has knocked back a large renewable energy project while waving through three new coal mines. Callum Foote reports on an Environment ministry which has found more renewable projects “clearly unacceptable” than coal mines.
While Morrison ducks and weaves about Climate Change and renewables for a minority of corporate interests. Anthony Albanese speaks for over 80% of Australians , Businesses and Corporations included.
Elvis Presley once noted that the truth is like the sun. “You can shut it out for a time,’’ Elvis said. “But it ain’t goin’ away.’’ Just as the sun isn’t going away, neither is the potential for cheap solar energy to underpin a wave of jobs growth and prosperity across Australia in coming years. Our nation is blessed with abundant solar and wind resources. If we tap them efficiently, we can use cheap renewable energy to cut power bills and drive job growth across the economy. We can also develop new renewable energy industries in areas like battery production and solar technology. But this won’t happen under the Morrison-Joyce Government. For nearly a decade in power, the Coalition has ridiculed solar and wind power.
Source: Anthony Albanese on renewables: Ask Elvis, the truth always triumphs
Renewables overall increased 9% between 2019 and 2020. About half of US clean energy now comes from solar and wind, and the other half from hydroelectric power.
LNP Ignores the experts
Offshore wind farms are an increasingly common sight overseas. But Australia has neglected the technology, despite the ample wind gusts buffeting much of our coastline.
Source: Wind turbines off the coast could help Australia become an energy superpower, research finds
Australia’s PM is caught between Biden and his Coalition partner while the country suffers. Watch the salesman promise what he can’t or wont deliver.
The importance of having a U.S. leader like Joe Biden, who has come to believe in the necessity of drastically cutting the emission of greenhouse gases, was demonstrated Wednesday when Japan announced that it was doubling its proposed cuts to carbon dioxide emissions by 2030. This according to Reuters.
They are among the right-wing figures behind the latest right-wing media lie that wind energy is the main culprit for Texas’ blackouts
What do The Wall Street Journal, Tucker Carlson, Rep. Lauren Boebert, Steve Bannon, and an online troll called “Catturd” all have in common? | Media Matters for America
A major shift towards clean energy targets is being seen among some of Australia’s leading businesses and brands, writes David Ritter.
Major corporations rush towards clean energy commitment
Key points:
Greenpeace say the spill will “poison” the environment for years
Over 100 specialists have been dispatched to the area by the emergency services
An investigation has been launched to determine the cause of the spill
via Vladimir Putin declares state of emergency in Arctic region over Norilsk fuel spill – ABC News
one single wind renewable project in that region creates, all by itself, 350 jobs. That number will fritter down once the construction phase has finished. But, there are 10 more solar projects approved and one more under consideration for the region. And we are talking about just one small Council in Nth Qld.
Germany, a pioneer in renewables among the advanced industrial economies, now gets 38% of its electricity from renewables.
In the United States the proportion of electricity generated by renewables is only about 20%, about half as much as Germany, because of the opposition to green energy of Big Oil, Big Coal, Big Gas, and increasingly Big Trump (what has he been eating?) Moreover, much of the increase in renewables in the US is very new, with falling solar and wind prices, whereas Germany has been at this for a long time and thus avoided substantial carbon emissions that it would otherwise have produced.
Reuters reminds us that this proportion is higher than that of coal for the first time. It says that of the renewables the mix was this:
“The 38 per cent was made up of onshore wind supplying 16 per cent, offshore wind with 3 per cent, biomass with 8 per cent, photovoltaics with 8 per cent, hydropower with 3 per cent, and waste and geothermal energy supplying 1 per cent.”
Note that hydropower was down 16% this year because of the horrible drought Germany is undergoing, so that the surge of 2% in renewables is all the more remarkable.
via Germany’s Electricity 38% Renewable in 2018, more than Coal for 1st Time
WHAT LIES FROM AUSTRALIA”S COALAPHILES HAVE YOU HEARD RECENTLY (ODT)
India has achieved 70 gigawatts of installed renewable capacity, and has another 40 gigs under construction or already bid on. That would take it to 110 gigs of mainly wind and solar.
New Delhi had set a goal of 175 gigawatts of renewable energy by 2022, and clearly will reach it early, though 80 gigs rather than 100 gigs of it (as originally planned) may be solar. Now the government has increased the goal to 225 gigs of renewables by March of 2022.
India plans 58 GW of new Solar Energy by 2022, as Trump unleashes Dirty Coal
Financial decision
Rising electricity costs were one factor, but so too was the tumbling price of large-scale clean energy, Mr O’Sullivan said: “Ultimately this will leave the business financially better off”.
While a few high-profile businesses have made a virtue of supporting renewable energy – such as Sanjeev Gupta’s “green steel” plan for the Whyalla steelworks – few companies in Australia have also set a net-zero greenhouse gas emissions goal.
By using energy storage with solar panels, homeowners were able to go off-grid, showing how distributed power could speed future storm recovery.
A MAJOR NEW SURVEY has pointed to the inevitable decline in coal generation, as the ongoing plunge in wind and solar costs make those technologies significantly cheaper than even refurbished coal-fired generators.
Source: Renewables and storage will crush coal way ahead of Finkel’s forecast
The argument for renewable energy is now a purely economic one – and the move away from coal will only pick up speed
The dominance of ‘econobabble’ and market approaches have hurt climate action. That’s why renewable energy is vital to the future of the climate and the economy, write Dan Cass and Andrew Bray. The world seems particularly chaotic this winter. The climate news is diabolical, with fears about melting of the Arctic permafrost and the ancient ice stores of theMore
Source: Neoliberalism Poisoned Climate Action And Renewables Are The Antidote – New Matilda
It’s complicated.
Source: What Falling Oil Prices Mean for the Future of Clean Energy | Mother Jones
How battery-powered homes are unplugging Australia
Australia, with the highest rate of residential solar penetration in the world, as well as a large number of communities and industry sitting off the grid, is an ideal laboratory and test market for storage technology. Already, Australian companies are reaping the benefits, exporting off-grid renewable energy, storage and control systems internationally.
Dan Litchfield talks about his frustrations selling Ohio on wind energy, or even talking calmly about wind energy with people against it. He isn’t giving up, but explains that he’s going to spend more time doing something a bit more satisfying – starting up a tiny brewery of his own.
Dan also responds to an interview we did with psychologist Per Espen Stoknes on climate change psychology.
Dan Litchfield is a senior project developer for a major international renewable energy company, and the views represented on the show are Dan’s alone obviously.
The shell that is the logo of Shell should be covered in oil. (Photo: frankieleon)
Newly uncovered documents, disclosed in The Guardian, reveal that Shell has successfully slowed down the growth of renewable energy in Europe.
According to an April 27 article in The Guardian, “Weak renewable energy goals for 2030 [for the EU] originated with [a] Shell pitch for gas as a key technology for Europe to cut its carbon emissions in an affordable way.”
Reading news websites, one comes across copious ads claiming that Shell is committed to a sustainable future for the earth. Their intent is to brand Shell as a company working to reduce environmental threats (and, by implication, global warming). Nothing could epitomize the hypocrisy of greenwashing and corporate ads on news content sites more than Shell’s Madison Avenue efforts to portray itself as environmentally responsible.
After all, just look on the Shell website, which promotes Arctic exploration for oil and natural gas:
It is estimated that the Arctic holds around 30% of the world’s undiscovered natural gas and 13% of its yet-to-find oil. This amounts to around 400 billion barrels of oil equivalent, 10 times the total oil and gas produced to date in the North Sea. Developing the Arctic could be essential to securing energy supplies for the future, but it will mean balancing economic, environmental and social challenges.
Given the history of oil production expansion and drilling, just how exactly will Shell balance “economic, environmental and social challenges”? Not very well, if the past is precedent.
On its website, Shell also champions deep-water drilling, a high-risk contributor to global warming:
Unlocking energy in the freezing, pitch-black waters kilometres below the ocean’s surface is a major technical challenge. Advanced technologies are also needed at the surface, where sea swell and storms hamper production platforms. But the vast resources of oil and gas that lie here hold great potential for supporting economic growth and helping to meet the world’s growing energy needs.
It is within the context of the avaricious continuation of fossil fuel exploration that Shell’s PR consultants attempt to transform its image into one of a planet-friendly company.
It is also within this context that Shell prevailed last year in reducing targets for conversion to renewable energy within EU nations, according to the information uncovered by The Guardian.
Shell had the help of the UK in achieving its self-serving slowdown of renewables in Europe. The UK, after all, has two reasons to side with Shell’s proposal: 1) It takes its lead on fossil fuels from the dominating partner in the Atlantic Alliance, the United States; and 2) BP, according to Forbes, is the second largest company in the UK. Moreover, although it is headquartered in the Netherlands, the Financial Times (FT) regards Royal Dutch Shell as incorporated in the UK and, as a result, the largest company in the UK (scroll down to the “UK 500 2014” – after opening the preceding hyperlink – and open the file to view the Royal Dutch Shell ranking in the UK by the FT). Regardless of whether Royal Dutch Shell is technically a UK company or not, it has long and deep ties to the UK. As in the US, such corporate wealth can buy you a whole lot of public policy, in this case promoted by BP’s fossil fuel colleague, Shell.
As The Guardian describes Shell’s role in the formation of the UK’s energy policy:
“Shell has a lot of clout in the UK, where they are very active in the policy debate,” a source close to the lobbying discussions said. “That is partly because the UK likes to have companies saying what the UK government wants to hear.”
The UK stood behind Shell and prevailed in how to implement the 2030 EU carbon reduction policy.
The result of Shell’s “market-led strategy of gas expansion” – as the Guardian calls it – is that the EU adopted a goal of reducing carbon emissions by 40 percent by 2030, but dramatically reduced the role of renewables in reaching that target.
As a result – given the indifference of the fossil fuel industry to global warming – the 40 percent figure appears to be more of a public relations gesture to provide the appearance of reducing climate change than an attainable objective.
Not to be reposted without permission of Truthout
Group hopes to kick-start wind and solar projects that have stalled because of uncertainty over the renewable energy target
A group of Melbourne councils are banding together to bypass the renewable policies of the state and federal governments and directly appeal to clean-energy providers.
In what could evolve into a national initiative to directly boost renewable energy uptake, the City of Melbourne, City of Maribyrnong and City Of Yarra will open a dialogue with clean energy producers ahead of a potential full tender process.
The trio of councils have partnered with businesses including Mirvac and Federation Square for the project. Renewable providers, such as solar and wind farms, will be asked whether they can supply the group’s combined 100GWh worth of energy at similar or lower cost than fossil fuel providers.
This 100GWh is the equivalent to around 250,000 solar panels or 15 wind turbines.
The consortium hopes to find renewable energy projects that are ready to proceed but have been hindered by uncertainty over the renewable energy target, which has seen investment in the sector grind to a virtual halt.
Victoria’s renewable energy industry has also been hit by severe restrictions on new wind farm developments, allowing states such as South Australia surge ahead of it in terms of clean energy.
By joining together, councils and businesses can offer a reliable demand for renewable providers to allow their projects to proceed, while at the same time potentially driving down the cost for users.
The City of Melbourne has a goal of zero net emissions by 2020. This target is supplemented by a goal of sourcing 25% of electricity from renewable sources by 2018. Just 5% of this target has been achieved via rooftop solar panels in Melbourne’s CBD, prompting the council to look to large-scale renewable projects in other parts of the state.
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City of Melbourne councillor Arron Wood said the new approach will help counteract the “worrying” renewable energy policies of both state and federal governments.
“We are literally going out to test the market and find out what the price is,” he told Guardian Australia. “Our hope is that they will be on a par with fossil fuels or cheaper, because then the business case becomes a no brainer because renewables are cheaper than fossil fuels in the long-term.
“There are certainly some worrying signs over the state government’s attitude to renewable energy. There are genuine business opportunities for the state and we’re saying we’re open for business for renewable energy.
“There’s been the removal of the carbon price and uncertainty over the RET, meaning that in quick time a $1bn industry has ground to a halt. We can demonstrate a model that isn’t just a purchase of green energy, it can drive investment in new renewable energy.”
Wood said he expected other councils in Melbourne and across Australia to look closely at the concept in order to bolster renewable uptake. The City of Sydney, for example, has a 30% renewable energy target by 2030.
“Most metropolitan councils in Australia have a renewable energy target,” he said. “Cities are well set-up to band together for large-scale renewable generation. I feel many of them would be interested in this.”
WestWind, a German wind farm developer that has two approved projects in western Victoria, said it welcomed the initiative.
Tobi Geiger, managing director of WestWind, said there should be plenty of interest from solar and wind providers.
“I’d say there are around 10 projects in Victoria that would go for it, predominantly wind because we are blessed with wind all year round in Victoria,” he told Guardian Australia.
“We’ve had to wind back activities quite dramatically because of uncertainty over the future of the RET. We’ve been Abbott-proofing our company by looking at opportunities in renewable energy that don’t require government support.
“I think this kind of partnership will do well as long as we have a recalcitrant government. There’s a lack of government leadership so councils are stepping into the vacuum. The more Neanderthals that go back to fossil fuels, the more of these things we’ll see.”
The rural village of Feldheim, 80 kilometres south of Berlin, is at the vanguard of Germany’s energy revolution, boasting a wind farm, solar plant, biogas and biomass facilities.
Germany is undergoing an energy transformation called Energiewende, which aims to reduce carbon emissions, increase the use of renewable energy, and stop all nuclear power.
Feldheim is the country’s first community to become completely energy self-sufficient.
The village now attracts thousands of ecotourists every year and has set up an educational group to spread the word.
The New Energy Forum’s Kathleen Thompson told the ABC it all started back in 1995.
“A student by the name of Michael Raschemann decided as part of his studies he’d like to install some wind farms,” she said.
With the support of local council, Feldheim’s 145 residents were quickly convinced of the wind farm’s merits.
One of those residents is 73-year-old Joachim Gluck, who has lived in the village his whole life.
“There wasn’t much headwind … the project was done in open discussions at resident’s meetings. Everyone was allowed to voice his or her opinion,” he said.
Residents were invited to join a limited company to manage the wind farm in which they contributed 3,000 euros each.
Mr Raschemann founded a company, Energiequelle, which planned and implemented the project.
The wind farm now has 47 turbines, which produce 175 million kilowatt hours of electricity every year.
The town of Feldheim uses just one per cent of that, the rest is sold back into the wider grid.
Residents and businesses now pay a third less for their electricity than other German communities, at 16.5 eurocents per kilowatt hour.
The biggest local business is the agricultural cooperative which produces milk, pig meat and grains.
After the success of the wind farm, the cooperative, in partnership with Energiequelle, built a biogas plant to use manure and silage to heat the village.
The plant cost nearly 2 million euros and much of that was provided by government subsidies.
It has cut heating costs and saved the import of 160,000 litres a year.
The partnership has also built a solar farm with 10,000 modules, which has an annual output of 3,000 megawatts.
The town does not waste a thing, with a small woodchip heating plant burning timber by-products from nearby forests.
Mr Gluck said the big energy groups fought against Feldheim’s transformation.
“The permit process took longer than the actual building process,” he said.
But that has not deterred the villagers from new projects.
They are now spending 13 million euros on battery storage, which will help with consistency of supply.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-11-05/citizens-of-berlin-move-to-return-power-to-the-people/5868236
An Australian company which invented a renewable energy electricity generator says it was forced to move its operation to Germany because of a lack of opportunities in Australia.
Power production from renewables has tripled in Germany within the past decade, mostly from wind and solar.Last year, renewables accounted for 24 per cent of the country’s electricity.The German government introduced generous subsidies to kick-start the sector, amounting to 16 billion euros last year.But the government claims the program has already saved billions in fuel costs for the heavily import-reliant country.
“We have created new businesses worth 40 billion euros per year,” Ecologic Institute analyst Andreas Kraemer said.
“We have created additional employment for up to 400,000 people. They all pay taxes, they all pay social security charges.”German households and small business pay the largest share for the renewable turnaround.They pay around 29 euro cents per kilowatt hour and much of that goes towards a renewable energy surcharge.Big industrial users are exempt from the surcharge and pay just 3.5 cents per kilowatt hour.Most of the subsidies are spent on first-generation solar and wind parks that are locked in high feed-in tariffs of over 40 cents per kilowatt hour for the next 20 years.But there are calls to phase them out all together.
The makeup of the German energy market already looks very different, with hundreds of companies and cooperatives being formed in a decentralised industry.While banks, industry, and project developers own 40 per cent of renewable installations, farmers and private investors own half.A number of new investment vehicles have formed to take advantage of the new industry.Crowd funding start up Bettervest has financed 14 projects since its inception a year ago.Company spokesman Julien Schroder-Gianoncelli said investors are attracted by the projects and the returns.”We are offering 5-10 per cent in interest, which is pretty good at the moment,” he said.
Ceramic Fuel Cells believes Germany’s regulations, incentives and market make it the place to be.Mr Obernitz said that, for the time being at least, there are no incentives available in Australia.”I’m not sure if that is going to change,” he said.”We would favour that because we have invented the technology in Australia, and it’s something that will change the world.”
olddogthoughts 