Clean Futures

Government tries to subvert ARENA again!

roman April 5, 2022

On Monday last week, an earlier iteration of controversial regulations issued to ARENA – that sought to redirect its funding to non-renewable energy technologies were cancelled out by the federal senate.

The cancellation occurred after a senate oversight committee deemed the regulations to be unlawful, and inconsistent with ARENA’s legislated aims to only fund renewable energy technologies.

However, before the end of the week, federal energy minister Angus Taylor had issued a replacement set of regulations that again sought to have ARENA’s funding redirected to the government’s preferred technologies, including carbon capture and storage and fossil hydrogen production.

The new regulations tie the types of technologies that ARENA may fund to a definition of “clean energy technologies” included within legislation establishing a separate agency, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation.

The regulations create an unusual situation where one body, the board of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, is able to define which “low emissions technologies” ARENA will be able to fund.

An explanatory statement included with the latest set of regulations stated that the Morrison government intends to ensure ARENA could fund non-renewable energy technologies.

“The Regulations provides ARENA with the necessary authority to deliver any non-renewable elements of the programs, supporting emissions reductions through broader clean energy technologies such as energy efficiency and non?renewable low-emission technologies,” the explanatory statement said.

The Clean Energy Finance Corporation is, however, explicitly prohibited from investing in nuclear projects and carbon capture and storage projects under its legislation.
More details: “No prohibitions”: Renewables funds can be spent on fossil hydrogen and CCS, officials say

Clean Futures, Old_Notes

Fossil fuels must go: IPCC

roman April 5, 2022

The central role that renewable energy technologies will play in keeping global warming within safe limits has been detailed in the latest working group report of the IPCC, published on Tuesday, which made a clarion call for “immediate and deep emissions reductions”.

It said these are necessary across all sectors of the global economy to stem rising greenhouse gas levels, and keep a global warming limit of 1.5 degrees within reach.

According to the IPCC, wind and solar technologies can deliver the most extensive potential cuts to greenhouse gas emissions by replacing fossil fuels in the global energy system, dwarfing the potential contribution of more costly technologies like carbon capture and storage.

“Large contributions with costs less than US$20 per tonne CO2 come from solar and wind energy, energy efficiency improvements, reduced conversion of natural ecosystems and methane emissions reductions,” the report says.

The IPCC said the dramatic reductions in the cost of wind, solar and battery storage technologies over the last decade meant they were already commercially viable and would be the key to decarbonising most of the world’s energy systems.

CSIRO adjunct science leader, and one of the co-authors of the report, professor Tommy Wiedmann, said these achievements made it possible for the world to halve greenhouse gas emissions by the end of the decade.

“Since 2010, the cost for renewable energy technology has fallen dramatically. Solar power is now 87 per cent cheaper, wind 55 per cent and batteries are now 85 per cent cheaper than ten years ago. The capacity of renewable energy installed has exceeded previous expectations,” professor Wiedmann told a media briefing.
“The IPCC report says that greenhouse gas emissions can be halved by 2030, which is what we need to achieve the Paris goals.”

“This can be done. It can be done with solar and wind replacing fossil fuel energy.

Clean Futures, Climate, Old_Notes

Victoria joins NSW in saying no to “Coalkeeper”

roman September 23, 2021

Federal energy minister Angus Taylor’s plans to introduce a new capacity market mechanism that would favour legacy coal generators appears in tatters after Victoria joined New South Wales in rejecting the idea dubbed “Coalkeeper.”

The opposition from the two key states – and the two biggest state grids in the country – comes ahead of a key meeting of federal and state energy ministers next Friday, and leaves the market unsure what, if any, new rules will be agreed in the Post2025 design being co-ordinated by the Energy Security Board.

The proposals for the “physical retail reliability option” have been described as “technology neutral” by Taylor and the ESB, but the market is convinced that they would effectively pay coal and gas generators paid to remain open, and Victorian energy minister Lily D’Ambrosio said she would have none of that.

“Victoria wants to reassure investors in wind and solar farms and storage such as giant batteries that it will not adopt any mechanism within the NEM that undermines the state’s ambition to cut carbon emissions,” D’Ambrosio said in a statement.
— Michael Mazengarb & Giles Parkinson, reneweconomy, Sept 17th for the full story

Clean Futures, Old_Notes, Renewables

Premier Marshall should stand up for our State

roman July 5, 2021

David Noonan, a Voice of the No Dump Alliance writes:

Premier Marshall should stand up for our State:

Reject the federal Liberal’s unlawful, unfair, unsafe and unnecessary nuclear waste dump plan for SA

Premier Stephen Marshall must stand up for South Australia’s interests and push back on federal Liberal government imposition of an unlawful nuclear waste dump in our State.

The Premier has a duty to respect and uphold the law in SA that prohibits the import, transport, storage and disposal of nuclear waste in our State.

The NUCLEAR WASTE STORAGE FACILITY (PROHIBITION) ACT 2000 was passed by the SA Parliament under the leadership of Liberal Premier John Olsen and strengthened by Labor Premier Mike Rann:

The objects of this Act are to protect the health, safety and welfare of the people of South Australia and to protect the environment in which they live by prohibiting the establishment of certain nuclear waste storage facilities in this State.

As Premier you should give all South Australian’s a Say and take action to instigate a required public inquiry into the impacts of a nuclear waste storage facility on the environmental and socio-economic wellbeing of this State.

The NUCLEAR WASTE STORAGE FACILITY (PROHIBITION) ACT 2000, Section 14 states:

If a licence, exemption or other authority to construct or operate a nuclear waste storage facility in this State is granted under a law of the Commonwealth, the Environment, Resources and Development Committee of Parliament must inquire into, consider and report on the likely impact of that facility on the environment and socio-economic wellbeing of this State.

The Port of Whyalla is targeted for shipments of ANSTO nuclear fuel waste and communities along proposed nuclear waste transport routes across our State all have a right to have a Say.

Nuclear waste dumping is a Human Rights issue for our fellow Indigenous South Australian’s. As… Read more >>

Clean Futures, Nuclear

Australia needs to deal with the “facts and the reality” of the changing energy system — Audrey Zibelman, AEMO

roman October 21, 2020

The outgoing head of the Australian Energy Market Operator, Audrey Zibelman, says Australia needs to deal with the “facts and the reality” of the changing energy system, and not get bogged down by the politics of energy that questions whether the grid should be transitioning or not.

In her first interview since announcing her end-of-year departure from AEMO … Zibelman tells RenewEconomy’s Energy Insiders podcast that technology change is unavoidable, not political.

Zibelman also reveals AEMO’s key role in a new global partnership – the Global Power System Transformation Consortium – that brings together six leading energy system operators from Australia, the US and Europe with the aim of “fomenting a rapid clean energy transition at unprecedented scope and scale.”

Zibelman says the sharing of knowledge and experience was the key goal of the new consortium that includes independent system operators (ISOs) from Australia, California, Texas, Ireland, Denmark, and the UK, all of whom are at the leading edge of the clean energy transition.

It also involves key global financial institutions such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, as well as research groups such as Australia’s CSIRO, Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute, Imperial College London, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in the US. It intends to share its information with grid operators in developing countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa.

“It’s actually a collaborative that’s made up of five of the six of the power system operators around the world to have more than 50 percent renewables in their mix,” Zibelman tells the Energy Insiders podcast.

“We’re looking at these issues around how do we integrate these resources better …. so that we can work together and solve these problems.”

Zibelman did not say much more about the Global PST Consortium, before its official launch next week, but its website shows that it appears to be more than just a collaboration and sharing of information.

Clean Futures