Home: Renewable Energy News: Wednesday 25 June, 2008

Renewable Energy News

WEDNESDAY 25 JUNE, 2008 |

Brumby sees the light after solar tour

The future looks bright for Victoria’s solar industry after Premier John Brumby indicated that four solar power plants capable of powering 200,000 homes could be built in the state over the next ten years.

He also flagged an increase of solar energy share in Victoria’s mandatory renewable energy target, possibly 2.5 percent of the total 10 percent by 2016.

"If we set the 2.5% target, that will lead to a very high degree of interest (from companies) … you'll see a rush of activity," he said.

Premier Brumby made the comments in the US during a visit to the Ausra Incorporated solar thermal plant, located in the Nevada desert, which was founded by former Sydney University solar energy researcher, Dr David Mills.

Development of a $420 million 154-megawatt solar power station in the Victoria’s north-west is already under way and Mr Brumby said he could "foresee another three or four plants of that potential size and scale over the next decade".

The solar plant, near Mildura, is being built by TRUenergy and Melbourne company Solar Systems. With a completion date of 2013, the plant is expected to provide enough green power for 45,000 homes.

Mr Brumby said Victoria had excellent prospects for solar power, particularly in the north and north-west, and large industrial users in the western suburbs could benefit from the technology.

"I really want to push this through, and we're seeing just great opportunities," he said, adding that he would like work to begin on another solar plant in Victoria within two years.

Mr Brumby, along with Queensland premier Anna Bligh visited solar manufacturing plants and attended a conference on alternative energy in the US last week. They have also announced a joint grant of $680,000 for the development of a “solar map” of Victoria and Queensland, which would identify optimum locations for solar energy plants in the future.

"CALL TO ARMS": global warming accelerating

Over 200 of Australia’s leading climate scientists and environment activists have issued a “call to arms” in the battle against global warming, saying that the effects of climate change are accelerating more rapidly than predicted.

In a joint statement released by delegates attending the 2008 Manning Clark House Conference on Climate Change in Canberra, scientists warned that neglecting energy efficiency and failing to invest in renewable energy solutions like wind and solar technology will “risk huge human and societal costs and perhaps even the effective end of industrial civilisation.”

Professor Barry Brook from the Research Institute for Climate Change and Sustainability at the Adelaide University, helped draft the statement and said climate change will soon become irreversible unless dramatic action is taken now.

"The first key message is we really haven't got much longer to go before the problem is taken out of our hands," he said.

“One good example is the arctic ice in the summer, it continues to melt at a record rate, the arctic is getting hotter. Now once that happens on a large scale then there will be nothing we can do to stop the warming continuing.”

The statement also says that the obstacles to change are not technical or economic, that they are political and social.

"We mean that the technologies to do this are available. The technologies to implement energy efficiency and also to really scale up rapidly our use for renewable energy such as solar and wind," he said.

It was frustrating to see such inaction on renewable power sources given the dire consequences climate change will wreak on society. “They're (solar energy sources and wind power) available, so the technical know-how is there. It's not even an economic argument,” Professor Brooks said.

He urged the federal government to implement a carbon trading scheme, which would force polluting industries to innovate and lower the cost of renewable energy.

Australia’s solar industry been seriously damaged recently by changes to the solar panel rebate. The federal government is now considering monitoring its decision to means test rebates for home solar systems, after lobbying from the renewable energy industry and solar advocates.

IBM pushes solar PV technology envelope

As fuels prices and energy costs surge around the world, the spotlight is fixed on the future of alternative energy sources, particularly solar photovoltaic technology. As the twin realities of climate change and peak oil become ever more apparent, big companies are quietly shifting focus and making preparations for weathering the coming storm.

As the solar photovoltaic field grows around the world, more companies are becoming involved and investing in renewable energy.

Evidence of the movement away from more traditional investments is technology giant IBM’s joining of forces with semiconductor process company Tokyo Ohka Kogyo (TOK), to find ways of making solar power technology more efficient and more affordable.

The partnership will concentrate on production of high-power thin-film solar cells. IBM will lend its manufacturing expertise to the process while TOK uses its LCD panel coating experience from the semiconductor industry. They hope to produce copper-indium-gallium-selenide (CIGS) cells that can turn more than 15% of sunlight into power - a significant improvement on the 6%-12% efficiency that current solar CIGS makers have achieved.

The two companies claim they can create techniques will double the effectiveness of solar modules.

However they have no plans to enter the solar module manufacturing industry, but
hope to sell licenses to technological breakthroughs to other solar cell developers.

IBM Research's Supratik Guha refused to put a specific figure on the sales of new thin-film solar technology, he described the market potential as huge.

“We've already been in discussions with photovoltaic manufacturers,” Mr Guha said.

“There are problems to be resolved, but this is the time we're starting to talk to them.”

CIGS solar cells are much thinner than the majority of those on the market today, which use silicon to convert sunlight into electricity. Silicon solar cells make up 90% of the solar photovoltaic market worldwide and produce more electricity than CIGS cells.

Mr Guha said that the development of CIGS solar technology provided more opportunities for growth.

“Traditional silicon is a very mature field already, the scope for dramatic improvement is probably not there,” he said. “We felt that this is where we could make a bigger impact.”

News for Tuesday 17 June, 2008