Home: Renewable Energy News: Thursday 05 November, 2009

Renewable Energy News

THURSDAY 05 NOVEMBER, 2009 |

Newsflash: COAG To Review Renewable Energy Certificate Market

Australia's RECs market COAG review
In news just in from Senator Penny Wong's office, an announcement has been made that a Council Of Australian Governments (COAG) review into the Federal Government’s Renewable Energy Target will consider factors that may be impacting upon the Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) market in the short and long term.

According to Senator Wong, the review will examine the current state of the RET spot market and whether it has any implications for the deployment of large-scale projects including wind and solar farms.

Senator Wong says that uncertainty regarding the establishment of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme could be harming the REC spot price, which has dropped dramatically since the beginning of this year. This has also cut rebates for consumers wishing to install residential solar power systems.

According to Max Sylvester of national solar power solutions provider Energy Matters, "While the REC value reductions didn't affect us so much as we hedged against such a thing happening and therefore can offer more generous rebates on home solar power systems, once our hedging arrangements are exhausted we'll face the same issue as the many providers who didn't."

However, the Senator's office states the significantly expanded targets under the RET begin on 1 January 2010, which will boost demand for RECs and growth in the renewable energy sector. The target will increase to 12,500 gigawatt-hours in 2010, up from 8,100 gigawatt-hours this year, strengthening the demand for RECs.

The price of RECs is currently dictated by the market, with price fluctuations depending on the supply of renewable energy and demand created through the Renewable Energy Target’s annual targets. Some in the renewable energy industry have said the number of RECs being generated as a result of incentives programs such as the solar hot water rebate are negatively impacting on REC prices.

$16.4 Million Green Building Fund Project Grants Announced

Green building fund solar projects
37 green building projects announced earlier this week by Senator Kim Carr, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, will cut greenhouse gas emissions by around 38,000 tonnes annually.

The $16.4 million worth of projects make up the third round of the $90 million Green Building Fund, a government initiative aiming to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions by retro-fitting commercial office buildings with technologies such as solar power.

The Green Building Fund is one of the many commercial solar power incentives available to Australian businesses large and small. Other programs include tax breaks, solar credits and feed in tariffs for businesses installing grid connect solar power systems.

Projected savings in greenhouse gas emissions from projects supported by the fund so far total over 101,000 tonnes a year according to Senator Carr and represent investment of almost $75 million out of the $90 million available under the program.

“By increasing energy efficiency, successful recipients are reducing their power bills along with their greenhouse emissions, and that means ongoing savings for business."

One of the projects to benefit from the latest round of funding is the redevelopment of a historic building in Port Adelaide, introducing electricity generation on site and incorporating a solar array that will export surplus power to the mains grid. Another project in Albury received over $120,000 to install a 20 kW grid connect solar power system

Senator Carr stated the next rounds for Streams A and B of the Green Building Fund program will close on 12 January 2010.

Solar Thermal Molten Salt Project For California

Solar thermal molten salt project
Rice Solar Energy, LLC, a subsidiary of Solar Reserve, has filed plans to construct and operate a large solar farm in Riverside County, California.

The proposed project will have the capability of producing approximately 450,000 megawatt hours of electricity annually, with a nominal net generating capacity of 150 megawatts.

The proposed facility will use concentrating solar power (CSP) technology and while that's nothing new, it will include a molten salt "battery".

Thousands of mirrors, known as heliostats, will focus the sun on a large receiver that contains a salt mixture - sodium nitrate and potassium nitrate. The molten salt will then be routed to an insulated storage tank where it can be stored with minimal energy losses. When electricity is to be generated, the liquefied salt flows through a steam generating system. The salt is then sent to the cold salt thermal storage tank and the cycle is repeated.

The stored energy in the salt can be extracted upon demand and produce electricity even when there is no sunlight, therefore allowing for a dependable baseload supply.

Another very important aspect is an air-cooled condenser (ACC) will eliminate water consumption for cooling the steam turbine exhaust. Unlike solar farms equipped with solar panels that use no water at all to generate electricity, water consumption issues have been the centre of controversy regarding solar thermal plants, particularly given their locations are usually in arid areas.

The company is negotiating with California electricity companies to buy the electricity generated and expects the solar farm to be operational by October 2013.