CEFC passes 1GW big solar milestone In Australia

Majura Solar Farm, Canberra (photo Julie May)

The Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC), set up by the Australian Government, has reached 1GW of large-scale solar energy investment across the country.

The CEFC announced the major milestone on Friday 15 December, alongside its latest investments in the 110MW Wemen Sun Farm near Mildura in Victoria, and the 90MW Clermont Solar Farm west of Rockhampton in Queensland..

“With these latest commitments, the CEFC has invested in 20 large-scale solar projects since 2013, becoming Australia’s largest solar investor, supporting projects across Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia,” the CEFC said in a statement on Friday.

Read more at: CEFC passes 1GW big solar milestone, after backing two new projects. By Sophie Vorrath, RenewEconomy, December 15, 2017.

Australian red meat sector sets 2030 carbon neutral target

Beef cattle (photo Julie May)

Research and marketing group, Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) has funded a CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) research project to identify ways the industry could become carbon neutral. After a year of study, the managing director, Richard Norton, announced that the industry could become carbon neutral by 2030. He was addressing the MLA annual general meeting in Alice Springs on November 22, 2017.

According to MLA, potential strategies for reaching the target will include offsetting emissions with carbon farming, genetic selection and a potential vaccine to reduce methane production. Expanding the use of legumes and dung beetles in pastures could also be used to offset emissions.

Read more at: Australian red meat sector sets 2030 carbon neutral target at Alice Springs producer forum. ABC News, November 22, 2017.

SA's big Tesla battery goes full discharge (100MW) for first time

South Australia's Tesla battery (Hornsdale Power reserve) readings (RenewEconomy). 

The largest lithium-ion battery in the world to date (100MW/129MWh), a Tesla, was officially switched on Friday 1 December, 2017, in South Australia. Then on Wednesday, December 13, it discharged its maximum capacity of 100MW during a heatwave. The battery is a back-up for the large amount of renewable energy in the state.

The injection of 100MW into the grid from what is known to the market as the Hornsdale Power Reserve, occurred just before midday (NEM-time). It followed some charging overnight and a brief spurt of discharging and charging earlier in the morning. The battery receives electricity from Neoen’s Hornsdale wind farm, near Jamestown in South Australia.

Read more from RenewEconomy: Tesla big battery goes the full discharge - 100MW - for first time. By Giles Parkinson, December 14, 2017.
Also: What is the Tesla big battery actually selling? It is not just energy. RenewEconomy, December 13, 2017.

China's solar surge hits new heights

A 40 MW floating solar farm in China's Anhui province. (Sungrow Power Supply)

“It's no secret China has been installing solar panels at a record-breaking rate—it's been happening for years now. But in 2017 China took its solar drive even further, deploying more PV capacity in one year than any other country has—or at least had at end of 2016.

Last week, Bloomberg New Energy Finance revised upwards its projection for new solar capacity in China, taking it from the pretty impressive 30GW it forecast in July to a gargantuan 54GW. It appears that China exceeded BNEF's initial estimate for the year in just the first nine months (34.5GW).

That latest figure compares favorably to every other country's total solar capacity—topping the 40GW the U.S. had in place at the end of last year. In fact, with the Solar Energy Industries Association expecting 12.4GW of new solar in the U.S. this year, if China does meet BNEF's projection then it will have outstripped total U.S. solar capacity with just one year of new additions…."

Read more from EcoWatch: China's Solar Surge Hits New Heights. By Zachary Davies Boren, Unearthed. November 28, 2017.

Turning prawn shells into plastic

Angelina Arora with her plastic made from prawn shells (photo by L. Kennerley)

Having already worked with degradable plastics, chemistry student Angelina Arora from Sydney Girls High School, Australia, experimented with discarded seafood wastes she collected from a fish and chip shop. She came up with a strong, light, biodegradable plastic.

This is using a plentiful, renewable source of waste organic material to make biodegradable plastic, instead of using fossil fuels. The plastic could be a sustainable form of shopping bags and possibly other plastics that may not harm the environment by hopefully being totally biodegradable.

Source: Turning prawns into plastic: schoolgirl Angelina Arora fights science stereotypes. By Liam Mannix, The Sydney Morning Herald, 9 Dec 2017.
Postscript: Indian-origin student wins Australia's top Science and Engineering Award. SBS Your Language, March 8, 2018.

German wind power beats hard coal + nuclear for the first time

Power generated this year by onshore and offshore wind in Germany exceeded the amount of electricity coming from hard coal and nuclear plants for the first time, the Fraunhofer ISE institute (Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems) said on its website.

Hard coal production was paused in preference for lignite production, which is dirtier but cheaper to run. Nuclear production went offline for extended periods.

German onshore and offshore wind power has an installed capacity of about 54 gigawatts -- outstripping all other main sources of power capacity. About 46 percent of Germany’s generation came from wind farms on Thursday, 23 November 2017, according to Wind Power Europe.

Read full article from Bloomberg Technology. By Brian Parkin, 25 Nov 2017.

From garbage to energy at the Woodlawn Bioreactor, NSW.

This old mine pit is used to collect methane gas from garbage to run electricity generators (photo Julie May)

The Woodlawn zinc and copper mine was shut in 1998 (although the mine has reopened this year). The original mine left a large pit which Veolia (Australia and New Zealand) uses to store garbage from Sydney. The garbage is covered with soil and methane gas made from the bacterial decomposition of plant and animal matter is collected, then used to run 7 landfill gas engines (92% of the methane is captured). This bioreactor started operation in 2004.

For every tonne of waste deposited at the facility, 1.33 megawatts of clean electricity can be produced. Since opening, over 4.1 Mt of waste has been processed most of which has been used to generate green electricity.

Although burning methane has carbon dioxide as a waste product, it is 21% more potent than CO2 as a greenhouse gas, so overall greenhouse gas effects are reduced. In addition, electricity is made from waste, a renewable resource, and production is 24/7 so it is base load power.

The landfill gas engines (photo Julie May)

Other sustainable and energy saving mechanisms and products are employed:

• The garbage is compressed into containers at two highly efficient rail transfer terminals in southern Sydney. Trains, on the original Sydney-Canberra line, carry the containers to Tarago where they are put on trucks for the short journey to Woodlawn.
• Waste heat from one gas turbine is used to warm the water of a barramundi fish farm. (Some of the fish are sold at the Belconnen Markets in nearby Canberra.)
• There is a new, separate 'waste to compost' facility, which separates out the organics from household waste to create compost and soil. The soil will be used to help rehabilitate mine tailings to grassland.
• The land supports a sheep farm which uses rotational grazing.
• The land also has 23 wind turbines owned by Infogen, producing 48MW.
• Soon the facility will have its own 2.5MW solar farm.

For more information see: Veolia's Woodlawn Bioreactor, NSW