"EV fast-charging network to roll out in Australia after funding boost"

Tritium’s 350kW high power chargers, branded for roll-out in the European Ionity network, RenewEconomy.

“A high-powered, industry-based effort to bring Australia up to speed on electric vehicles, by building its first nationally coordinated EV fast charging network, is set to be realised, after receiving a major funding boost this week.

The plan to build the national electric vehicle highway is being led by Fast Cities Australia and is closely linked to the deep pockets of Rich Lister and energy entrepreneur Trevor St Baker.

Fast Cities said on Friday that it had secured a $7 million investment from St Baker’s Energy Innovation Fund – allowing work to begin on the project, which it believes will give Australian EV drivers, fleet owners and manufacturers the confidence to go electric......”

Read more: EV fast-charging network to roll out in Australia after funding boost. RenewEconomy, July 27, 2018.

See also:

- Phase 1 of Queensland’s fast-charging EV network is complete.
- Some current electric vehicle (EV) buying incentives in Australia.

- The NRMA is installing a large network of EV fast-charging infrastructure over 95% of its members’ road trips in NSW.

Australian window shade maker installs a 800kW rooftop solar system.

Hunter Douglas' solar PV. (Source: One Step off the Grid)

“Sydney-based window furnishings company Hunter Douglas has become one of the latest Australian manufacturers to invest in a solar power system, to cut costs and boost their business’s sustainability.”

“According to the company’s website, the 2080 panel system will generate 29,955,000kWh of power a year – enough to power 4,608 Australian homes and abate 24,862 tonnes of CO2 emissions.”

“”This installation is notable for the cutting edge technology that we have chosen, and its cost effectiveness which will see it pay back the investment in a little over four years,” said Tony Politis, Hunter Douglas managing director for Australia and New Zealand.”

Read more: Australian window shade maker taps solar with 800kW rooftop rooftop PV system. One Step off the Grid, July 19, 2018.

Can we replace plastic or steel with bamboo products?

A bamboo tray at the Eden Project, Cornwall, UK. (photo Julie May)

There are over a thousand species of bamboo (Gigantocholoa), a primitive grass growing in a variety of forms from tiny dwarfs to towering tropical giants. The tropical giant bamboo (Dendrocalamus asper) is the fastest growing plant on the planet, recorded growing 1.2m skywards in 24 hours! Not only does bamboo grow fast, it begins growing again immediately after harvesting. A sustainable product easily replaced.

Gigantocholoa is a tropical to subtropical plant. The distribution of bamboo in general ranges from 50°N of Sakhalin in north Japan to 47°S in Chile. It occurs in altitudes up to 4,000m, from the warm humid tropics to the cold areas of northern Japan.

Common Uses:

• Bamboo is one of the most versatile plants on earth, useful for its lightweight strength, which comes from its hollow stems, for its ease of working and for its simple beauty.
• It is used by half the world’s people in thousands of products from huge skyscraper scaffolding to tiny gramophone needles and from slide rules to skins of aeroplanes. It can be used to start a cooking fire in a wet rainforest and its ashes can be used to polish jewels and manufacture electric batteries. It has made bicycles, windmills, musical instruments, kitchen utensils, paper, clothing, scales and walls strong enough to resist flood and tide, and bridges up to 260m long in China.
• Bamboo is suited to low-technology processing, as well as industrial manufacturing techniques. It is an ideal building material for low-cost, low-impact, earthquake-resistant housing projects.
• Within its stem walls short, tough fibres sit in a resilient softer matrix providing nature’s version of fibreglass. It has great tensile strength, splits straight and is very hard. You can grow your own house from bamboo every five years.
• The young shoots of Gigantocholoa are eaten as a vegetable.

Read more: Bamboo. The Eden Project: https://www.edenproject.com/learn/for-everyone/plant-profiles/bamboo

China is quickly moving away from coal and oil use for energy and transport

Part of China's huge Gansu wind farm (source TheFifthEstate)

China is using market forces to switch from coal to renewable electricity; for transport it is encouraging both ethanol as a fuel, and electric vehicles.

For nine consecutive days, the 5.6 million inhabitants of China’s Qinghai Province, and their factories and municipal lighting did not rely on coal-fired electricity but on clean energy. From midnight on 20 June to midnight on 28 Jun, the state grid supplied electricity from water, wind and sun power achieving zero emissions - a record. Most of that power came from hydroelectricity.

China is throwing off its dirty coal image faster than any thought possible. In 2017, clean energy generation and installed capacity exceeded 50 per cent of all power generation in the five southern provinces Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou and Hainan, which contain 215 million people.

The clean energy revolution is also sweeping through the Chinese transport sector.

China accounted for more than half of the 1.2 million electric vehicles sold worldwide in 2017. The government has put in measures to trace all the lithium-ion batteries for recycling. China is considering a ban on the production and sale of fossil fuel cars in a major boost to the production of electric vehicles as Beijing seeks to ease pollution. They have not put a date on this ban as yet.

More petrol is also to be replaced by biofuels. Promoting the use of ethanol petrol for vehicles is a national strategic initiative to tackle air pollution from particulate matter and carbon monoxide, with a ban for all petrol based cars to use it from 2020 but it has been thrown into doubt by the current trade dispute with the USA since it could affect supplies of raw materials such as corn.

Read more: China is fast moving its energy and transport away from coal and oil. TheFifthEstate, July 10, 2018.
See also in this blog: China’s solar surge hits new heights. December 2017.

Berlin’s e-cargo bike subsidy exhausted in one day

An e-cargo bike, Germany. Photo: DPA (Source TheLocal.de)

The Berlin €90,000 budget for individuals to buy electric bikes built to help carry objects or other people has been completely exhausted in one day, the Senate Department for Transport reported. There is a further budget of €110,000 for commercial and community organisations wanting to apply for e-cargo bike subsidies.

The state government wants to win over more road users to make the switch to “environmentally friendly, quiet and space-saving” bicycles. The e-cargo bikes can handle situations where a car previously seemed indispensable. Parcel and other services are also looking for alternatives to stinking, large delivery vans, such as the e-cargo bike.

A desire to go green has been key to the rise of electric and manual cargo bikes in a country where dozens of smog-choked cities are considering diesel driving bans to combat air pollution. Berlin joins a growing group of German cities, counties and federal states that are supporting the switch to environmentally friendly transport options. These include Munich, Heidelberg, Regensburg, Bamberg and Baden-Württemberg.

Read more:
Berlin buyers exhaust EV cargo bike funding in just one day. RenewEconomy, July 10, 2018.
Pedal power: the rise and rise of cargo bikes in Germany. TheLocal.de, May 2, 2018.
European Cycle Logistics Program Symposium in Berlin. April 13, 2018.

See also in this blog: Copenhagen’s bicycle culture.

Australia's chief scientist says we can be a world leader in energy storage.

Australia has the most MW of storage = navy bar graph (source RenewEconomy)

A new study led by chief scientist Alan Finkel has emphasized Australia’s role as a leader in the home battery storage sector, and says Australia can, and should, be a leader of energy storage of all types, including renewable hydrogen as an export opportunity.

The two most mature energy storage technologies in Australia are pumped hydro and lithium-ion batteries. There are other storage technologies being explored or adopted, such as renewable hydrogen, solar thermal, electrical thermal and flow batteries.

Battery technology is improving such that it can be used to provide back-up electricity if there is not enough power generation to meet demand. Batteries also play a crucial role in stabilizing the grid by helping to keep a constant frequency. Large-scale batteries and virtual power plants from home battery storage are starting to perform these roles.

One advantage of batteries is that once installed as small units they can be added to as needs and funds arise. Also, they can be installed close to where they are needed, reducing the transmission costs. In some cases, batteries can save investment costs by avoiding the need to upgrade power lines in cities and similarly support the large grid at its extremities without new lines.

Read more:
Finkel says Australia can, and should, be world leader in energy storage. RenewEconomy, July 6, 2018.
Taking charge: the energy storage opportunity for Australia. Office of the Chief Scientist - Occasional Paper, July 2018.
Also in this blog:
SA’s big Tesla battery goes full discharge (100MW) …... December 2017.
Australia’s biggest solar farm switches on …... (Including solar thermal storage). May 2018.
...Hydrogen as a storage of renewable energy for export. October 2017.
Australian virtual power plants to date.

World’s first power hub with wind + solar + battery storage

Tesla batteries arrive for world's first large-scale solar, wind, battery power hub (RenewEconomy)

The first Tesla Powerpack batteries have arrived on site in north Queensland, ready to be installed at what will be the world’s first grid-connected project combining large scale wind, solar and battery storage. The first stage of the Kennedy Energy Hub by Windlab will comprise 43.5MW of wind, 15MW of solar and 4MWh of the Tesla Powerpack 100kWh batteries. The hub is under construction and operations will begin in late 2018.

"This energy hub – located between Townsville and Mt Isa – will demonstrate the effectiveness of wind and solar working together, and how battery storage can play a critical role in smoothing out and shifting supply."

While the first stage of the Kennedy Energy Hub is world-leading, the potential of the overall project is massive. Windlab has previously talked of its plans for “Big Kennedy”, potentially combining 600MW of wind and 600MW of solar, which along with storage would be able to deliver “baseload” renewables at a far lower price than any new coal-fired generator that some have called for. This also has huge money-making potential like what the big battery in South Australia has already achieved.

Read more at: Tesla batteries arrive for world’s first wind-solar-battery project. RenewEconomy, June 29, 2018.

New transparent solar PV glass has huge energy making potential

A building such as the Shard, centre, could generate 2,500MW/yr if fitted with Polysolar panels (photo: Julie May)

Polysolar glass panels, from Cambridge UK, are based on a range of thin-film PV technologies. One panel measuring 1,200mm by 600m can generate an average of 5kWh of power per month – equivalent to half an average home’s power consumption per day.

“The panels have already been installed in certain spots around the UK, for instance, in the first solar-powered bus shelter in Canary Wharf, London…...They have also been deployed in a domestic setting, having been installed as part of a garage roof and workshop in a trial that saw the panels meet the complete power needs of the owner’s home and electric car.”

“While not the first company to target windows capable of harvesting solar energy for commercial use, Polysolar believes it has cracked the problem of creating functional PV film that doesn’t distort, tint or dim natural light.” The company is looking for funding.

Read more at: Solar panel glass could turn skyscrapers into power stations. Power Technology, June 8, 2018.