2414+ Tesla Model 3 EVs in Australia with many more to come

Tesla Model 3 (Source: The Driven)

So far three cargo ships have docked in Australia and unloaded 2414 Tesla Model 3 electric cars. Most of these will be delivered in September and the sales will beat those of the nearest fossil fuel competitor.

Plus there are more on the way. Another three cargo ships have arrived late September, adding to the first 2,414 vehicles indicating that orders for the Model 3 in Australia are even higher than previously thought. In addition, more cargo ships have left Pier 80 at the Port of San Francisco and they too could be carrying Tesla Model 3s for New Zealand and Australia.

Read more: New data shows surge in right hand drive Model 3s, including Australia. The Driven, September 25, 2019.

Australian billionaire to support world’s largest solar farm for export and local use

Source:RenewEconomy

Billionaire, Mike Cannon-Brookes, and other Australian entrepreneurs have confirmed financial support of a $25 billion dollar plan to build a 3,000km undersea cable to export solar energy to Singapore and to supply Darwin. The power will come from a massive 10GW solar farm and a potential 20-30GWh storage facility at Tennant Creek, Northern Territory, Australia.

Beyond Zero Emissions (BZE) outlined the project last month which quickly attracted the attention of investment heavyweights including Cannon-Brookes. An earlier BZE report, “10 Gigawatt Vision for the Northern Territory” also recommended the production of renewable hydrogen (along with solar electricity) for export with the potential of creating many jobs and earning the Northern Territory $2 billion in renewables export revenue by 2030.

Read More:
- Cannon-Brookes confirms investment in world’s biggest solar project. RenewEconomy, September 25, 2019.
- The 10GW solar vision that could turn Northern Territory into economic powerhouse. RenewEconomy, June 20, 2019.

Some countries have a date to phase out coal and a few already have high percentages of renewables

The Nesjavellir Geothermal Power Plant in Þingvellir, Iceland (Wikipedia Commons)

“In order to limit warming to 1.5°C, coal needs to go from the world's electricity generation by 2050 and in OECD countries by 2030. With an average lifetime of 40 years, any new coal plant coming online is at risk of becoming a stranded asset, as the world implements the Paris Agreement.” (The Lowdown)

The following countries have made a commitment to phase out coal power by a certain date and take up more renewable energy for electricity: - Austria by 2020 - Chile by 2040 - Finland by 2029 - France by 2021 - Germany by 2038 - Italy by 2025 - Netherlands by 2029 - Portugal by 2030 - Slovakia by 2023 - Sweden by 2022 - United Kingdom by 2025. (The Lowdown interactive tool)

Many countries have not made a date for the phase out coal, some are increasing its use and others use different fossil fuels such as oil and gas for electricity.

However, a small number of countries already have high percentages of renewable energy. They include: Iceland 100%, Paraguay 100%, Costa Rica 99%, Norway 98.5%, New Zealand ~85%, Austria 80%, Brazil 75% and Denmark 69.4%. The main renewables in these countries are hydropower, wind, geothermal and solar.

References:

- The Lowdown v1.0, Climate Analytics: http://tools.climateanalytics.org/lowdown/ , accessed September 17, 2019.

- A 100% renewable grid isn’t just feasible, it’s already happening, RenewEconomy, May 23, 2018.

- Renewable energy New Zealand Environment Guide, accessed September 17, 2019.

Food waste eaten by fly larvae is making compost and then stock feed

Black Soldier Fly maggots – the key to solving food waste. CSIRO

It is well known that the life cycle of insects is from eggs to larvae to pupae to adults. It is the Black Soldier Fly larvae (maggots) that are of special interest as they consume food scraps. They are eating machines, turning scraps into compost at a very fast rate.

The start-up company Gottera, based in Canberra, Australia is processing five tonnes of food waste a day with these larvae. Goterra not only manages waste to compost it also sells the mature larvae, a rich source of protein, as stock feed. So far the maggots can be used by chicken and pork producers, zoos, fish bait suppliers and as an ingredient in aquaculture pellets but have much more potential.

Goterra is all about driving Australia towards a circular economy for food production. And breeding insects is critical to their vision. The original breeding research was done in partnership with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Canberra. CSIRO’s research helped Gottera breed the flies for effective results.

References:
- Sex lives of flies could be key to tackling food waste. CSIROscope, August 14, 2019.
- Waste-not the mantra of emerging maggot industry as larvae convert to protein. The Land, January 9, 2019.
- Gottera: https://www.goterra.com.au/.
- CSIRO Insect research: https://www.csiro.au/en/Research/Collections/ANIC/Insect-research

Wind and solar energy topped 41% on Australia’s main grid

 Sept 7 2019 NEM Generation, (OpenNEM resource, Climate and Energy College) 

On Saturday, September 7, 2019 wind and solar energy in Australia’s National Energy Market (NEM), covering the eastern states, reached a record level of 40.9% between 11 and 12 pm. A new record was also obtained for all renewables including hydro.

The renewable energy from the different states at this time were as follows:
- South Australia 111%, with excess being exported to Victoria
- Victoria 34%
- Queensland 43% solar, 1% wind
- Tasmania 100% with solar and wind 12.7%, the rest hydro
- New South Wales 34.8% (from OpenNEM-NSW)

References:
- Australia’s main grid hits new peak of 41 percent wind and solar. RenewEconomy, September 9, 2019.
- OpenNEM resource, Climate and Energy College.

“World first: Port of Auckland inks deal to buy first electric tugboat.”

Source: Damen Shipyards

“Ports of Auckland, the company which administers the freight and cruise ship harbour facilities for New Zealand’s largest city, announced on [August 5, 2019] that it has signed a contract with Dutch shipbuilding and engineering conglomerate Damen Shipyards to buy the world’s first full-sized, fully electric port tugboat.”

“The new tug – a Damen RSD-E Tug 2513 to be delivered in 2021 – will boast a 70-tonne bollard pull, the same as the Ports of Auckland’s strongest diesel tug, Hauraki, which was also built by Damen. Unlike a diesel tugboat, however, the coast of operating an electric tug is less than a third of the cost when compared to a diesel tug.”

““It was important to us that a new electric tug should be able to carry out normal port operations, just like our existing diesel tugs,” said Gibson. “Our new e-tug will be able to do three to four shipping moves on a full charge, or around three to four hours work (one shipping move takes an hour on average). A fast charge will take about two hours. This is just what we need.”

“The Ports of Auckland began investigating the role of electric, battery-powered tug’s back in 2016 when they made their commitment to be powered by zero emissions by 2040.”

Read more: “World first: Port of Auckland inks deal to buy first electric tugboat.” The Driven, August 6, 2019.

“Massive 3MW of solar installed on rooftop of Sydney logistics company”

Morebank Logisitcs Park's solar installation. (Source: One Step off the Grid)

“Another notably large commercial rooftop solar array has been completed in Sydney, this time a 3MW installation on the roof of the Moorebank Logistics Park, operated by diversified logistics and infrastructure provider, Qube. The completion of the solar rooftop, installed by Modcol, was announced on Monday by LG, which supplied the more the 7,500 PV panels for the project.”

“LG said the 3MW installation was expected to deliver around 4800MWh of energy per year, the equivalent of powering more than 7,300 homes…The PV system – once activated – would feed into a high-voltage embedded power network, meaning that the solar power it generated could be used by nearby warehouses or distributed to other parts of the precinct…The 400W LG NeON® 2 solar panel used in the installation are designed for commercial systems seeking an efficient use of space with great output efficiency.”

““During the next 25 years the Moorebank solar project is expected to result in net emission reductions of more than 1.2  million tons of CO2-e,” said Markus Lambert, LG Electronics Australia’s general manager of solar and energy.”

Read More:
- Massive 3MW of solar installed on rooftop of Sydney logistics company. One Step off the Grid, August 26, 2019.
- Qube Logistics: https://qube.com.au/