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Scans reveal how teenage brain develops
Animal welfare groups push US to classify all leopards as endangered
Conservationists are calling on the US to raise the protection level for leopards, severely curbing hunters’ ability to import body parts as trophies
Conservationists have demanded a crackdown on the import to the US of leopards killed by American hunters, in an attempt to replicate the protections introduced in the wake of the furore caused by the death of famed lion Cecil.
Related: Cecil the lion's legacy: death brings new hope for his grandcubs
Continue reading...China's coal peak hailed as turning point in climate change battle
Study by economists say achievement by world’s biggest polluter may be a significant milestone, rather than a blip
The global battle against climate change has passed a historic turning point with China’s huge coal burning finally having peaked, according to senior economists.
They say the moment may well be a significant milestone in the course of the Anthropocene, the current era in which human activity dominates the world’s environment.
Continue reading...RSPB calls for shooting estates to be licensed
Group says move would allow shoots to be banned if birds of prey are illegally killed, amid withdrawal from hen harrier scheme
Grouse shooting estates should be licensed so that authorities have the power to ban them if birds of prey are illegally killed, the RSPB has urged, as it quit a government initiative to save the hen harrier in England.
The hen harrier action plan is a Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs-led scheme in which landowners, shooting groups and conservation organisations agreed to work together to increase numbers of hen harriers in England.
Continue reading...Young people urge UK politicians to help safeguard nature
Two-thirds of 16- to 34-year-olds consider environmental and wildlife policies a top voting priority, according to survey
Almost nine out of 10 young people think it is important for politicians to take care of wildlife and the environment, according to a new poll.
Two-thirds of 16- to 34-year-olds agree the environment is a top voting priority for them, the CensusWide survey of 1,000 people of all ages revealed.
Continue reading...These are the best arguments from the 3% of climate scientist 'skeptics.' Really. | Dana Nuccitelli
Contrarian climate scientist Roy Spencer summed up the contrarian case for a fossil fuel and tobacco-funded think tank
When I give a presentation and mention the 97% expert consensus on human-caused global warming, I’m often asked, “what’s the deal with the other 3%?”. These are the publishing climate scientists who argue that something other than humans is responsible for the majority of global warming, although their explanations are often contradictory and don’t withstand scientific scrutiny.
A few months ago, the world’s largest private sector coal company went to court, made its best scientific case against the 97% expert consensus, and lost. One of coal’s expert witnesses was University of Alabama at Huntsville climate scientist Roy Spencer - a controversial figure who once compared those with whom he disagreed to Nazis, and has expressed his love for Fox News.
Continue reading...Solar subsidy cuts lead to loss of 12,000 jobs
UK loses third of solar posts as survey reveals almost four in 10 companies are considering leaving market entirely
More than 12,000 solar power jobs have been lost in the past year because of government subsidy cuts, according to the industry.
A third of solar jobs have been lost in the UK, found the report by PwC for the Solar Trade Association (STA), based on a survey of 238 companies, around 10% of the industry.
Burning coal for gas in UK seabeds would flame pollution, says report
Friends of the Earth condemns Coal Authority for granting licences for underground coal gasification at 19 UK sites
Plans to set fire to coal under the seabed at up to 19 sites around the UK would cause significant climate pollution, groundwater contamination and toxic waste, according to a report by environmentalists.
The UK government’s Coal Authority has granted licences for underground coal gasification (UCG) covering more than 1,500 sq km of seabed off north-east and north-west England, Wales and east central Scotland.
Continue reading...Why fossil fuel industry needs South Australia “experiment” to fail
Wildflower heaven in the west of Ireland
Iveragh Peninsula, County Kerry Roadsides are a riot of primary yellow, pinks and purples
This verdant isle is indeed a green gem, but for the visitor from eastern England the abundance of richly coloured flowers is the stand-out botanical feature of the west coast of Ireland.
Roadsides are a riot of primary yellow – bird’s foot trefoil, St John’s wort, ragwort and cat’s ear; pinks and purples – including common, bell and cross-leaved heather and whole hedges of fuchsia; whitish umbels of angelica, and big white and pink striped, flared trumpets of the roseata subspecies of large bindweed.
Continue reading...Wine without waste: De Bortoli aims to be Australia's first zero-waste winery
Solar energy, no sodium and organic fertiliser: how one of Australia’s biggest wineries is reducing waste while saving money and energy
One of Australia’s biggest family-owned wineries wants to become the country’s first zero-waste wine producer, and has invested more than $15m to achieve this goal.
De Bortoli Wines, which has wineries at four sites in two states, has already cut the amount of waste it disposes to landfill from 300 tonnes a year to 48 tonnes as part of a long-term sustainable business plan adopted in 2004.
Continue reading...Know your NEM: Volumes decline and price pressure eases
ZEN Energy wins $1m battery storage tender for SA govt buildings
Behind Vattenfall’s sell-off of German Lignite assets, a subsidy play by the buyers
New $100m solar fund to target large-scale, “blue chip” solar assets
Queensland 30MW solar farm green-lighted by council
Google’s DeepMind AI reduces data centre cooling bill by 40%
RN scientist in residence talks innovation and climate change
South Australia's electricity price woes are more due to gas than wind
Under a cloud: South Australia's wind farms have been blamed for price spikes, but without them the volatility would be even worse. Tim Phillips Photos/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SAThe past few weeks have seen extraordinarily high wholesale electricity prices in South Australia, averaging (as of 23 July) A$321 per megawatt hour, compared with A$80 per MWh for July 2015.
The prices have attracted an even more extraordinary deluge of news coverage – much of it asserting, with little or no evidence, that the high prices have been caused by an excessive reliance on wind generation.
This graph shows the wholesale prices in the National Electricity Market (NEM) since the beginning of July.
Looking at the graph, several things are apparent:
until the middle of May, SA prices were in line with those in other mainland NEM states, and almost never the highest
price spikes also happened in other states, most notably in Queensland, which doesn’t have wind power
prices in all four NEM states began to increase gradually from the middle of May.
In SA there is no long-term relationship between wholesale prices and the share of electricity supplied by wind, as shown below (comprehensive data on wind generation only date back to 2007). If anything, wind generation tends to drive down the wholesale price.
What does dictate electricity prices?In the NEM, just as in any complex market, prices are determined by a combination of many different factors. The factors that may have affected SA’s prices this month include:
the level of demand for electricity
the amount of wind generation
gas prices (for power generation)
the capacity of available non-wind generation
the capacity of the interconnectors linking SA and Victorian networks
the level of competition between generators and their resulting price-setting behaviour.
Let’s briefly consider each in turn.
Demand
Winter heating requirements mean than July in SA is almost always one of the top two months for overall electricity demand (though not for peak monthly demand, which happens during summer heatwaves). However, average daily demand so far this month is slightly lower than the same time last year, while average wholesale prices are nearly four times higher. So something else must be pushing up the price.
Wind power
July is normally a windy month in SA. But it seems likely that this month’s total wind generation, while roughly the same as last July, will be much lower than in July 2014. The average price so far this month is about A$320, compared with about A$70 in May this year (when it was windier) and A$50 in July 2014.
Wholesale gas prices
Wholesale gas prices increased rapidly during May and June. It is generally agreed that this is due to increased demand for gas for the three export LNG plants in Queensland, which are now running at two thirds of full capacity.
Gas prices affect wholesale electricity prices mainly though their effect on the operating cost of open-cycle gas turbine (OCGT) generators. These smaller, fast-start generators are ideal for meeting demand spikes, but they are relatively expensive to run. As we have already seen, wholesale prices climbed in all NEM states during May and June, and there is little doubt that higher gas prices were the main driver.
Non-wind generation
For most of its 18-year existence, the NEM has had a large excess of generation capacity relative to demand. This ensured tough competition between rival generators, which drove prices down. But now, in SA, this competition is weakening.
Early last year, Adelaide’s 478-megawatt gas-fired Pelican Point power station was taken offline, despite being one of the most efficient and lowest-emission thermal power stations in Australia. Its owner, Engie, said it was unable to trade profitably based on expected prices of gas and electricity. (In mid-July it was brought partially back online at the state government’s request, and has been operating at about one-third capacity for much of the time since then.) Then in May this year, the ageing 530MW coal-fired Northern power station was permanently shut down.
SA’s remaining thermal generating capacity consists of modern and old gas-fired plants, including several of the OCGT plants described above. Combined, their total is less than the annual summer and winter maximum demand in the state. So if periods of high demand coincide with periods of low wind generation, owners of these power stations can charge more because these days there is less competition.
Interconnector capacity
The Heywood interconnector, the main grid connection between SA and Victoria, has a maximum capacity of 460MW and at times of low wind generation it effectively functions as a direct replacement for Northern, by supplying electricity from the Latrobe Valley. It is being upgraded to 650MW and, as part of this work, it was effectively taken offline for about a week, beginning on July 5 – the period that has seen the highest prices.
Compare the period July 5-14, 2016, with July last year when demand was almost identical. The reductions in coal and interconnector supply are plainly evident, as are the increases in expensive gas generation from Torrens Island (Austrlia’s oldest operating thermal power station) and the OCGT plants.
Market competitiveness
Periods of low wind have thus left SA depending on a mixture of gas generators, many of them old and inefficient, whose already high costs have been driven still higher by the rapid rise in gas prices.
This has given the three businesses that own these power stations – AGL, Engie and Origin – increased market power. The rapid price spikes during the period July 5-15, and for several days thereafter, suggest that this market power was being exercised.
So what’s the real cause?As we have seen, if you want a satisfactory explanation, you have to start with the very high wholesale gas prices right across the country. These have made SA’s gas-fired electricity options much more expensive, in turn raising the floor price for all of its power in times of low wind generation.
In addition to this higher floor price, the tightening of supply and lack of competition have allowed generators to drive prices to even higher levels in the form of short-lived spikes, which have raised the monthly average price still further.
The closure of Northern power station has significantly reduced competition in the SA wholesale electricity market. Additional competition, which normally comes from the transmission links with Victoria, was almost absent for an extended period during the month, because of upgrading work on the Heywood interconnector.
Competition from wind generators protects consumers from high wholesale prices for much of the time. But when the wind is not blowing, consumers are exposed to the full effects of an uncompetitive market. That is what has happened to customers in SA this month.
It is absurd to say that SA electricity prices would be lower if there were less wind generation. On the contrary, consumers would be exposed to high prices in an uncompetitive market for more of the time, and thus face higher average prices, not lower ones.
What has happened to SA electricity prices during this month is a stark demonstration of the need for a fundamental rethink of the the design of the National Electricity Market, which was designed at a time when Australia had very little gas generation and no wind. Demands to limit the growth of wind (and also solar) generation are in effect demands to renege on national emissions reduction commitments, for the sake of preserving a set of outdated and dysfunctional institutions.
Hugh Saddler is a member of the Board of the Climate Insitute
SunEdison Australia sold to major US manufacturing giant
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