Feed aggregator

Is China really showing 'leadership' on tackling climate change?

ABC Environment - Mon, 2016-10-31 15:30
Despite Beijing having ratified the Paris climate change agreement, Patricia Adams says China is still 'chugging along the smoky path to prosperity'.
Categories: Around The Web

Greens’ Rattenbury to replace Corbell as ACT climate minister

RenewEconomy - Mon, 2016-10-31 13:54
Shane Rattenbury to replace Simon Corbell as ACT climate minister, marking second time a Greens member appointed in any Australian ministry.
Categories: Around The Web

NSW Coalition supports peer-to-peer trading for solar households

RenewEconomy - Mon, 2016-10-31 13:38
NSW parliamentary secretary Adam Marshall says solar households in NSW should have the ability to trade electricity that they generate from their rooftops.
Categories: Around The Web

US state of Iowa follows South Australia to 40 per cent wind energy

RenewEconomy - Mon, 2016-10-31 13:04
The mid-west American state of Iowa is rapidly gaining on South Australia, with 36% wind energy, headed to 40% by 2020.
Categories: Around The Web

Infigen revenue jumps again on big winds, high electricity prices

RenewEconomy - Mon, 2016-10-31 13:00
Infigen Energy attributes 56% lift in revenue to strong winds and higher merchant electricity prices in SA and NSW, and higher LGC prices.
Categories: Around The Web

Know your NEM: Is decline of car industry undermining volumes?

RenewEconomy - Mon, 2016-10-31 12:26
Car industry decline may explain falling volumes. Meanwhile, renewable advocates should prepare for price backlash on renewable closures; and what's behind a change of view on regulatory decisions?
Categories: Around The Web

Powerwall 2: Tesla doubles up on battery storage and slashes costs

RenewEconomy - Mon, 2016-10-31 12:19
At double the capacity and almost half the cost/kWh, Tesla's Powerwall 2 illustrates the break-neck speed at which battery storage is evolving.
Categories: Around The Web

300 million children live in areas with extreme air pollution, data reveals

The Guardian - Mon, 2016-10-31 11:41

Global study reveals huge number of children breathing toxic fumes more than six times over safe limits, while billions are affected by air pollution that exceeds guidelines

Three hundred million of the world’s children live in areas with extreme air pollution, where toxic fumes are more than six times international guidelines, according to new research by Unicef.

The study, using satellite data, is the fist to make a global estimate of exposure and indicates that almost 90% of the world’s children - two billion - live in places where outdoor air pollution exceeds World Health Organisation (WHO) limits.

Continue reading...
Categories: Around The Web

Hazelwood’s closure won’t affect power prices as much as you might think

RenewEconomy - Mon, 2016-10-31 10:31
If Hazelwood departs the market, as one of the cheapest generators in the NEM, it seems logical that electricity prices will increase. So what can we expect to happen?
Categories: Around The Web

Exxon: 2014 crossover marks point where major oil stock began to go south

RenewEconomy - Mon, 2016-10-31 10:30
The world is moving in fits and starts but with gathering momentum toward a more diversified, low-carbon energy mix.
Categories: Around The Web

Floodwaters revive river red gum wetlands and last drinks at the Grove Hill pub

ABC Environment - Mon, 2016-10-31 10:30
Victoria's famous river red gum wetlands get a good soaking; Bec Bovell is Cygnet's mushroom lady; we go behind the scenes at the Weengallon ladies day; and Stan Heausler calls last drinks at the Grove Hill Hotel.
Categories: Around The Web

IEA still low-balling solar growth, says Energy Watch Group

RenewEconomy - Mon, 2016-10-31 10:29
The IEA has once again been accused of ignoring the reality of solar PV's cost reduction and pace of installation in its latest report.
Categories: Around The Web

Elon Musk’s first victim was the petrol car; now it’s old style utilities

RenewEconomy - Mon, 2016-10-31 10:29
Tesla throws down gauntlet to incumbent utilities by bringing down battery storage costs by nearly half, and taking built-in solar PV to the mainstream. Elon Musk talks of solar, storage and EVs being "beautiful, affordable, integrated" - three things that current utilities are not.
Categories: Around The Web

Climate of emotion: despair

ABC Environment - Mon, 2016-10-31 10:05
Scientists can give us facts and figures about climate change. And they carry a 'burden of knowledge' for the rest of us. Hear the people behind the statistics reveal how they feel.
Categories: Around The Web

Air quality worsens in Greece as recession bites

The Guardian - Mon, 2016-10-31 07:30

The ban on diesel cars in Athens and Thessaloniki has been lifted and the price of heating oil has tripled. Hard-pressed Greeks have turned to burning logs – and other things

Greece’s financial recession is leaving its footprint on the environment. This follows twenty years of huge improvements in Greece’s air pollution. While most European countries struggle with the consequences of failure to control exhaust pollution from diesel vehicles, Greece benefitted from long-standing bans on diesel cars in the two biggest cities, Athens and Thessaloniki.

This allowed the country to reap the full benefits of technologies to control petrol exhaust, without these being offset by the poor performance of diesel cars. As a consequence nitrogen dioxide from traffic approximately halved alongside Greek roads between 1996 and 2006, in contrast to the lack of improvement elsewhere in Europe.

Continue reading...
Categories: Around The Web

How much do we know about the salmon we eat?

ABC Environment - Mon, 2016-10-31 07:22
Salmon farming is a big, and growing, business in Australia, with plans to turn it in to a billion dollar industry within 15 years.
Categories: Around The Web

Cuts to marine reserves would deliver 'minuscule' economic benefits

The Guardian - Mon, 2016-10-31 07:00

Exclusive: Analysis of government review shows destructive fishing practices would rise and very few fishers would benefit

Proposals to allow increased fishing in Australian waters would generate minuscule economic benefits to only a handful of licence holders, according to a new analysis.

The Ocean Science Council of Australia, an independent group of researchers, has criticised a government review that recommended significant cuts to marine reserves. The group says the review would expand the use of destructive fishing practices.

Continue reading...
Categories: Around The Web

There are alternatives to a third runway at Heathrow | Letters

The Guardian - Mon, 2016-10-31 05:38

So Heathrow’s good for business (Report, 26 October)? Heathrow Airport Holdings is owned by FGP TopCo, an international consortium led by Ferrovial, a Spanish Company based in Madrid, in partnership with Qatar Holdings, Caisse de Depot du Quebec, the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation, and the China Investment Corporation, among others. Heathrow Holdings has previously admitted it makes more from being a shopping mall than from the flying business and now the taxpayer is likely to be told to stump up £5bn-£10bn for added road and rail infrastructure, according to former transport minister Stephen Hammond.

And that’s before the crucial debate on pollution and health. Heathrow has never taken responsibility for the dangerous pollution caused by the stacking of aircraft waiting to land and anxious to shed surplus fuel over hapless residents below. Heathrow must come clean; this whole affair is a dirty business.
Anna Ford
London

Continue reading...
Categories: Around The Web

Hazelwood's closure won't affect power prices as much as you might think

The Conversation - Mon, 2016-10-31 05:09

The ongoing uncertainty over the future of the Hazelwood power station in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley has raised the prospect that the ageing generator will be shut down in the near future.

The power station has a nameplate capacity of 1.6 gigawatts, which represents 22% of the coal-fired generation capacity in Victoria, and 6% of the total coal-fired capacity in Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales combined (South Australia no longer has an operating coal-fired power station).

Coal-fired power stations provide the bulk of the “baseload” electricity requirements in the National Electricity Market (NEM). Baseload refers to generation that meets the minimum demand, and from an economic point of view this is best delivered by generation that produces constant, reliable output. Brown coal provides the cheapest baseload power – or at least, it does if we’re prepared to ignore factors such as the long-term costs of climate change.

So if Hazelwood departs the market, as one of the cheapest generators in the NEM, it seems logical that electricity prices will increase. The extent of that increase will depend on what takes up the slack. So what can we expect to happen?

On the decline

Until 2007, average electricity demand in the NEM had increased every year since the grid was first built. But after that demand started to fall. The reasons are varied, including increasing takeup of rooftop solar panels, improved efficiency of lighting and appliances, and reductions in industrial demand.

Looking at July (when baseload electricity demand is typically at its highest), the average demand has fallen from 25.4GW in July 2007 to 22.9GW in July 2016, a reduction of 2.5GW.

But there has also been significant retirement of coal-fired generation capacity in Australia since 2010, driven partly by the retirement of old power plants, and partly by the costs associated with the carbon price, which ran from 2012 to 2014.

The retirees include Morwell and Anglesea in Victoria (0.2GW), Playford B and Northern in South Australia (0.8GW), and most significantly Redbank, Wallerawang and Munmorah in New South Wales (2.5 GW). This adds up to a total of 3.5GW of coal-fired capacity shut down this decade.

This means that more capacity has been retired than the baseload demand has decreased. So in theory, the retirement of another baseload power station at Hazelwood would result in even more tightening of the balance between supply and demand.

But if we look at the current average capacity factors of the remaining coal-fired power stations we can see that many of the larger ones, in NSW in particular, are running at very modest capacities. For example, Liddell has been running at 43% of its total capacity for the past 12 months, and Eraring at 59%. Across the NEM the average is 65%.

Now, of course some of this generation is used when the demand increases during particularly hot or cold weather, but most of this “peaking” demand is supplied by hydro and gas. So while baseload is not the only way to meet demand in the energy system, there nevertheless seems to be plenty of baseload available.

Why are coal-fired stations running at such low levels? One reason is that while demand has been falling, there has also been an extra 4GW of wind power capacity added to the grid. Meanwhile, several new plants were commissioned in the years leading up to the peak in demand, with the expectation that demand would continue to rise. These plants include Callide C, Millmerran and Kogan Creek, which add up to 2.7GW.

If Hazelwood shuts down, it would be reasonable to expect that the remaining coal-fired generators in the grid will take up the slack. The generators in Victoria are running at relatively high capacity factors, so we might expect that NSW generators will increase their output. The interconnector between Victoria and NSW currently sends Victorian electricity into NSW, but it can reverse that flow if required.

One reason why Victorian power stations are running at higher capacities is because they are cheaper to run. ACIL Tasman figures from 2010 show short-run marginal cost (the cost to run a power station in addition to fixed costs) in Victoria is around A$2-5 per megawatt hour, compared with A$12-17 per MWh in NSW.

Predicting what will happen to electricity prices in the future is harder than picking the winner of the Melbourne Cup, so making an exact price forecast is tricky. But if the hole left by Hazelwood’s retirement is filled by the excess capacity in NSW, then all things being equal the impacts on the overall costs of running the system would be modest.

Still, the NEM is very complex. Generators (especially in Victoria) are privately owned and will adjust their market strategies to take advantage of the tightening of supply. Meanwhile, the growing market share of renewables, the potential for electricity demand to begin rising once again, and the possibility of further coal closures, all mean that the full impact of the retreat of coal-fired power is yet to be seen.

The Conversation

Roger Dargaville has received funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency

Categories: Around The Web

The new international whaling resolution will do little to stop Japan killing whales

The Conversation - Mon, 2016-10-31 05:09

Australia and New Zealand were claiming a conservation success this week, when their resolution against lethal “scientific” whaling was adopted at the International Whaling Commission’s biennial meeting in Slovenia. But in reality the non-binding decision will do little to stop Japan’s whaling program.

This resolution aims to tighten the loophole that allows nations to catch whales under the guise of scientific whaling. It provides for greater oversight of the currently self-assessed special permits for lethal scientific whale research.

After the disappointment of failing to establish a South Atlantic whale sanctuary, the anti-whaling bloc of nations at the IWC meeting have hailed the latest resolution, with Australia’s environment minister Josh Frydenberg describing the decision as “a big win”.

Where next for Japanese whaling?

Japan conducts its whaling under a self-issued permit, under Article VIII of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling. This article allows a country to grant its nationals special licence “to kill, take and treat whales for purposes of scientific research subject to such restrictions as to number and subject to such other conditions as the Contracting Government thinks fit”.

In 2014 the International Court of Justice ruled Japan’s JARPA II whaling program illegal on the basis that it was “not for the purposes of scientific research” and therefore in breach of Article VIII. But crucially it did not ban all future scientific whaling activities by Japan.

After the decision, Japan created a new research programme called NEWREP-A (New Scientific Whale Research Program in the Antarctic Ocean), which purported to have different scientific methods to its predecessor.

As Japan no longer recognises the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice regarding “living resources of the sea”, arguments on adherence to the broader principle laid down in the decision would possibly be in vain.

A new tack

This brings us back to the new resolution, which was brought to the IWC by Australia, New Zealand and other anti-whaling nations in a bid to make it harder for nations such as Japan to issue themselves with special permits for scientific whaling.

The underlying principle is Australia’s repeated assertion that “lethal scientific research is simply not necessary”.

Japan’s new NEWREP-A program included the killing of 333 minke whales in the 2015-16 season, and the IWC’s Scientific Committee was powerless to prevent Japan from proceeding, given that the conditions of special permits are currently self-assessed and can proceed without scientific endorsement from the committee.

The new resolution establishes a Working Group under the Convention, which will consider the Scientific Committee’s recommendations in relation to all special permits. It also gives a greater role to the Commission in the process of issuing special permits.

The aim is to apply much greater scrutiny to the granting of special permits, rather than allowing nations simply to award them to themselves. Plans for special permits are requested to be submitted to the new working group at least six months in advance of the Scientific Committee’s meeting, alongside the data used to back up a country’s claims to be running a scientific whaling program. These data will be evaluated both during the program’s development, and during ongoing and final reviews.

These inquiries into the special permit will then be presented to the IWC itself, which will form its own official view on the proposed whaling program and publish its findings.

Overall, the resolution gives the Commission a much greater role in deciding whether a given nation should be allowed to kill whales. But resolutions are not legally binding, and there is no function to penalise those who do not follow them.

Non-binding resolutions

In response to the new resolution, Japan’s Commissioner to the IWC said that Japan “will abide by the Convention itself”. This implies that Japan will continue to apply its own interpretation of the Convention, and will not follow the extra steps outlined in the new resolution.

So despite the new emphasis on applying scientific scrutiny to whaling permits, at a higher level than before within the IWC’s structure, this actually doesn’t mean much in practical terms for Japan. The reality is that Japan will continue to act independently of IWC advice due to its view on what Article VIII means.

As a result, Japan is unlikely to stop killing whales any time soon, despite the efforts of Australia, New Zealand and other anti-whaling nations to shut the program down.

The Conversation

Indi Hodgson-Johnston receives funding from the University of Tasmania and the Antarctic Climate & Ecosystems CRC.

Categories: Around The Web

Pages

Subscribe to Sustainable Engineering Society aggregator