18/03/2017

Battery-Makers On Turnbull's Tesla Chat: 'Give Australian Companies A Fair Go'

The Guardian - 

Industry wants more support from federal government now prime minister has 'taken interest in the tweets of an American billionaire'
The Energy Storage Council has urged governments not to exclude local providers after Elon Musk offered to fix South Australia's energy supply issues. 'This isn't just a ploy from Musk. He's right, this really can be done.' Photograph: Alamy
Malcolm Turnbull should encourage Australia's battery energy storage industry now he has "taken interest in the tweets of an American billionaire", Zen Energy chairman Ross Garnaut says.
Garnaut was referring to Elon Musk, the billionaire co-founder of electric car giant Tesla, who tweeted that Tesla could solve the power shortage issue causing price spikes and blackouts in South Australia within 100 days by installing 100-300 megawatt hours of battery storage.
Turnbull subsequently tweeted that he had phoned Musk and enjoyed a "great, in-depth" conversation.
But Australian companies had been working on large battery projects for years, Garnaut said, including one by Zen Energy in the upper gulf of South Australia which it had discussed with the market.
The core of the project would be to supply baseload renewable power to large energy users, initially in South Australia and then more broadly, Garnaut said.
"In this Trump era, we have a world where nothing is real until an American billionaire tweets about it," Garnaut said.
"What we're working on is having it ready for summer, the time of greatest stress on the grid and that's when you really need to bring all your grid to stability.
"Zen Energy has funded it all so far, and there has been a lot of technical work and economic modelling done to see what is required in the market. We have a lot of close relations with energy providers and communities as part of the development work. When it comes to investment in the large equipment, we have the support of external investors."
Zen would manage the battery and its interaction with the grid, but the owners of the battery would be external investors, Garnaut said. The battery would absorb electricity when it was cheap and abundant on the wholesale power market, and make it available when scarce.
"The other value of the large battery is to grid stabilisations services," he said. "We are focusing on providing 100Mwh of battery storage of energy, so it will make a substantial contribution and will be ready by summer."
On Tuesday the South Australian premier, Jay Weatherill, is due to release his energy plan, which is expected to address the blackouts and his vision for renewable energy. He did not return calls from Guardian Australia requesting comment on Monday.
The chief executive of the Energy Storage Council, John Grimes, said there were a number of Australian companies that were more price-competitive than Tesla and which, in a consortium, could also deliver the project to stabilise South Australia's energy grid in 100 days.
"This isn't just a ploy from Musk," Grimes said. "He's right, this really can be done."
He said there were a number of reasons the potential of battery storage hadn't captured broader public attention before. Although Turnbull has a solar system and battery storage on his own Sydney property, Grimes said that "politically we have been in a backward-looking, unhelpful debate talking about so-called clean coal technology and running down state renewable energy targets".
"The second thing is rapidly changing economics," Grimes said. "If you thought about doing this even three years ago the price would have been something like four times higher than what you can do it for today.
"Really cheap battery technology, cheap solar and really smart energy technology systems, or smart computers, that will run this network are about to change everything. A massive transition is about to occur."
Within less than 10 years, the technology would be such that people could take control of their own energy requirements and enter into "Uber-style" energy sharing arrangements, he said.
"We are not advocating people getting off the grid altogether, but the tech will allow us to trade electricity between ourselves so when I have excess solar power at 2pm I can offload it, for example, to a supermarket that needs two freezers running.
"This revolution in energy begins in 2017 and it will be all done and dusted within 10 years."
He urged the federal government to show strong support for the battery sector as Australia risked losing some of the country's best researchers. While Turnbull had been entertaining clean coal, the battery sector had advanced rapidly and come up to "bite him on the bum", Grimes said.
"We are slugging our guts out to build the business in this sector, but a tweet from Elon Musk grabs the government's attention," Grimes said. "I'm not saying Tesla should be excluded, but don't fast-track a discussion with an overseas company when you have capability right here, right now, in Australia. Let there be a transparent bid process. And let's give Australian companies a fair go."
The co-founder of Lyon solar, David Green, said not only had battery prices fallen substantially, but their functionality had increased significantly.
Lyon is developing an advanced combination solar and battery storage plant in South Australia known as the Kingfisher project, which is connected to a grid with operational mining activities. Lyon expects it to be operating commercially and delivering 100Mwh of solar PV with up t0 40Mwh of battery storage by the end of the year.
"The amazing thing is batteries are a technology with a range of functions," he said. "They can function like a generator, they can act faster than any other generation facility to stabilise voltage, and they can provide power to isolated areas.
"In Australia at present there are some issues that can be barriers to a commercial role for them, and some of those are institutional and some are cultural."
One barrier was the way regulators defined batteries under market rules, which differed depending on whether they were used as part of transmission networks or as generators. And Australian markets were not as familiar with the operation of batteries, he said.
Lyon had well-advanced battery projects in every state, Green said. The company is working with US-based energy giant AES Energy Storage to develop 200-250 megawatts of large-scale battery storage using AES Energy's technology.
"All of our projects we have raised capital for, and it is the private sector who should be funding these projects," Green said.
"The principal role for government should be to get market settings right so projects like this can be commercialised. The government needs to help to create an environment where batteries can capture maximum revenue so they become commercial in their own right so that governments aren't needing to provide subsidies."
The power the projects generated would be directed into the electricity grid for retailers to buy and sell on.
"We will either sell the power directly into the market and take the risk on what pricing we get out of wholesale, or we will enter into a contract with a retailer who will buy a certain amount of power at a certain price and they put that into their portfolio of other contracts and on-sell that," he said.
Contract negotiations were under way between energy providers and Lyon, and an announcement would be made within weeks, Green said.
The chief executive of the Clean Energy Council, Kane Thornton, said Australia was about to find out how close to being truly commercial battery energy storage technology was.
"Sometimes it takes rockstar tech entrepreneurs having a Twitter conversation to create the excitement around technology breakthroughs," Thornton said. "There's nothing new in what Tesla are proposing. But I don't think anyone should complain about Musk getting the attention of the prime minister about it. These are exciting times times ahead."

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Ian Chappell Stands By Adani Mine Letter Despite Being Called 'Elitist' By Coalition MP

The Guardian - 

Adani ‘categorically’ rejects letter signed by 91 prominent Australians, saying it comes from ‘a very small group of misled people’
Ian Chappell is one of a group of prominent Australians urging Adani to abandon a giant coalmine project near the Great Barrier Reef. Photograph: William West/AFP/Getty Images
Cricket great Ian Chappell has stood by his opposition to the Adani mine proposal as part of a group of prominent Australians branded “elitist wankers” by a federal government MP and “a very small group of misled people” by the Indian miner.
Chappell said it was “worthwhile” if joining his brother Greg in an open letter calling on the Indian miner to abandon its coal plan thrust the issue into the public spotlight in its cricket-loving homeland.
He said that, as when previously speaking out about Australia’s hardline refugee policies, “you realise as a former Australian captain that there are times when you have a louder voice than a lot of other people [and] there are times to use that louder voice”.
“If it has helped in that regard, to get some publicity in India and give people in India another view on it – and not the view that everyone in Australia is falling head over heels in love with this project – and if it’s got that message across, it makes that worthwhile,” Chappell told Guardian Australia.
The Chappell brothers’ involvement ensured the letter was reported in Indian media, including the English–language Hindustan Times and the Times of India.
Chappell, who has written for Indian newspapers for 30 years and was asked by one to write a column about the Adani issue to be published on Saturday, said it was a view the Indian public “definitely wouldn’t have got” otherwise.
He said he “wasn’t convinced that the letter would ever get to Adani” but was glad it had. Adani “categorically” rejected the letter, signed by 91 prominent Australians and delivered to its Ahmedabad headquarters on Thursday, saying it comes from “a very small group of misled people”.
Federal government MP George Christensen ridiculed its signatories as “elitist wankers”, while Queensland opposition treasury spokesman Scott Emerson called on the Chappell brothers to “get on board” with Adani.
Chappell said while he was conscious of not putting his name to “just every cause that comes up”, his views on Adani were the culmination of years of taking an interest in climate change, in part due to the influence of his wife, Barbara-Ann.
“I’ve got a wife who is one, intelligent, two, she’s got a scientific mind, and three, a very strong social conscience,” he said.
“She’s been on about climate change for 20 years, probably before most others, so I’m hearing about it regularly and obviously can make up my own mind.
“I mean, you don’t need to be Einstein when you see the frequency and the ferocity of some of the weather events that we’ve been having, what’s what’s happened to the Great Barrier Reef, and when I’m hearing what I’m hearing from Barbara-Ann and then you put that together, you’ve got to come to the conclusion that things have to change.”
Chappell said he was happy to sign the letter when approached by Australian Conservation Foundation president Geoff Cousins, particularly since it called on Adani to divert its Australian investments away from coal to renewable projects rather than demanding it “just stop” altogether.
“They could well have spent millions of dollars in investigating the project, so it’s very hard to turn around and say just pour that down the drain,” Chappell said.
“I know very little, I certainly don’t have a scientific mind [but] it made sense to me years ago that if you’re one of the first uptakers in renewable energy, if you get in early, there’s got to be a lot of jobs there.
“Everyone talks about the number of jobs that [the mine is] going to bring to that area of Queensland, but what about the people who work on the barrier reef in tourism and so on? Their jobs could well go down the mine.”
Adani in a statement noted the letter was delivered by Cousins, the chairman of the ACF, “whose legal challenge against the planned Carmichael coalmine has been dismissed by the Australian courts”.
“We categorically reject such motivated letters of representation by a very small group of 76 misled people,” it said.
Adani said its mining proposal, which would ship up to 60m tonnes of coal a year for 60 years, was “cleared after rigorous assessments and strict conditions over a period of seven years”.
“The planned mine is supported fully by people of regional Queensland and their elected representatives who in turn represent millions of Australians,” the company said.
“The planned mine will help in providing energy security to millions of Indians who are without electricity while creating thousands of jobs and economic benefits for the state of Queensland in particular, and Australia in general. It is a project which will create enormous social and economic value for both the countries of Australia and India.”
It followed what Cousins said had been a “productive meeting” with senior Adani management, to whom his group explained “the growing opposition to the proposed coalmine in Queensland and agreed to a continued dialogue with the company”.
“We reiterated that we welcome Adani’s investment in solar in Australia but are steadfast in our opposition to their coalmine.”
A new ReachTel poll has found 73% of Australians agree that “the best thing for Australia would be for Adani to invest in large-scale solar power stations, rather than a new coalmine”.
The poll, commissioned by the Australian Marine Conservation Society, surveyed 2,134 Australian residents on Tuesday.
They were also asked whether the Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, and regional mayors currently on a trade mission to India should be “seeking investment in clean energy solutions like new solar power stations or in coalmines”.
It found 72.1% preferred solar while 14.6% preferred coal.
A copy of the open letter shows 91 signatories, including former Australian environment minister Peter Garrett, Perth-based UK-born comedian and author Ben Elton and investment banker Mark Burrows.
It “respectfully” called on Adani’s billionaire chairman, Gautam Adani, to drop the mine plan for three reasons. It would drive global warming that threatened the Great Barrier Reef nearby, it loomed as a “public health disaster” according to the medical journal Lancet; and it “does not have wide public support in Australia”, the letter said.
ACF is appealing a federal court finding against its challenge to commonwealth approval of the Adani mine on the grounds it did not account for climate change impacts on the Great Barrier Reef through carbon emissions.
The court ruled the federal environment minister was entitled to find that if Adani did not go ahead, emissions would come from coal sourced elsewhere. The ACF argues this is “the drug dealer’s defence”.

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Turnbull Unveils Snowy Plan For Pumped Hydro, Costing Billions

The Conversation - 

In its latest move on energy policy, the Turnbull government has unveiled a plan to boost generation from the Snowy Hydro scheme by 50%.
The Snowy Hydro scheme already provides back-up energy to NSW and Victoria. AAP
The government says the expansion, which it has labelled the Snowy Mountains Scheme 2.0, would add 2,000 megawatts of renewable energy to the National Electricity Market. This would be enough to power 500,000 homes.
Claiming the upgrading would be an "electricity game-changer", Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said that in one hour it would be able to produce 20 times the 100 megawatt-hours expected from the battery proposed this week by the South Australian government, but would deliver it constantly for almost a week.
Turnbull flew to the Snowy early Thursday to formally announce the plan. The commonwealth is a minority shareholder in the Snowy Hydro, with a 13% stake. New South Wales and Victoria have 58% and 29% stakes respectively.
The government, through the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), would examine several sites that could support large-scale pumped hydroelectric energy storage in the area, Turnbull said.
Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg said the cost would run into "billions of dollars". It is being suggested it would be around A$2 billion. Frydenberg avoided being tied down on when it would be completed.
He said three new tunnels were being looked at, stretching 27 kilometres for the pumped hydro-facility. It would not involve new dams, but connect existing reservoirs and recycle water.
The plan had the potential to ensure there would be the needed renewable energy supply for those on the east coast at times of peak demand, Frydenberg said.
Tony Wood, energy program director at the Grattan Institute, cautioned that the plan would involve technical and economic issues, including whether it could make money, and to what extent it could contribute to solving the short-term power crisis.
"This isn't some sort of magic panacea," Wood told the ABC. Some hard-headed thinking was needed on what it would do and how it would work.
Turnbull said: "The unprecedented expansion will help make renewables reliable, filling in holes caused by intermittent supply and generator outages.
"It will enable greater energy efficiency and help stabilise electricity supply into the future," he said – adding that this would ultimately mean cheaper power prices.
He said successive governments at all levels had failed to put in place the needed storage to ensure reliable supply.
"We are making energy storage infrastructure a critical priority to ensure better integration of wind and solar into the energy market and more efficient use of conventional power."
Turnbull said an "all-of-the-above" approach, including hydro, solar, coal and gas, was critical to future energy supplies.
Snowy Hydro already provided back-up energy to NSW and Victoria and could extend to South Australia when expanded, he said. The expansion would have no impact on the supply of irrigation water to NSW, South Australia and Queensland.
The feasibility study for the expansion is expected to be completed before the end of this year, with construction starting soon after, he said.

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