14/02/2022

(AU SMH) Gas Losing Favour In Electricity Market As Renewables Power On

 Sydney Morning Herald | Miki Perkins

Renewable energy generation reached record highs in all Australian mainland states in 2021 as reliance on gas continued to drop across the country.

 In the country’s largest grid – the National Electricity Market (NEM) – renewables provided five times more power than gas in 2021, while gas generation reached its lowest level in more than 15 years, according to data released on Thursday by the Climate Council.

The Coonooer Bridge wind farm north-west of Bendigo in Victoria.

Renewable energy generation increased almost 20 per cent in the NEM in 2021, with a 30 per cent jump in Victoria, and 26 per cent rise in Western Australia.

In South Australia, gas generation slumped to its lowest level in more than two decades, while in Victoria it fell 30 per cent in 12 months. In NSW, gas provided just 1.5 per cent of the state’s power, its lowest level in 15 years.

Tasmania matched its previous 2020 record of 99.9 per cent of renewable energy – created through wind, water and solar – in 2021.

Major upgrades to transmission lines across Australia have increased the capacity of the ageing electricity grid to cope with the increase in renewable power, said Dr Madeline Taylor, a senior lecturer at Macquarie University’s school of law and expert spokesperson with the Climate Council, an independent and community-funded organisation.

Energy production in 2021
*South West Interconnected System only
Source: OpenNEM. This data covers the period from 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2021.

A flurry of announcements about new “big batteries” had given confidence to investors in renewables and the high price of gas also led to a drop in consumption, she said.

“Gas is so expensive … it’s honestly one of the silliest ways to produce electricity when we have more and more battery storage,” said Dr Taylor.

Despite pandemic lockdowns and supply chain problems, householders led a record increase in rooftop solar capacity last year. More than 3000MW was installed in 2021 and almost one-third of Australian households have solar panels, the highest rate in the world.


While reliance on coal has continued to fall, it remains the dominant source of power in the NEM, accounting for 66 per cent of electricity generation, a drop of 4.4 per cent since 2020. Over the past five years, coal’s share of electricity generation has fallen by 15.3 per cent.

Demand on the NEM has been consistent for the past 15 years and did not shift much during the pandemic because although consumers were not using power in offices, they were using it at home, Climate Council senior researcher Tim Baxter said.

“The role for gas in the grid is going to continue to decline over the course of the next 10 years,” Mr Baxter said. “This is where batteries and pumped hydro will help introduce more flexibility.”

Pumped hydro acts like a large battery. When there is excess power in the system, energy is used to pump water up to a storage area. When there is demand for energy, the water is released and used to generate electricity.

Energy
Bruce Mountain, from the Victoria Energy Policy Centre, said the drop in gas use also showed that peaking gas generators – only turned on to supply the grid when demand surges – are being driven out of the market.

“This was well known and forecast by any energy sector specialists,” Professor Mountain said.

The federal government has been criticised for its controversial proposal to build a $600 million gas-powered peaking plant at Kurri Kurri. When it was announced, Energy Security Board chair Kerry Schott said nobody would build it from the private sector because “it doesn’t stack up”.

Federal Energy and Emissions Reduction Minister Angus Taylor has said peaking or fast-start gas plants are needed to provide dispatchable power to fill energy supply gaps.

Victorian Minister for the Environment and Climate Change Lily D’Ambrosio said her government was proud to have achieved the largest ever annual increase in renewable power in Australia last year, attributing this to multiple, legislated renewable energy targets and projects such as the 300-megawatt Victorian Big Battery.

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(AU ABC) Victoria's First Seaweed Farm Aims To Reduce Livestock Emissions

ABC Rural - Peter Somerville
Asparagopsis armata seaweed harvested from the ocean off Queenscliff.(ABC News: Patrick Rocca)
Key Points
  • In a Victorian first, seaweed is being commercially farmed in Port Phillip
  • The Asparagopsis armata will be fed to cattle to reduce methane emissions
  • Eating just 50 grams per day can reduce emissions and help cattle gain weight faster
In a Victorian-first, seaweed is being farmed to one day reduce methane emissions in cows.

The numbers are impressive.

Feeding a small ration can reduce a cow's methane emissions by 98 per cent.

It is a natural product that is readily available, and it could even help the cattle gain weight faster.

Asparagopsis armata is being farmed in Port Phillip, right on Melbourne's doorstep.

Scientists are working on other uses for the seaweed, but it is the livestock application that is being targeted in Victoria for the time being.

A recent study found that including Asparagopsis in a steer's feedlot ration at a rate of 0.20 per cent of organic matter could reduce its methane emissions by up to 98 per cent.

Seaweed growing on the ocean floor off Queenscliff, viewed through a bathyscope. (ABC Rural: Peter Somerville)
 "We see globally and particularly here in Australia that the use of Asparagopsis as a livestock supplement is a very advanced field," Immersion Group director Scott Elliott said.

"We have a representative body called Future Feed who is  working hand in hand with industry in order to get this into the guts of animals and to reduce methane."

Mr Elliott said other beneficial uses, particularly in human applications, still required many years of research.

An exciting time for Victorian industry
        
Dr Prue Francis, from Deakin University, is excited about the future of seaweed farming in Victoria.(ABC Rural: Peter Somerville)

Researchers note a particular focus on Asparagopsis armata. However, it is not the only species that could have beneficial uses.

Dr Prue Francis, a senior marine science lecturer at Deakin University, said seaweeds could one day also be used in the medicine, beauty and food industries.

"For me, it's really exciting to see what might become, particularly in Victoria," Dr Francis said.

Cows ate seaweed and burped less

"There's a lot of great sites along the Victorian coastline.

"In fact, we've got a seaweed biodiversity hotspot along the Victorian coastline.

"So, we're really primed to explore what seaweed spaces we've got to farm and do it at a large scale and look after our food security.

"Seaweed and seaweed farming could potentially meet that food security challenge that we're seeing now in Australia."

Crucial to livestock industry targets Australia's red meat carbon neutral by 2030. The industry has invested in seaweed and has claimed it as a success story. 

Henry Cole seeds Asparagopsis in Port Phillip. It will eventually grow and become a livestock feed additive. (ABC Rural: Peter Somerville)

"It demonstrates that we can actually solve the problem," Meat and Livestock Australia managing director Jason Strong said.

"That we can invest in and discover or find and invent technologies that get us down the path of being carbon neutral by 2030.

This Asparagopsis armata harvested from Port Phillip could one day help reduce the emissions of Australian cattle. (ABC Rural: Peter Somerville)

"It works, and we're not that far off it becoming commercially viable at all," he said.

"There's a number of companies growing and producing the supplement now, initially as a freeze tried product. it's able to be used now, and we expect those companies growing it will have a product in the market very soon."

New challenges Dr Francis said figuring out how to cultivate seaweeds can be challenging.

"Taking it up to farm at a large scale requires research and development trials, so we're certainly getting there. Hopefully, into the future, with more research and more trials, we'll see our knowledge improve further."

Scott Elliot and Henry Cole hope to one day produce commercial quantities of Asparagopsis armata. (ABC Rural: Peter Somerville)

Henry Cole, a diver and offshore operations manager with Immersion Group said they were actually propagating seaweed from the sea floor to their lines.

"Basically, we're just giving it the assistance it needs and structure for it to grow,"  Mr Cole said.

Mr Elliott said there had been false starts along the way, with a lot learned about seaweed production. 

"We're at a stage where our research and development is done," Mr Elliott said.

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(AU The Guardian) NSW Activists ‘Delighted’ As High Court Rejects Kepco’s Coalmine In Bylong Valley

The Guardian - 

Environmental advocates tell South Korean miner to ‘pack its bags’ as company considers next steps

The high court has rejected Kepco’s appeal to build an open-cut coalmine in NSW’s Bylong Valley. Photograph: Tracey Nearmy/AAP

The mining company Kepco has failed in its final legal bid to challenge a decision to reject its plans for an open-cut coalmine in the New South Wales Bylong Valley.

Environmentalists and members of the Bylong Valley community are now calling on the South Korean company to walk away and sell its land back to farming families rather than submitting a revised development proposal for the project.

The high court on Thursday declined to hear Kepco’s appeal that sought to challenge the NSW Independent Planning Commission’s (IPC) decision in 2019 to reject its development application.

The commission refused development approval for the greenfield coalmine, citing the unacceptable impact the mine would have on agricultural land and the environment – including through greenhouse gas emissions – and the costs to future generations.

Its decision was subsequently upheld by the NSW land and environment court and the court of appeal.

The high court’s decision exhausts the company’s final legal avenue for the project in its current form and brings to an end a lengthy battle for Bylong Valley community members who have fought the project for years.

“KEPCO needs to eat some humble pie, pack its bags, and leave,” said Phillip Kennedy, the president of the Bylong Valley Protection Alliance.

“KEPCO must not submit a revised project, it must not delay, it must only sell its land back to the farming families of Australia and leave the Bylong Valley for good.

“The Bylong Valley community only wants some certainty, and we’re looking forward to that with this win.”

The Bylong Valley Protection Alliance had joined as a party to the original judicial review to defend the IPC’s ruling after the commission itself declined to take an active role in proceedings.

The alliance’s legal representative, the Environmental Defenders Office, said the high court made its decision based on written submissions, without the need for a hearing.

“We could not be more delighted for our clients, the Bylong Valley Protection Alliance, who have dedicated years of their lives to challenging this destructive and inappropriate coal mine proposal,” managing lawyer Rana Koroglu said.


“The IPC’s decision to refuse this mine was sound. It was based on the evidence and the science, including evidence about the ‘problematical’ greenhouse gas emissions.”

Koroglu said the project would have generated more than 200m tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.

She said the commission’s decision had been tested to its limits through the courts and in every appeal had been upheld.

“It means the IPC can be assured that an evidence-based decision to reject these kinds of destructive fossil fuel projects in the future is legally supported.”

A spokesperson for Kepco said the company was “disappointed with the high court’s decision to dismiss the special leave application”.

“KEPCO will now take some time to consider its next steps,” they said.

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