Mar 03
STRONG export demand will result in the nation’s energy production nearly doubling by 2030 but Australia is set to consume far less coal and much more gas, according to a federal government report.
The report shows primary energy consumption will increase by 1.4 per cent each year to reach about 7715 petajoules by 2029-30 from 2007-08 levels of 5772 petajoules. Coal now accounts for almost 40 per cent of the total, followed by oil (34 per cent), gas (22 per cent) and renewables (5 per cent, mostly from bioenergy).
The report says that by 2030, coal will provide only about 23 per cent of the energy Australia consumes. Gas will move in as a replacement, with the government predicting its share will grow from 22 per cent to 34 per cent. Wind energy is expected to be the fastest-growing energy source, helped by policy measures.
See The Age or SMH 3rd Mar 2010 for the full articles.
Mar 02
NSW power company Macquarie Generation is Australia’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, according to Department of Climate Change data.
The company, which operates the massive Liddell and Bayswater coal-fired power stations in the NSW Hunter Valley, reported total direct (so-called ”Scope 1”) emissions of 25.3 million tonnes of carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gasses, or about 4 per cent of Australia’s total.
Once audited and refined the Scope 1 NGER emissions data could provide an indication of a corporation’s potential liability under the Government’s proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme.
Also published last week were indirect or ”Scope 2” emissions data, including major power users and electricity network operators and retailers. The top 10 Scope 2 emitters were Alcoa Australia, Rio Tinto, Transgrid, Wesfarmers, Hydro Aluminium Kurri Kurri, Woolworths, BHP, Queensland Electricity Transmission, SP Australia, CHEDA Holdings, Energy Australia and ENERGEX.
See The Age 2nd March 2010 for the full article.
Tagged with: Alcoa Australia • BHP • CHEDA Holdings • CPRS • ENERGEX • energy australia • Hydro Aluminium Kurri Kurri • macgen • NGER • Queensland Electricity Transmission • Rio Tinto • SP Australia • Transgrid • Wesfarmers • Woolworths
Mar 02
On Friday, Climate Change Minister Penny Wong unveiled plans to lift REC prices after heated lobbying from renewable energy investors. Since the Friday announcement, REC prices are up 18 per cent to $42.
However, traders in the illiquid market say they are awaiting clarity on the government’s policy and Senate approval of the proposed RET legislation. A credit analyst at Fitch Ratings, Sajal Kishore, said the industry expected REC prices to lift above $50 in coming months, seen as the minimum price to underwrite Australian wind developments.
Mar 01
Contact Energy Ltd., New Zealand’s biggest publicly traded electricity company, is delaying generation investment and reviewing its use of gas-fired plant as rising fuel costs and tough competition squeeze margins.
The company may proceed with the smaller of two proposed geothermal projects and delay the second, Chief Executive Officer David Baldwin said today. The company will also consider converting its 400-megawatt gas-fired plant at Otahuhu to run only in peak demand periods to improve profitability, he said.
Contact, half-owned by Sydney-based Origin Energy Ltd., is rethinking strategy as new fuel contracts reduce the flexibility of its gas-fired plants and competition constrains retail price increases. First-half underlying profit was little changed at NZ$80.1 million ($56 million) as generation prices fell and gas, transmission and marketing costs climbed, the company said today.
In October, Contact signaled it may invest as much as NZ$850 million in 2012-2013 in building the 220-megawatt Te Mihi steam plant and a 250-megawatt Tauhara geothermal plant. The Te Mihi project has already been approved and was designed to replace the 52-year-old Wairakei geothermal plant.
Tagged with: contact energy • origin
Mar 01
A plan to build the world’s biggest power complex in the Democratic Republic of Congo may never happen because the government is too indecisive, the head of a venture that had planned to invest $5.2 billion said.
Western Power Corridor, a venture between five African countries, had planned the first stage of the complex on the world’s second-biggest river, that could yield 100 gigawatts of power for markets as far afield as southern Europe and the Middle East. Yesterday, Congo’s national power company said Western Power, known as Westcor, will be dissolved.
“If we’re struggling with a 5,000 megawatt project, how are we going to get a 100,000 megawatt project off the ground?” Pat Naidoo, chief executive officer of Westcor, said yesterday from Durban, South Africa, after learning that his company will be closed. Congo is weighing an offer from BHP Billiton Ltd. to use some of its power generation potential.
Congo is in talks with BHP Billiton about using as much as 2,000 megawatts from a future hydroelectric project for an aluminum smelter in the country’s western Bas Congo province, Illtud Harri, said a BHP spokesman.
Mar 01
India, the world’s fourth-largest polluter, plans to levy a tax on coal and use the money to start a national fund to back renewable energy projects.
A clean energy tax of 50 rupees ($1) a metric ton will be imposed on domestic and imported coal, Mukherjee said, without specifying a target for the fund. The new levy could help raise about 25 billion rupees, according to Emergent Ventures, a climate change consulting company.
India has set a target of installing 20,000 megawatts of solar power capacity by 2022. To help meet that goal, the government will provide a concessional import tax rate of 5 percent on machinery and equipment needed to set up solar power plants, Mukherjee said.
See Bloomberg.com 26th Feb 2010 for the full article.
Mar 01
Gamesa Corp. Tecnologica SA, Spain’s biggest wind-turbine maker, fell to an 11-month low in Madrid trading after saying it faces “low levels of activity” in the first half and will cut 8 percent of its domestic workforce.
The earnings “show a greater deterioration in the market that was initially expected,” Antonio Cruz, an analyst at Banesto Bolsa in Madrid, wrote in a research note today.
“The installation levels approved in Spain for 2010 and the difficult access to financing around the world in 2009 indicate low levels of activity during the first half of 2010 and a progressive recovery during the second half of the year,” Gamesa said in the statement.
Gamesa plans to lay off 212 staff for as many as 180 days at plants in the Spanish provinces of La Coruna, Zaragoza, Burgos and Valladolid, the Zamudio-based company said yesterday in an earnings report after the stock market closed. It aims to dismiss an additional 150 workers permanently after closing a plant in Navarra.
See Bloomberg.com 26th Feb 2010 for the full article.
Tagged with: gamesa
Mar 01
AGL Energy Ltd. may develop projects such as the proposed A$800 million ($712 million) Macarthur wind farm “much sooner rather than later” after the Australian government revised a plan to spur renewable energy investment.
“I’d like to think that once we understand the details and see legislation in place, we’ll see projects like Macarthur begin construction much sooner rather than later,” said Michael Fraser, managing director of Sydney-based AGL.
AGL has already committed to building the Hallett 5 wind farm, fulfilling contracts with South Australian and Victorian desalination plants, the company said today. The Macarthur wind farm in Victoria remains delayed, AGL said.
AGL remains interested in electricity assets the New South Wales state government plans to sell, Fraser said in the phone interview. Even so, it’s looking at alternative acquisition possibilities given delays in the process, he said. The company won’t need to sell shares to raise funds this year in the absence of a power-assets sale, he said.
See Bloomberg 26th Feb 2010 fpr the full article.
Mar 01
TRUenergy, an outspoken critic of the emissions trading scheme, enjoyed a hefty rise in earnings last year after record output from one of the country’s most carbon-intensive power stations.
The electricity generator and retailer booked $HK736 million ($A105.8 million) in operating earnings in the year to December, up 22 per cent from $HK604 million in 2008, according to the accounts of its Hong Kong-listed parent, CLP Group.
A major reason for the jump was record output from the Yallourn brown coal-fired power station in Victoria. The station is CLP’s biggest asset in Australia.
The federal government last year more than doubled compensation for coal power stations to $7.3 billion through free emissions permits. However, TRU says it will still face huge write-downs at the profitable Yallourn coal mine and plant, where power generation began in 1921.
See the SMH 28th Feb 2010 for the full article.
Tagged with: CLP • truenergy
Mar 01
First Solar Inc. Chairman Michael J. Ahearn sold more than 40 percent of his holding in the world’s largest maker of thin-film solar cells after the company reported profit margins fell in the fourth quarter.
First Solar’s expansion into designing, engineering and building utility-sized power plants, such as the 21-megawatt project in Blythe, California, had lower profit margins than sales of solar panels to other developers. Gross profit fell to 42 percent of net sales from 54 percent a year earlier.
Ahearn sold 1.3 million shares for $141.8 million at an average price of $109.05, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. First Solar closed at $105.13 in New York yesterday, down 17 percent since the Tempe, Arizona-based company released earnings on Feb 19.
See Bloomberg.com 25th Feb 2010 for the full article.
Tagged with: first solar PV
