Where is your state in the solar race?

Solar households now represent almost 1.7 GW of installed capacity says Professor Ray Wills, chief adviser to the Sustainable Energy Association (SEA).
   
The impressive tally, gained from data up until the end of March sourced from the Australian Clean Energy Regulator, shows while solar power system installation rates have slowed a little from 2011 when 860 MW capacity was installed, an additional 600 MW of small scale solar capacity is likely to be added this year.
  
Queensland leads the nation both in terms of installed solar by number of systems and capacity.
   
A breakdown of each state:
  
Queensland: 209,217 systems, 475,136 kW capacity
New South Wales: 194,980 systems, 435,739 kW capacity
Victoria: 128,013 systems, 266,736 kW capacity
South Australia: 107,544, 254,149  kW capacity
Western Australia: 104,653, 218,914 kW capacity
Northern Territory: 1,551 systems, 5,140 kW capacity
Tasmania: 7,881 15,666 kW capacity

Brought to you by - http://www.gewa.com.au - No1 for solar hot water and solar energy in Perth WA.

Australia hits the 1 million mark!!

In our latest Green Energy WA news.

Australia has reached one million rooftop solar systems installed on homes and businesses, capping off a massive rise over the past decade of federal and state incentives.

• Time to buy solar?

The one million mark was exceeded on March 12, with an analysis of government data by solar industry consultants SunWiz finding 1,011,478 systems had been installed across the country at the end of last month.

The growth in rooftop solar has rapidly increased from fewer than 900 installations in 2006 to more than 300,000 last year.

Clean Energy Council chief executive David Green said about 2½ million Australians now lived in homes with solar panels.

"It is remarkable when you think that just five years ago in 2008 there were only about 20,000 systems installed across the entire country," Mr Green said.

"For some years solar has been most enthusiastically embraced by those in mortgage-belt suburbs, retirement areas and regional parts of the country. People from all walks of life have been installing solar as a way of protecting themselves from power price pain over the long term."

Federal and state governments have reduced or axed incentives for rooftop solar over the past few years, citing the large costs of the schemes and the falling cost of rooftop solar largely due to mass manufacturing in China.

Critics say those incentives for rooftop solar, namely feed-in tariffs, increased the power costs for consumers because a premium was paid for solar power fed back into the electricity grid. Some bodies have also questioned whether subsidising rooftop solar as a way to cut greenhouse gas emissions is efficient and cost effective.

Despite the massive take up of solar photovoltaics (PV), the technology still produces only a small proportion of Australia's electricity needs. Coal is still the dominant supplier of electricity, while hydro and wind are the largest renewable energy sources.

SunWiz data found that over the past year, the 2725 gigawatt hours of power generated by solar PV represented about 1.2 per cent of Australia's electricity needs.

But the rapid take-up of solar panels has been credited with contributing to a recent fall in electricity demand, alongside falls in manufacturing and behaviour changes due to rising power prices.

Of the states, Queensland has the most solar systems installed, at 304,000. NSW follows with 227,663, and then Victoria at 177,851.

SunWiz managing director Warwick Johnston said the cuts to government incentives were expected to reduce the number of solar panel installations over the next four years.

But he said installation rates would remain higher than those in the early part of past decade.

Brought to you by Green Energy WA - No1 for Solar Hot Water and Solar Energy Panels.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/solar-hits-the-million-mark-despite-cuts-to-incentives-20130404-2h9st.html#ixzz2RXNc2N5w

Market to reach 31 GWS - Led by China

The photovoltaic market will continue its growth in 2013 albeit a little slower than in the past few years, according to a new NDP Solarbuzz report. The report projected that the PV market will grow about 7 percent this year to 31 gigawatts 29 GWs in 2012. The report also predicted that Germany’s solar market will finally be outpaced by China, which will be the world’s largest PV market in 2013.

“In 2013, we expect to see improvement in the market fundamentals that enable PV demand to return to double-digit growth,” Said Solarbuzz Senior Analyst Michael Barker. “Installed-system prices will continue to fall, and PV will become increasingly cost competitive across regions with high electricity rates, shortages in domestic supply, and growing renewable obligations to fulfill.”

Overall, the top 10 PV regions, which will include the U.S. and Canada, will still account for 83% of global PV demand. But 2013 will start to see a shift to emerging markets from Europe, which had been solar’s largest market. “2013 will represent another transition year, as the PV industry adjusts to softness across legacy European markets,” Barker said. Such a change has been projected in the past but it now looks like it is coming to pass.

Instead China, Japan, and India, will account for an increasing amount of PV demand and lead to 11 GWs of PV demand in 2013 thanks to new policies, according to the report. “The Chinese end-market will largely compensate for the downturn in demand from Germany, which previously led PV demand,” Barker said. The shift will also come because of further reductions in Europe’s incentives, which Solarbuzz projected will drive down demand there to 12 GWs, 26 percent less than installed in 2012.

In terms of installation types, Solarbuzz projected that with 45 percent of the market ground-mount arrays will dominate demand for solar in 2013. That’s largely because policies are favoring utility-based deployment. Residential market will remain a leader Japan, Germany, Australia, Italy, and the U.K. In those places, the residential sector of the solar market is expected to remain above 20 of all demand in those countries. The company also projects those countries will account for 75 percent of all residential installations in 2013.

Looking forward, the report projects that Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, the Middle East and Southeast Asia will make up more of the global demand from 2014 on. While it will consist of less 8 percent of global demand this year, Solarbuzz projected it will double by 2017, driven primarily by South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Israel, and Mexico.

Brought to you by Green Energy WA 

Source: www.cleanenergyauthority.com

Suntech bankrupt

Suntech Power Holdings, the China-based maker of solar panels, declared bankruptcy on Wednesday, the state news agency Xinhua said.

On Monday of this week, according to Reuters, Suntech said that it had defaulted on US$541 million of its bonds due on Friday, triggering defaults on loans from the International Finance Corporationand various Chinese lenders.

Industry experts will not be surprised by the latest high profile casualty to be hit by bankruptcy, as oversupply and low prices have crippled the industry.

"PV industry growth has followed a significant, often dramatic, upward trajectory. But unfortunately, revenues have followed an unprofitable path," says Paula Mints, founder, and chief market research analyst at SPV Market Research.

According to research by SPV, the top PV manufacturers have been losing considerable amounts of money: "The manufacturers [in the table below] shipped 58% of total shipments in 2012. Revenues for the manufacturers [in this table] were 65% of total revenues in 2012. But at the same time, the manufacturers [in this table] lost a combined US$2.1-billion last year".

Mints believes that a pricing recovery may not come quickly: "Currently the average price for PV modules is <US$0.70/Wp, with inventory trending significantly lower. High levels of inventory will keep prices down in 2013.
The good news is that deployment of technology will continue at high levels. The bad news is that manufacturer failures will continue. Once the consolidation in the industry is complete, PV module prices will increase".

NB: Paula Mints will be writing about the current predicament in the PV industry in the latest issue of Renewable Energy Focus magazine. The article will contain charts looking at PV Industry growth (2002-2013 estimate) and Regional PV Shipments and Average Selling Prices (2002-2012) For a free signup click here. 

Solar Energy News from Green Energy WA 

What do you think?

The Climate Change Authority discussion paper has recommended keeping Australia's Renewable Energy Target unchanged. 

This will be welcomed by the overwhelming majority of Australians who strongly support renewable energy. 

A stable target means investors can confidently commit another $18 billion in Australian renewable energy projects, employing 30,000 Australians. 

A stable target means renewable energy can become increasingly accessible and affordable for all Australians. 

It also means renewable energy can continue to lower Australia's carbon emissions and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. 

It's a recommendation that makes sense for investors and for all Australians who want renewable energy to be an important and viable part of Australia's energy future. 

That's why we look forward to continued bipartisan support for an unchanged Renewable Energy Target.

Discover why a strong renewables sector is important for Australia and reflect on the history of the RET

Be careful out there!!

Police scareware scam continues to target Australians

March 2013: SCAMwatch is urging people to continue to be alert to a scareware scam where scammers posing as the Australian Federal Police (AFP) try to scare you into handing over money to regain control of your computer.

A SCAMwatch alert on this scam was previously issued in October 2012, yet contacts to the ACCC have continued to increase since the beginning of the year.

This scam involves internet users finding that their computer has been frozen, with a pop-up alert appearing on their screen. The alert claims to be from the AFP and states that the user’s computer has been locked because they have visited an illegal website or breached various laws. The scammer claims that they will unlock the computer if a fee is paid.

The AFP does not solicit funds and this message is not associated with the AFP in any way.

Don’t let a scammer ransom you – if you pay, you are not guaranteed that you will regain control of your computer and there will likely be significant data losses once the virus is removed or computer unlocked.

How these scams work

• You visit a website or receive an email that scammers have infected with scareware.
• Out of the blue, your computer freezes and you receive a pop-up alert from what appears to be a reputable authority such as the Australian Federal Police. The alert may include a police logo to make it appear legitimate.
• The alert states that your computer has been frozen because you have violated a law or visited an illegal website. Common claims made by the scammers are that you have violated laws around privacy, copyright or child pornography. 
• In order to unlock the computer, you are instructed to pay a ’fine’ – usually $100 or $199 – using a prepaid money service. These services involve you purchasing a money voucher from a store, which can then be used to make online payments.
• If you pay, the scammers may or may not unlock your computer. Even if you do regain access to your computer, malware may continue to operate so that the scammers can use your personal and financial details to commit fraud.

Protect yourself

• Be wary about which websites you visit and do not open emails from unknown senders – emails may contain malware and some sites may automatically download malicious software on your computer.
• Before you download a file, make sure it is from a reputable source. If the file, is a program (for example, the file name ends with .exe) make sure you know exactly what it will do.
• Always keep your computer security up to date with anti-virus and anti-spyware software and a good firewall. Only buy computer and anti-virus software from a reputable source.
• Be careful what you store on your computer – if a scammer gains access to your personal data, they can use it to steal your identity and your money. If you think your computer has been infected, contact your bank or financial institution immediately and change your passwords.
• If you receive a pop up alert and are unable to perform any functions on your computer, it may have been infected and you might need a computer specialist to remove the malware. If you are able to perform some security functions on your computer, use your security software to run a virus check.
• If you have received this scam, unfortunately your computer’s security has been compromised. Even if you have managed to regain control of your computer – whether by your own means or by paying the scammer – it could still be infected with malware. Use your security software to run a virus check but if you have any doubts, contact your anti-virus software provider or a computer specialist.

http://www.scamwatch.gov.au/

brought to you by Green Energy WA 

More bad electricity news

 The Energy & Water Ombudsman NSW (EWON) saw a 43% increase in complaints in 2011-2012, closing 25,162 cases (up from  17,559 the previous year).

Released today, EWON’s Annual Report 2011-2012 shows that consumers, particularly energy consumers, are experiencing problems across all categories in larger numbers than ever before. Billing issues, in particular disputed high bills, affordability-related credit issues and customer service problems dominated, with significant rises also noted in marketing and account transfer complaints.

The underlying issue of energy affordability is of great concern to EWON. “The circumstances of many customers who contacted us showed they were under real pressure,” said Clare Petre, Energy & Water Ombudsman NSW. “We found many cases where we could help a customer resolve a present, acute situation with their energy supplier – such as disconnection – but where there was clearly an underlying affordability problem that suggested the customer would have problems managing their bills in the future.”

Rising levels of hardship were reflected in disconnection complaints for the period: EWON received 29% more complaints from customers facing disconnection and a worrying 34% more complaints from customers who had already been disconnected. “We were also very concerned to see growing numbers of customers affected by debt collection activity and credit default listing – often for small amounts well under $300,” added Ms Petre.

As energy prices continue to increase, so too will the scale of affordability issues for consumers.  EWON was aware that consumers across other states were likewise affected and called for a national discussion bringing together all key stakeholders to work towards national solutions. “We received strong support for a national discussion and we are continuing to pursue this proposal,” said Ms Petre.

Increased marketing activity by energy retailers combined with growing price sensitivity, which motivated consumers to shop around, also had an impact on complaints to EWON. There was a 71% increase in marketing  complaints in the year (2070 cases) and an 86% rise in complaints relating to account transfers (4903 cases). EWON is continuing to receive customer reports about pressured and misleading energy marketing, as well as marketing to vulnerable consumers where informed consent is an issue.

These complaint growth trends are forecast to continue through 2012-2013. Looking ahead, Ms Petre said, “it is incumbent upon energy and water providers to invest in systems and resources to ensure they have the capability to respond to any increases in contacts from their customers.”

A Green Energy WA Manger agrees, it is likely bad news for the whole country. "Rises like these are never restricted to one state alone and we expected the rise to effect every state. Again the value of solar power is pushed to the forefront. The escalating bills are really effecting the older generation, its them we need to protect"

Get your free quote now from Green Energy WA 

Solar gains more ground as Gas price hike close

Great news for Australia as Gas market booms, or is it?

Santos Chief, David Knox recently revealed, the current gas deals of $3-$4 a gigajoule were being replaced with deals at the higher end of $6-$9!

Its easy to see gas prices are about to explode as the uncertainties of market supply take their toll.

There has never been a better time to move on your solar clean energy investment - Call the experts, Green Energy WA today and talk through your options.

Green Energy WA Number One for SOlar Hot Water and Solar Energy options.

www.gewa.com.au

Obama opens door for renewable energy push in US

In his inaugural speech for his second term in office, U.S. President Barack Obama has upped the ante, promising to show global leadership on climate change and support the development of clean energy...

In his speech, Obama said he would double the production of alternative energy in the next three years. He added that his administration would focus on efficiency as a way to reduce energy demand, by modernising more than 75 percent of federal buildings and improving the energy efficiency of 2 million American homes.

It was the most Obama had said on climate change for some time, and it was a stronger affirmation of the science underlying climate change than Obama has offered on other occasions: "Some may still deny the overwhelming judgment of science, but none can avoid the devastating impact of raging fires and crippling drought and more powerful storms," Obama said.

On renewable energy, Obama spoke with an almost religous zeal: "The path towards sustainable energy sources will be long and sometimes difficult. But America cannot resist this transition; we must lead it. We cannot cede to other nations the technology that will power new jobs and new industries - we must claim its promise. That is how we will maintain our economic vitality and our national treasure - our forests and waterways; our croplands and snowcapped peaks".

Reaction

Not surprisingly, the speech has been widely heralded by clean energy groups: The Sierra Club commended Obama “for his vision of an economic recovery plan that recognises the vital role of clean energy.”

http://www.renewableenergyfocus.com/view/30393/obama-opens-door-for-renewable-energy-push-in-us/

Solar companies to sue UK government

Solar companies are planning to sue the government for £140m in damages, because of the cuts to subsidies in 2011 that were subsequently ruled "legally flawed" in the high court.

The 17 companies said the way in which the changes to the feed-in tariff were handled was disastrous for their businesses, because it led to asudden and dramatic fall in the number of people installing solar panels, and companies had to lay off thousands of workers.

It is the latest stage of a long-running legal battle that has taken the solar industry to the high court, the court of appeals and supreme court, arguing successfully each time that the government was at fault in announcing a cut in the feed-in tariff before it was legally allowed to.

The cuts, and the impression they gave of a policy that could change at very little notice, put off potential customers. Prior to the cuts announcement, the solar panel industry had been enjoying a boom in the UK, with more than 100,000 new installations before the changes were announced in October 2011. But the number of new installations dropped by 90% in the wake of the government's sudden changes.

Before the cuts, householders were paid for their solar generation at 43.3p per kWh of electricity generated, but in October 2011 the government said this would be cut to 21p, reducing returns from about 7% to 4%. Under the original plans, the lower rate would have applied to installations from 12 December that year, but the courts subsequently forced the government to honour the original tariff for anyone installing before 3 March, 2012 because the amount of notice given was too short.

The government said the changes were necessary as the cost of solar panels had come down since the original tariff was introduced, with the result that households were making excessive returns. The cost of the feed-in tariff is met through additions to energy bills, and ministers wanted to cap this at £860m, while the runaway rate of installation in 2011 threatened to cost far more. Many in the industry accepted that the tariff should be cut, but were angered by the government's failure to give enough notice.

As the feed-in tariff regime has now been amended and the government promises it will remain stable, the number of installations is rising again, but solar companies say they suffered a year of damaging uncertaintythat hurt sales and led to an estimated 6,000 job losses in what had been a bright and growing niche sector of the economy.

Simon Gillett, chief executive of E-tricity, one of the 17 claimants, said: "The good news is that solar is now once again a sound investment. The feed-in tariff is secure, solar prices are falling and both the government and public now want solar to play a big role in our energy mix. ut the industry was treated very badly, and companies must be healthy and ready to work to meet demand."

He called 2012 an "annus horribilis" and said his company had cut a third of its workforce. "We are calling for compensation after this illegal action to help us get up to speed again and help secure the clean and affordable energy supply we need."

The claim is being led by Prospect Law, and has increased from an original £2.2m claim from three companies last July.

There are currently about 370,000 homes and companies with solar panels in the UK, according to industry estimates, and the solar industry employs more than 25,000 people.

Link to story brought to you by Green Energy WA Here. 

Did you know

Paper

• Paper makes up to 70 per cent of office waste.

Landfill Waste & Recycling

• We produce and use about 7 trillion plastic bags per year (these bags last anything form 20 to 1,000 years).
• The Styrofoam cups used every year would circle the planet at least five times, they are not biodegradable and are rarely recycled.
• Recycling an aluminium can uses only 5% of the energy required to make a new one. Recycling glass uses 26% of the energy. Every tonne of paper recycled saves almost 13 trees, 4,100 kilowatts of electricity and more than 30,000 litres of water.
• Daily worldwide sales figures of biros exceed 14 million: A plastic pen in landfill will still be there in 50,000 years.

Cigarettes

• Contain some 3,900 chemicals (many of which are dangerous to humans and living organisms). Filters are designed to trap some of the more dangerous by-products making the butt a poisonous pellet.
• Butts take 15 years to break down in our climate. Most butts are washed into stormwater drains and end up in the ocean.
• 4.5 trillion butts are littered worldwide each year.

Little Known Facts

• Standard plastic bags last for thousands of years in the environment
• Glass bottles can take one million years to biodegrade
• A disposable nappy can take 300 million years to decompose naturally
• A plastic bottle or ink cartridge can last indefinitely
• Mobile phones and iPods are made from metals that do not biodegrade at all

Home and Office

• An unplugged mobile phone charger wastes 95% of the energy used doing nothing.
• Leaving the lights on, combined with computers left on standby, can double a companys energy bill. Lights left on generate unnecessary heat, requiring the air-conditioner to work overtime, using even more electricity.
• An ordinary incandescent bulb converts most of the energy into heat not light. An energy efficient bulb can use up to 80% less energy and lasts about 8 times longer. Although it costs about 10 times more than an ordinary $1 bulb it will save over $80 in electricity.

"Developed countries represent 25% of the global population but use 80% of its resources and produce 75% of its waste."

GREEN ENERGY WA

Story thanks to Green Biz Check

Australia concedes lead to South Africa in solar thermal technology

It is ironic that in the same week that the ambitious $1.2 billion Solar Dawn solar thermal project in south-west Queensland should finally be put to rest, construction of two solar thermal projects – with storage – should begin in South Africa.

The last chance for the Solar Dawn consortium led by French nuclear giant Areva for the construction of a 250MW solar thermal plant in Queensland, or even a scaled down version of it, was removed when the Australian Renewable Energy Agency rejected its funding proposal – after the federal government had done so under the previous Solar Flagships program.

Meanwhile, in South Africa, the Spanish group Abengoa last week began construction of two solar thermal projects boasting a mixture of solar tower and parabolic trough technologies. The 50MW Khi Solar One and 100MW KaXu Solar One CSP (concentrating solar power, another name for solar thermal) projects will feature storage and dry cooling technologies, to reduce water demands.

These are the sort of projects that should be pioneered and deployed in Australia. Instead, Australia’s obsession with grandiose schemes, its inflexible funding arrangements, and the lack of true support from state governments and major utilities, mean South Africa will lead and Australia will follow.

The failure of the Solar Flagships program, or the inability of various projects to lock in power price arrangements is not a failure of technology, as many would like to portray it, but a failure of policy – where the hubris of government overwhelms sound technical advice from the industry. It was an idea dreamed up by the egos in the office of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, and the bureaucrats were never able to meet the impossible task of matching such grandiose dreams – of having the biggest, but not necessarily the best – with sound policies. The coup-de-grace was delivered by Queensland Premier Campbell Newman in a similarly grand-standing gesture.

Greg Bourne, the chairman of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, is now tasked with addressing that policy shortfall, but at least he has more realistic goals. And certainly there is no room for sentiment.  Effectively, the first act of Ivor Frischknecht, the CEO of ARENA, has been to reject a project featuring the technology in which he was once an investor, in his role at Starfish Ventures, which was an investor in Ausra, which developed the compact linear reflector technology that Solar Dawn was proposing to use.

Given the funds at his disposal, and his timeframe, Bourne and Frischknecht have indicated that he will be focusing on regional and remote regions, and looking at hybrid solutions in areas where fossil fuel is already expensive.

The one opportunity that Australia now has for a solar thermal project in the short term may well be in Port August, where Alinta has held some discussions with ARENA, for a possible replacement of its coal-fired power stations there. What they may propose, however, is a hybrid systems no dissimilar to the solar booster that is currently being built in Queensland by Areva.

But the importance of solar thermal should not be underestimated. Even the Energy White Paper, a conservative document prepared by the Federal Energy ministry and released last week, said 16 per cent of Australia’s electricity demand could be sourced from solar thermal by 2050. That could make Australia a leader in solar thermal, but for the moment it trails.

That, however, was built around a rather conservative estimate of CSP costs. The Energy White Paper estimates CSP estimates costs of $322-$399/MWh. This compares to $280/MWh in the South African case, and estimates of around $250/MWh by Australia’s solar industry.

South Africa is succeeding with stand alone systems because it has introduced a market-focused system that has successfully attracted many of the world’s largest solar and other alternative energy developers, through an auction-based system that has attracted more than $5 billion of projects in its first two auctions.

The ACT is the only state or territory government that has pursued a similar strategy, albeit at a much smaller scale. It has so far had one round of bidding that should see a 20MW solar PV project being built near Canberra by the end of 2013.

In South Africa, the Khi Solar One and KaXu Solar One projects both have power purchase agreements with the state-owned power utility Eskom in place, and financing with a range of South African and international financial institutions.

Abengoa says the dry cooling technologies will reduce water consumption by around two thirds compared to other CSP plants, while Khi Solar One will have two hours storage, and Kaxu will have three hours storage to provide greater flexibility and the ability to dispatch power to meet demand after sunset.

The tragedy is that those projects could, and should, have been built first in Australia. But Australia was too obsessed with projects of a grandiose nature that it lost the opportunity.

source.... 

Solar Goal Posts Moved Again - Panic Rush About To Start

THE HON GREG COMBET AM MP

Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency

Minister for Industry and Innovation

MEDIA RELEASE

GC 307/12

16 November 2012

SOLAR CREDITS PHASE OUT TO MODERATE PRICE IMPACT

Due to continued strong demand for household solar, the Federal Government will phase out the Solar Credits mechanism six months ahead of schedule on 1 January 2013. This will lower the impact of the high uptake of solar PV on electricity costs for homes and businesses.

Phasing out the multiplier early will strike the appropriate balance between easing upward pressure on electricity prices and supporting households and suppliers who install solar PV. The overall reduction in electricity bills is estimated to be in the order of $80 to $100 million in 2013.

Installation of small-scale systems and solar hot water heaters continues to be supported under the Renewable Energy Target scheme, with solar PV systems benefiting from generous arrangements that provide support for 15 years worth of generation upfront.

The Solar Credits mechanism has provided additional support for installations of small-scale solar PV by multiplying the number of certificates these systems would usually create under the RET scheme. As this benefit was never available to solar hot water heaters, the phase out puts solar PV and solar water heaters back onto a level playing field.

The multiplier was always designed to reduce over time. Bringing forward the phase-out of the multiplier to 1 January 2013 will help place the industry on a sustainable path and ease pressure on electricity prices. By 2014 the small-scale scheme is expected to cost electricity consumers around 70 per cent less than in 2012.

The carbon price improves the economics of household solar and this change will enhance the complementarity of the RET support with the incentive the carbon price provides. States and Territories are also examining the complementarity of their climate change policies in light of principles agreed by COAG in 2008.

Consistent with a previous reduction in the multiplier announced in May 2011, legally binding contracts to install supported systems, already entered into before today and made on the basis of the current rules, will be preserved. The same applies to systems installed before 1 January 2013. See www.climatechange.gov.au.

Media contact: Mark Davis, Gia Hayne 02 6277 7920

If you need clarification as to how these new rules apply to your solar decisions call Green Energy WA today - 1300 882 551 or visit www.gewa.com.au

Consumer-oriented Electricity Market?

A draft report by the Productivity Commission, Electricity Network Regulation Frameworks, has found that regulation and ownership arrangements for electricity networks require overhaul.

The costs of electricity networks — the wires and poles criss-crossing Eastern Australia — now represent as much as one-half of people's average power bills. Network cost rises are responsible for much of the surge in electricity prices over the last five years.

Philip Weickhardt, the Presiding Commissioner for the inquiry, said: 'The current regulatory regime is undermining the capacity of network business managers to run their businesses efficiently, and puts up barriers to consumer involvement. There is no quick fix, but our proposed reforms can deliver a more efficient system and potentially save billions of dollars.'

The report says that a few periods of peak demand — mostly during hot spells in summer — require huge amounts of infrastructure. The Commission recommends the phased introduction of more cost-based pricing, combined with smart technologies. It says this would cut network costs and end the large hidden subsidies, often from lower income households, to people who use a lot of power at peak times.

The Commission also recommends the creation of a new industry-funded consumer body, with enough expertise to contribute to regulatory determinations and merit reviews. It also proposes a national, consumer-focused, approach to reliability standards. These can vary without reason across states, and sometimes require costly investments to achieve a much higher level of reliability thanconsumers would otherwise choose.

The report also recommends that all state-owned network businesses be privatised (but remain strongly regulated). It finds that this would improve efficiency and avoid the conflicting mix of state government influences on their corporations.

The Commission finds that over the shorter run, there is limited scope to use regulatory benchmarking, which rewards businesses based on their relative efficiency. It notes that fixing the flaws of the regulatory framework would in any case be a prerequisite to its meaningful use.

The Commission is seeking public feedback on its draft proposals. Its final report will be delivered to Government in April 2013.

Background information

Ralph Lattimore, Assistant Commissioner 02 6240 3242

Requests for comment/other

Clair Angel, Media & Publications 02 6240 3239 / 0417 665 443

As seen at http://www.pc.gov.au/projects/inquiry/electricity/draft/media-release

Solar in Governments Hands

The Australian government in July started charging polluters for the carbon they emit to reduce the nation’s reliance on fossil fuels and encourage wind and solar power. The country also plans to invest $10 billion in Clean Energy Finance Corp. to help the industry.

“First Solar has labeled Australia as one of the more prospective markets globally, and we would agree with that,” said Tim Buckley, managing director at Sydney-based Arkx Investment Management, which owns shares in the US panel manufacturer. “But progress to date has been limited,” partly because of uncertainty about government energy policy.

While Australia has the highest average solar radiation per square meter of any continent, according to the government, some projects picked to receive solar grants, including a venture led by Areva SA in the state of Queensland, have failed to meet financing deadlines and sign power-supply agreements.

“If you can’t create a sustainable solar market in Australia, it’s difficult to see how you can create one in other markets without strong government intervention,” Curtis said.

Solar News from Green Energy WA 


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/carbon-economy/australia-four-years-behind-us-solar-giant-says-20121016-27pi5.html#ixzz29cgCe4LS

Did you know?

Our mother Earth receives more energy from the sun in an hour than is used in the entire world in one year. 

Did you know Leonardo da Vinci predicted a solar industrialisation back in 1447 Makes you wonder knowing  it is only in recent years that the world has turned to solar power systems. 

Did you know that Shell Oil now predicts that 50% of the world's energy will come from renewable sources by 2040.

Solar Energy from Green Energy WA - Truly the way forward 

Visit us today - WA's No1 Solar Company 

Chinese Solar In Disarray

BEIJING — China in recent years established global dominance in renewable energy, its solar panel and wind turbine factories forcing many foreign rivals out of business and its policy makers hailed by environmentalists around the world as visionaries.

But now China’s strategy is in disarray. Though worldwide demand for solar panels andwind turbines has grown rapidly over the last five years, China’s manufacturing capacity has soared even faster, creating enormous oversupply and a ferocious price war.

The result is a looming financial disaster, not only for manufacturers but for state-owned banks that financed factories with approximately $18 billion in low-rate loans and for municipal and provincial governments that provided loan guarantees and sold manufacturers valuable land at deeply discounted prices.

China’s biggest solar panel makers are suffering losses of up to $1 for every $3 of sales this year, as panel prices have fallen by three-fourths since 2008. Even though the cost of solar power has fallen, it still remains triple the price of coal-generated power in China, requiring substantial subsidies through a tax imposed on industrial users of electricity to cover the higher cost of renewable energy.

The outcome has left even the architects of China’s renewable energy strategy feeling frustrated and eager to see many businesses shut down, so the most efficient companies may be salvageable financially.

In the solar panel sector, “If one-third of them survive, that’s good, and two-thirds of them die, but we don’t know how that happens,” said Li Junfeng, a longtime director general for energy and climate policy at the National Development and Reform Commission, the country’s top economic planning agency.

Mr. Li said in an interview that he wanted banks to cut off loans to all but the strongest solar panel companies and let the rest go bankrupt. But banks — which were encouraged by Beijing to make the loans — are not eager to acknowledge that the loans are bad and take large write-offs, preferring to lend more money to allow the repayment of previous loans. Many local and provincial governments also are determined to keep their hometown favorites afloat to avoid job losses and to avoid making payments on loan guarantees, he said.

Mr. Li’s worries appear to be broadly shared in Beijing. “For the leading companies in the sector, if they’re not careful, the whole sector will disappear,” said Chen Huiqing, the deputy director for solar products at the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products.

The Chinese government also wants to see the country’s more than 20 wind turbine manufacturers, many of which are losing money, consolidate to five or six. “Wind does not need so many manufacturers,” said Mr. Li, who in addition to drafting renewable energy policies is the president of the Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association.

Chinese solar company executives blame their difficulties partly on the United States’s decisions last spring to impose antidumping and anti-subsidy tariffs on solar panel imports, and on the European Union’s recent decision to start its own antidumping investigation of imports from China.

“It is not a Chinese industry problem, it is a global solar industry problem,” said Rory Macpherson, a spokesman for Suntech Power, one of the largest Chinese solar panel manufacturers. “It is primarily the result of an imbalance between supply and demand, and the U.S. and E.U. trade investigations.”

Mr. Li said the solar industry’s problems were the result of overcapacity in China, and not the fault of trade restrictions.

Yet he insisted that if the Chinese government could turn back the clock and revisit past renewable energy decisions, it would not do anything differently.

The problem lies in the eagerness of Chinese businesses to rush into any new industry that looks attractive and swamp it with investments, he said. Chinese companies and their bankers are then far more reluctant than Western companies to admit defeat for investments that prove unprofitable.

Mr. Li added that banking regulators had not yet decided what to do about banks’ exposure to the solar sector. The central government tried without success to learn from local and provincial government agencies how much of the solar industry’s bank debt they have guaranteed, Mr. Li said.

Chinese solar power companies are making some cutbacks. Suntech, based in Wuxi, is temporarily closing a quarter of its solar cell capacity. It will transfer a majority of the 1,500 affected workers to other operations and provide severance payments to the rest.

Jiangsu province, where Suntech has its headquarters and most of its factories, issued an unusual appeal to state-owned banks several weeks ago to continue lending money to the company, a step that Mr. Li criticized as inappropriate. Mr. Macpherson of Suntech wrote in an e-mail that the Jiangsu government had not guaranteed any of the company’s debt, which totaled $2.26 billion at the end of the first quarter, including some convertible bonds in addition to bank loans. Trina Solar, one of its biggest rivals, also has said it will “streamline its operations” and shrink its work force, but did not provide details.

Trina shares have dropped 85 percent in the last three years and Suntech shares have fallen more than 98 percent in the last five years. Both trade on the New York Stock Exchange.

The modest cutbacks in production barely put a dent in China’s overcapacity problem. GTM Research, a renewable energy consulting firm in Boston, estimates that Chinese companies have the ability to manufacture 50 gigawatts of solar panels this year, while the Chinese domestic market is on track to absorb only 4 to 5 gigawatts. Exports will take another 18 or 19 gigawatts.

The enormously expensive equipment in solar panel factories needs to be run around the clock, seven days a week, to cover costs.

“You want to be up at 80 percent, so they’re half of what they need,” said Shayle Kann, the head of GTM Research, which is a unit of Greentech Media.

Chinese companies have struggled even though a dozen solar companies in the United States and another dozen in Europe have gone bankrupt or closed factories since the start of last year. The bankruptcies and closures have done little to ease the global glut and price war because China by itself represents more than two-thirds of the world’s capacity.

To reduce capacity, foreign rivals have clamored for China to subsidize the purchase of more solar panels at home, instead of having Chinese companies rely so heavily on exports. But the government here is worried about the cost of doing so, because the price of solar power remains far higher than for coal-generated power.

The average cost of electricity from solar panels in China works out to 19 cents per kilowatt-hour, said Mr. Li. That is three times the cost of coal-fired power. But it is a marked improvement from 63 cents per kilowatt-hour for solar power four years ago.

China’s official goal is to install 10 gigawatts of solar panels a year by 2015, using 20-year contracts to guarantee payment for electricity purchased from them. If costs stay where they are now, the subsidies would be $50 billion over 20 years for every 10 gigawatts of solar power installed, based on figures supplied by Mr. Li.

Even if solar power costs fall by a third, as the government hopes, he said, “it’s big money.”

Global view by Green Energy WA
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