Latest Buzz...
                  

Translate

Sunday, April 26, 2015

CSIRO’s solar technology blog is no longer active

This is Google's cache of http://csirosolarblog.com/tag/western-australia/. It is a snapshot of the page as it appeared on 12 Feb 2015 06:09:35 GMT.

Hot new projects part 3: taking SolarGas to north west Australia

Posted: Thursday, 7th March, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: SolarGas | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

We’re helping remote industry look forward to more power with fewer emissions, thanks to the sun.

This is our third post in the ‘Hot new projects’ series, where we’ve been featuring recently announced CSIRO-led projects funded by the Australian Solar Institute (now part of ARENA).

In the north west of Australia mining activity is expanding very rapidly. Often it’s happening in remote areas – in towns like Nullagine, which is as far away from the nearest city as London is from Warsaw. Large mining operations need a lot of power, and since many are in places with no connection to the electricity grid they have traditionally relied on what power they can generate from diesel or gas.

While today’s power sources like diesel engines and simple gas turbines are cost effective, they are not environmentally sustainable. Transporting the fuel to remote areas not only increases the cost, but also increases the carbon footprint of the fuel.

Many mines are located where there's abundant solar energy. We're hoping to put some of it to use. [Image: Norwich Park Mine via AFR]

Many mines are located where there’s abundant solar energy. We’re hoping to put some of it to use. [Image: Norwich Park Mine via AFR]
To help out, CSIRO and our partners are investigating ways to make this power generation more environmentally sustainable, and we’re using the region’s most abundant natural resource – sunlight.

In this project, CSIRO and our partner GE will be designing a new gas-powered remote power station, suited to north west Australian conditions, where the natural gas gets a renewable energy ‘boost’ before it goes to the turbine. This boost happens in a solar-driven chemical reaction that upgrades the natural gas into a product called syngas. This solar-enhanced syngas, which we call SolarGas™, contains 25% more energy than the original gas – all of which has come from the heat of the sun. We walked through the process (and showed you photos of our test facility with its field of focusing mirrors) in an earlier blog post SolarGas: what’s it all about?

A solar field like this one at CSIRO in Newcastle can add energy from the sun to natural gas. This could help remote towns and outback mines save money and reduce emissions.

A solar field like this one at CSIRO in Newcastle can add energy from the sun to natural gas. This could help remote towns and outback mines save money and reduce emissions.
The sun-enhanced gas now passes to the turbine as usual, where it creates electricity. The ‘waste’ heat from this process is then harnessed to power a second turbine – a steam turbine – which creates extra electricity.

This two-turbine daisy chain, known as a combined cycle power station, is already frequently used for electricity generation. Our design will add the solar stage in the most efficient way, and model the system to see how it performs and what it’ll cost. We expect that adding solar will reduce overall cost, as well as lowering emissions.

The project will be the first time that a combined cycle power station is integrated with the SolarGas™ process in a detailed model. We hope this project will provide a stepping stone to the construction of demonstration plants in the Australian Outback.

The project, worth $700,000, will utilise CSIRO expertise in solar thermal technology and solar syngas reactors in partnership with world leaders in power station technology, GE Australia and the GE Global Research Centre in the United States.

You can read an interview with the project leader, CSIRO’s Robbie McNaughton, in the January issue of the Pilbara Echo.

The ultimate result of this work will be the use of less fossil fuel, for more power, with reduced emissions. That’s good for industry, and good for the environment!
Posted by Askgerbil at 4:16 PM 0 comments
Labels: , , , ,

Friday, April 24, 2015

When the captain makes a call, the budget goes into the red

Tuesday, 22 March 2011

No need for tax cuts once we axe carbon price: Hockey

THE Coalition has confirmed it will 'unwind' personal tax cuts if they were part of a package to compensate households for the carbon tax.

Asked about the government's option of using income tax cuts to shield low- and middle-income earners from a carbon price, the shadow treasurer, Joe Hockey, said: "We will repeal the carbon tax … so we will unwind the compensation because you don't need it if you don't have the carbon tax."


Tried to do a backflip. Failed.

Wednesday, 6 March 2013

Hockey, Abbott 'on same page' on carbon tax compo

Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey has rejected suggestions he is at odds with his leader over whether the Coalition would keep any of the carbon tax compensation.

"There is no split because we're exactly on the same page," Mr Hockey told reporters in Sydney.

"Families will be better off under the Coalition, no doubt about it. And if you don't have a carbon tax, you don't have to have compensation."

Thursday, 16 May 2013

The carbon tax will go, tax cuts and pension benefits will stay, Abbott says

The Coalition will abolish the carbon tax and provide immediate and substantial relief to electricity and gas prices.

Families and pensioners will also benefit by fully retaining the income tax cuts and fortnightly pension and benefit increases associated with the carbon tax. This will allow households to plan their futures with confidence.
Posted by Askgerbil at 9:05 AM 0 comments
Labels: , ,

When the captain calls, watch the backflips

Monday, 30 March 2015

Tried to do a backflip. Failed.

Friday, 17 April 2015

Thursday, 23 April 2015

Thursday, 23 April 2015

Related post:


Saturday, 11 August 2012

Turnbull points finger at 'gold-plating' for power price rises

Opposition frontbencher Malcolm Turnbull says the carbon tax has contributed to electricity price rises, but has backed the Gillard Government's view that the "gold-plating" of state government electricity infrastructure has done much more.

His comments run counter to the view of Opposition Liberal leader Tony Abbott, who says price rises are wholly down to the carbon tax, accusing Julia Gillard of fabrication in blaming the states.

Tuesday, 21 April 2015

Tuesday, 30 April 2015

Posted by Askgerbil at 8:14 AM 0 comments
Labels: , ,

Saturday, April 11, 2015

"Failing to emit enough carbon" tax

The Australian Government's Energy White Paper is so bad its embarrassing.

Oh Dear, I'm Just So Embarrassed

Oh Dear, I'm Just So Embarrassed

Photo: Jane Cumming


It commits Australian families and businesses to power bills at least 40 percent higher than needed. This is detailed in a related post - "Electricity peak period pricing a poor idea".

It commits to slugging Australian families and businesses billions of dollars for smart meters to solve a problem that wouldn't exist without the Government regulations that encourage and reward excess investment in poles and wires.

It says the Australian Government's priority is a "failing to emit a enough carbon" tax - and, wait for it... calls this reverse carbon tax on families and businesses "cost-reflective pricing"!!!

This is not a joke. It is at page 6 and 12 of the Abbott Government Energy White Paper released for April Fool's Day.

The extract below describes this priority - to impose higher power bills through a reverse carbon tax - on families and businesses encouraged previously by the Government to invest in solar panels.

"In recent years, there has been unprecedented growth of distributed generation on the network, with consumers generating their own electricity, mostly in the form of rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) panels. Initially this was supported through highly subsidised feed-in-tariffs in different jurisdictions and enhanced small-scale technology certificates under the RET, which were aimed at supporting the uptake of renewable energy. However, ...
Consumers without distributed generation currently subsidise those with distributed generation. Distributed generators use less total electricity from the network and pay less, while still using the infrastructure for reliable supply..."

The Australian Government’s priorities in energy market reform are the:

  • ...
  • rollout of cost-reflective tariffs to reduce cross-subsidies between consumers and drive better uptake of enabling technologies (particularly advanced metering) that allow consumers to respond to price signals [i.e. "pay more"] .

The extract below from page 11 describes the policy of building an electricity supply system that is 40 per cent more costly than is needed and then slugging families and businesses with the cost of smart meters to ensure they pay more for this excess equipment that sits idle throughout each year.

...Cost-reflective tariffs

"The most variable elements of cost relate to the wholesale price of electricity at the time of use, and building the maximum (peak) capacity needed in the electricity network
...
To maintain reliability in supply, networks must have the capacity to cope with this peak pressure. The scale of peak demand therefore influences network costs, which is around half of the total electricity bill (AEMC 2014)."

The cheaper and sane option is the one Greg Hunt hit upon a couple of years ago: don't build more poles and wires than you need.

"The committee is swayed by the weight of evidence suggesting the current regulatory framework not only permits but incentivises inefficient over-investment in network infrastructure," the tri-partisan committee found. The network's artificially high rates of investment returns "have substantially driven electricity prices directly and have effectively 'poured petrol' on other smouldering price pressures."
Posted by Askgerbil at 8:55 AM 0 comments
Labels: , , ,

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Fossil fuels, asbestos, lead and white phosphorus

The beginning of the fossil fuel era

1882 [Thomas Edison]
Edison's work led to the first commercial power plant in 1882.

1903 [Charles Curtis]
The first steam turbine generator, pioneered by Curtis, was put into operation at the Newport Electric Corporation in Newport, Rhode Island.
.
.
.
.
.

Asbestos related diseases

Although the health risks associated with asbestos had been long observed and were confirmed scientifically early in the Twentieth Century, it was not until the 1970s that the Australian community was made aware of the problem.

Asbestos was phased out in Australia after 1980. It was finally banned from building products in 1989, though it remained in gaskets and brake linings until recently. Asbestos was prohibited completely after 31 December 2003, and can not be imported, used or recycled.

Asbestos is a fibrous mineral that was widely used in Australia in the 20th Century for many industrial and domestic applications.

Inhalation of asbestos fibres has been shown to lead to a number of serious health risks, including asbestosis and the cancer mesothelioma.

As these can take a number of decades to develop, it is likely that the effects on the Australian community of exposure to asbestos will continue to increase into the 21st Century.

Lead alert facts: Lead in house paint

Before 1970, paints containing high levels of lead were used in many Australian houses. Exposure to lead is a health hazard. Even small amounts of dust or chips of paint containing lead, generated during minor home repairs, can be a health risk.

Lead in domestic paint has declined from 50% before 1965, to 1% in 1965. In 1992, it was reduced to 0.25%, and in 1997 it was further reduced to 0.1%.

On Catalyst: could lead exposure in childhood lead to an adult life marked by violent crime?

Any house painted before 1970 is likely to contain leaded paint
Any house painted before 1970 is likely to contain leaded paint
"We've undertaken similar studies in Australia which show a very strong relationship between lead in air and crime 22 years later."

The beginning of the white phosphorus match era until the final ban

1830 [Charles Sauria]
The U.S. Congress passed a law placing a prohibitively high tax on them in 1913.
Sauria formulated a match using white phosphorus. However, the phosphorus was deadly. Many people developed a disorder known as 'phossy jaw'. Children who sucked on matches developed skeletal deformities. Phosphorus factory workers got bones diseases. One pack of matches contained enough phosphorus to kill a person.  Deaths and suicides from eating the heads of matches became frequent.

Ripper Street- A case of Phossy Jaw, in it’s worst stages.
True horror story - A case of Phossy  Jaw, in it’s worst stages.
1838 [The first case of "phossy jaw" was recorded]
The victim, a female Viennese matchstick maker, had been exposed to the phosphorous vapors over a five-year period. The average time between exposure to the phosphorous vapors and the appearance of "phossy jaw" was about five years, but only about 5% of those exposed were inflicted with this disfiguring and often lethal affliction

The infamous "phossy jaw" became an epidemic of exposed bone osteonecrosis exclusively in the jaws began around 1838. This epidemic of osteonecrosis produced pain, swelling, debilitation, and a reported mortality of 20% and was linked to "yellow phosphorous," the key ingredient in "strike-anywhere" matches. In match-making factories, workers called "mixers," "dippers," and "boxers" were exposed to heated fumes containing this compound. Related to the duration of exposure, many of these workers developed painful exposed bone in the mouth, whereas their office-based counterparts did not.

1888 [the “London matchgirls” strike]
Phossy jaw, also known as phosphorus necrosis of the jaw, was most commonly seen among match workers in the 19th and early 20th centuries – famously, the “London matchgirls,” whose strike of 1888 brought the problem into the public eye – fifty years after the first recorded case.
 
In those days, matches were made with white phosphorus, and prolonged exposure to the vapor of the substance caused deposits to form in the victims’ jawbones. Throbbing toothaches, extreme swelling of the gums and abscesses in the jawbone followed. The afflicted bones would also take on a green-white tinge, while severe brain damage also lay in wait for those already suffering.

The only known treatment was to surgically remove the jawbones; if it were left unchecked, organ failure and death would result. The disease also caused tremendous pain and disfigurement, and the rotting bone tissue emitted a putrid-smelling discharge. Phossy jaw did not begin to decline until 1906 – sixty eight years after the first recorded case.

1872 [Bans commence on white phosphorus matches]
Finland prohibited the use of white phosphorus in 1872, followed by Denmark in 1874, France in 1897, Switzerland in 1898, and the Netherlands in 1901.

1898 [Henri Savene and Emile David Cahen]
Two French chemists, Henri Savene and Emile David Cahen, developed a safe match using phosphorus sesquisulfide that was patented in 1898. They proved that the substance was not poisonous, that it could be used in a "strike-anywhere" match, and that the match heads were not explosive. They patented a safety match composition in 1898 based on phosphorus sesquisulfide and potassium chlorate.

1906 [International Agreement to ban white phosphorus in matches]
An agreement, the Berne Convention, was reached at Bern, Switzerland, in September 1906, which banned the use of white phosphorus in matches. This required each country to pass laws prohibiting the use of white phosphorus in matches. Great Britain passed a law in 1908 prohibiting its use in matches after 31 December 1910.

The United States did not pass a law to ban the manufacture and sale of white phosphorus matches, but instead Congress passed a law placing a prohibitively high tax on them in 1913.  This punitive tax on white phosphorus-based matches was sufficiently so high as to render their manufacture financially impractical.

India and Japan banned them in 1919; China followed, banning them in 1925 - five years before the centennial of the invention of white phosphorus matches.

Posted by Askgerbil at 12:00 PM 3 comments
Labels: , , , , ,

Monday, March 16, 2015

Gambling on climate change - no safe bets

Gambling on Climate Change
Gambling on Climate Change

Lectures on the Global Warming Gamble 

Extract of -
The Global Warming Policy Foundation
2011 Annual GWPF Lecture
Westminster Cathedral Hall | 26 October 2011

One Christian Perspective on Climate Change
Cardinal George Pell
Archbishop of Sydney

Let me begin by thanking the Global Warming Policy Foundation for the invitation to deliver this lecture.

Why might a Catholic bishop comment?

We might ask whether my scepticism is yet another example of religious ignorance and intransigence opposing the forward progress of science as is alleged in the confrontations between Galileo and the Papacy in the early seventeenth century, when the Church party on the evidence of scripture insisted that the sun moved around the earth.

It is not generally realized that in 2001 at least, one of the IPCC Third Assessment Report’s Working Groups agreed: “In climate research and modelling, we are dealing with a coupled, non-linear, chaotic system, and therefore that the long-term prediction of future climate states is not possible”.

Arnold helped to explain why the systems around us work, how fluids flow. Like Lorenz, he found that small changes had an immense impact on outcomes. For him long-range weather forecasting was effectively impossible, because small events could have dramatic, unforeseen consequences.


A small event - dramatic, unforeseeable consequences

Changes in Carbon Dioxide and Temperature
Changes in Carbon Dioxide and Temperature (EPA)
Fluctuations in temperature (red line) and in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide (yellow) over the past 649,000 years.
"SMALL" Change: The vertical red bar at the end is the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels over the past two centuries and before 2007.
From "A brief history of the universe"

  • Human beings first arrived in Europe about 35,000 years ago.
  • The first cities were only built 8,800 years ago.

An observation on Cardinal Pell's Lecture

Cardinal Pell highlights key attributes of climate science that give little reason for comfort:
  • "In climate research and modelling, we are dealing with a coupled, non-linear, chaotic system, and therefore that the long-term prediction of future climate states is not possible" and
  • "small events could have dramatic, unforeseen consequences."
The implications of this description are perhaps a little obscure.

An example of a non-linear system is a house-of-cards. It is susceptible to sudden collapse when a single card is moved even though it is seemingly stable when other small changes are made. That is, small events can have dramatic, unforeseen consequences.

There are three unfortunate characteristics of such systems -
  • Very small changes can create completely unexpected and seemingly disproportionate changes with little warning.
  • Predicting behaviour of the system will be very difficult. 
  • Removing a "trigger" that seemingly precipitated a disproportionate change will most likely fail to restore the system to its previous state.

Posted by Askgerbil at 9:05 AM 0 comments
Labels: , , ,

Monday, March 2, 2015

Electricity peak period pricing a poor idea

The Australian Energy Regulator processes data into a graph showing seasonal peak period demand in energy market regions.

Seasonal peak electricity demand (by region)
Seasonal peak electricity demand (by region)
An article by RMIT authors Yolande Strengers and Larissa Nicholls "Feral o'clock: why families struggle to shift their energy use" observes -
"A key plank of the Australian Government’s draft energy policy is to reform electricity pricing so that it more accurately reflects rises and falls in peak demand."
and -
"But research we have published today suggests that this policy focus is missing other opportunities to shift electricity demand. Research with parents reveals that many household routines are unlikely to shift in response to cost-reflective tariffs..."
When you drill down into the electricity demand data - summarised beyond recognition by the Australian Energy Regulator - you may well conclude that encouraging families to shift electricity demand is not only difficult. It is also pointless.

The strategy of demand-response players, such as EnerNOC, is far more precisely targeted at the underlying problem -
"Demand response allows energy users of all kinds to act as “virtual power plants,” adding stability to the grid by voluntarily lowering their demand for electricity. Participants in demand response programs get paid for providing demand response capacity..."
The "peak seasonal demand" for New South Wales in Summer 2012/2013 is shown by the Australian Energy Regulator to be about 14,000 megawatts (MW) during the peak 30 minute electricity market interval during December 2012 - February 2013.

Graphing the source data from the Australian Energy Market Operator for this period shows that peak demand rarely went above 10,000 megawatts. Promoters of time-of-use charging may want to install generating and network capacity to supply 40 percent more electricity - 14,000 megawatts - for one to two hours each summer, and earn a profit from this grossly excessive capital investment. EnerNOC has got the right approach: pay a few electricity users to turn off discretionary plant and equipment for one or two hours each summer, and save the extravagant wasted investment.













Posted by Askgerbil at 10:33 PM 0 comments
Labels: , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)