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Wind power – the state of play

wind-power-state-of-play — Image: www,pexels.com

I thought it high time I wrote about wind power generation, given this region’s burgeoning reputation as Queensland’s Green Energy Hub. The Southern Downs already earned this cachet by building a 64 megawatt solar farm near Warwick. As power-generating capacity goes, this was by far upstaged by the MacIntyre Wind Farm, tipped to become the world’s largest onshore wind project.

More about Acciona’s 1.025MW wind farm later, but first, a history lesson. Just about any company with an interest in wind power generation has latched on to the quote from former US President Abraham Lincoln. Old Abe was a bit of a closet scientist, known for being the first US president to have an invention patented in his own name. Of wind power, President Lincoln said (in 1860): “As yet, the wind is an untamed and unharnessed force; and quite possibly the greatest discovery hereafter to be made, will be the taming, and harnessing of it.”

Not just Abe, though. As a blog by UK energy firm NES Fircroft explains, the idea of using wind power occurred to humans as early as 5000 BC, when wind was used to push boats along the Nile.

In the Middle East and Persia (now Iran), windmills were used to grind grain. In China around 200 B.C., they were used to pump water.

During the 9th century Persia, Afghanistan and Pakistan, wind-powered machines were developed to mill cereals and pump water. This technology progressively made its way to Europe. Windmills have been used since the 14^th century by China, Italy and the Netherlands. It may also occur to readers that Australian farmers sought to harness the wind to pump water on remote properties.

Professor James Blyth of Anderson’s College, Glasgow, Scotland is credited with creating the first wind turbine in July 1887. He used to power to light his holiday cottage, but his offer to share the excess electricity with the nearby village was knocked back as his creation was deemed to be ‘work o’ the de’el’ as my Da would have said).

Also in 1887-88, American Charles F. Brush created the world’s first automatically operated wind turbine generator mounted on an 18-metre-high tower. The machine was slow and its 144 blades produced only 12 kW. It was used between 1888 and 1900 but subsequently fell into disrepair. That seemed the fate of a lot of early wind projects, most of which were experimental and none were able to attain a commercial rate of power generation.

It wasn’t until 1941 that a wind turbine was developed that could generate more than 1 MW of electricity.

Fast forward to 2023 and Acciona Energía’s 1,026-MW MacIntyre project is the company’s biggest renewable energy facility and one of the largest onshore wind farms in the world.

Developed in partnership with CleanCo, the Queensland Government’s newest renewable energy generator, the $1.96 billion wind farm is expected to be operational in 2024-2025.

Acciona’s wind farm when completed will have 180 5.7-MW turbines, each standing up to 230 metres in height.

The economies of Goondiwindi, Toowoomba and the Southern Downs are direct beneficiaries of an estimated $500 million spend during the construction phase. As work continues on the leased 36,000 hectare property 50kms south-west of Warwick, Acciano is increasing the number of on-site accommodation units to 550, to take pressure off the rental property markets in nearby towns. The end game is to generate enough power for 700,000 homes.

While all this large-scale construction and planning is going on less than 50 kms from town, I was intrigued to hear a local chap tell me he is looking at installing a domestic wind turbine on his property. What? I had no idea.

Yes, it appears that competition, improved technology and economies of scale are opening up a new green industry to help home owners who are aiming for self-sufficiency. A home wind turbine system can cost between $10,000 and $20,000. There are technical issues and obstacles in terms of local government by-laws and whether it is a suitably windy location. They pay-back period is lengthy.

If you were an early adopter of solar energy, you may well remember that in the beginning, the entry price was prohibitive. The upside only became apparent when governments agreed to provide incentives. There does not appear to be a lot of research done in Australia into small-scale wind turbines or much enthusiasm. Not so in the US, where climate writer Michael J Coren, writing in the Washington Post, found there was a 30% tax credit for home wind turbines.

The official advice from the Australian government website YourHome is that wind generators are not suitable for most homes.

“Household wind systems are much more expensive than solar PV systems, and wind turbines must be situated where they can catch smooth, strong, consistent winds. Few homes in Australia have such locations.”

In 2020, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) announced funding to install small wind turbines at 10 remote Australian communication sites as part of a new project to boost the uptake of the technology.

Newcastle University startup Diffuse Energy has invented a blade-less turbine which doubles the capacity of wind power generators. Their Hyland 920 turbine is capable of producing 500W of electricity.

ARENA said at the time it was funding the project on the basis it would provide a renewable alternative to diesel generators, reducing energy costs and improving resilience against bushfires and other natural disasters.

While implementation of this project ran into the usual setbacks caused by Covid-19, Diffuse Energy’s founders have their eye on the global telecommunications market. They predict it will spend more than US$3.4bn on distributed energy generation by 2024.

At the end of 2018, ARENA said there were 94 wind farms in Australia, delivering nearly 16 GW of wind generation capacity. The cost of utility-scale wind energy in Australia is expected to continue falling, with new wind farms delivering electricity at around $50-65/MWh in 2020 and below $50/MWh in 2030.

Scrolling through the highly technical Australian Energy Statistics for 2022, I discovered these references.

Renewable generation increased 18% in 2020–21, contributing 27% of total generation. Solar and wind contributed 10% and 9% per cent of total generation respectively. About 17% of Australia’s electricity was generated outside the electricity sector (by industry and households), including 7% small-scale solar PV.

It’s a long way from the 1970s (when Telstra first used solar panels to power infrastructure). Few private homes had solar then and if so, they were usually in remote locations far from power lines. According to US group Dash Energy, solar technology cost around $20 per watt in the 1970s with around 14% efficiency. Today’s solar panels average between 15-18% efficiency. Costs can be as low as $0.20 per watt. On this basis you’d expect domestic wind turbine systems to become comparably more affordable (and more efficient).

Meanwhile, work carries on at Acciona’s wind farm site where 41 turbines have been fully installed, according to its July update. And 34% of a planned 70km network of paths connecting the turbines has also been completed. Acciona will be taking (free) community bus tours out to the MacIntyre site on several dates in September, November and December. The first one is already booked out.

Proposed Sun Tax Riles Solar Users

solar-sun-tax — Caloundra Uniting Church – a subliminal message for today’s story about a proposed Sun Tax

If you are one of the prudent people who installed solar panels over the last decade, you may end up being penalised by new energy market rules. The Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) has recommended that energy retailers be given the option to charge solar owners a fee to export surplus energy to the grid.

Lobby group Solar Citizens wasted no time dubbing the proposal a ‘Sun Tax’ and it’s hard to see it any other way.

Solar Citizens says the proposal is ‘iniquitous’, as big coal and gas producers do not have to pay to send electricity to the network.

According to the AEMC, the levy will not greatly reduce the credits solar users earn from the network. AEMC’s modelling showed that the proposal would reduce the annual benefits for a typical solar household (4 to 6 kilowatts) from $970 to $900.

Households without solar will be better off by about $15 a year as the fee/levy/tax adjusts inequities in the system.

Electricity producers and retailers are seeking a solution to the ‘traffic jams’ caused by a two-way energy flow.

The nature of the domestic solar network means that electricity suppliers often receive surplus power when it is not needed, leading to power surges and blackouts. In other words, the network providers are looking to develop more efficient ways of handling the extra power. Some electricity utilities have already blocked solar users from exporting to the grid, or are restricting them to a narrow time band.

One might ask how the network got into this state – it’s not like solar power was invented yesterday.

But the AEMC says doing nothing is not an option, given that solar users will be financially penalised by being blocked from the grid. For example, a solar user who is blocked 50% of the time would lose about $300 a year in benefits.

The AEMC compiled a report on this sensitive topic in 2017, concluding then that the sun tax proposal be abandoned.

“Further work is needed in order to understand whether distributed energy resources create benefits, or impose costs on the distribution network,” the report said.

It would now seem the AEMC has decided the latter applies. The AEMC’s chief executive Benn Barr said traffic jams and blackouts were occurring now and would get worse as more solar connects to the grid.

“The grid infrastructure was built when power only flowed one way. Within 10 years half of all energy users will be using home energy options like solar.”

“We want to reassure solar customers that we’re not proposing they should all start paying export charges,” he said in a statement. “We expect networks to deliver pricing proposals in close consultation with consumers, which may include options where they don’t have to pay for exports.”

Opponents of this proposal say it is coming at a time when feed-in tariffs (the price paid for surplus solar power), are dropping.

It seems improbable now to look back at our first home solar system (2004) when the feed-in tariff was 54c per kilowatt hour. This has now dropped to an average of 8c kWh. I always thought the dual purposes of a solar system was (a) to cut greenhouse emissions and (b) reduce power bills as close to zero as possible.

Choice Magazine investigated this topic when it sent 10,000 domestic power bills to be analysed by Solar Citizens. The conclusion was that retailers are paying many Aussie households below ‘spot market’ rates for their excess solar (the spot price being the wholesale market).

Choice being Choice, the article suggests monitoring prices paid for excess generation and be prepared to switch retailers when there is a better deal on offer.

Energy economist Bruce Mountain told Choice there is no obligation on electricity retailers to pay for the power that is fed in to their network.

“Some offer nothing while others offer very high rates because they want to attract customers with solar.”

On the most recent data (2018-2019), Australia has 2.6 million households with PV solar systems. FOMM would like to think the main reason people decided to install solar is to lower our collective greenhouse emissions. In truth, solar has become more affordable and the competition to strike a deal is red-hot. Also, solar converts no doubt assumed they will at least reduce the cost of power (by earning credits from surplus power fed to the grid) or even have a zero power bill and be ‘in credit’.

CanStar Blue’s survey of household power bills in 2020 highlighted the reason for increased demand for solar. The average annual power bill for a non-solar household is $1614. In our first year with a 6 kilowatt solar panel system, our power bills were less than 20% of that. Now, according to She Who Pays the Bills, we are in credit to the tune of $108.

“Can we cash that out?” I asked hopefully, heart set on a new set of Hohner harmonicas. (Wait til winter’s over.SWPB)

Energy Locals founder Adrian Merrick advised Choice readers to use all their solar energy generation before feeding in to the grid.

The best way for households to use as much of the energy they produce is to use energy-hungry appliances like washing machines and dryers during daylight hours.

Merrick also suggests investing in emerging technologies such as solar diverters and buying storage batteries as battery prices come down.

If you have been thinking this is much ado about nothing, consider how governments are continually working to increase tax revenue, openly or by stealth.

Who would have imagined the four-year punitive regime Spanish solar owners endured. In 2015, Spain’s conservative Popular Party introduced a new tax ‘Impuesto el sol’ which, as you’d guess, is a Sun Tax.

Spain’s Photovoltaic Union (UNEF) said in 2015 that self-consumers would pay double tolls for each kWh imported from the grid, compared to non-solar users.

“The new law makes it uneconomic for households and businesses to install PV with the latter endangered to lose in competitiveness too,” UNEF said.

The law also prohibited PV systems up to 100 kW from selling electricity. Owners were required to donate the extra electricity to the grid for free.

Fortunately, a new Spanish government scrapped the ‘Sun Tax’ in late 2018. In its place, as Forbes magazine reported, was a system to encourage ‘collective self-consumption’.

The new energy regulation brought Spain in line with its European neighbours and closer to achieving the EU’s energy targets for 2030.

It also encourages collaborative solar ventures between neighbouring buildings – easier to do in population-dense Europe.

We might be drawing a long bow citing Spain here, but consider this insight on the AEMC proposal from Victoria Energy Policy Centre economist Bruce Mountain.

“It is like arguing that bicycles should be charged for using the roads,” he told Renew Economy’s Giles Parkinson.

“The uptake of solar was the one big success we have had in the energy transition.”

The AEMC is seeking submissions on its proposal, with a May 13 deadline.

FOMM back pages: https://bobwords.com.au/solar-no-easy-energy-fix/

Further reading https://reneweconomy.com.au/solar-tax-networks-will-be-able-to-charge-households-to-export-solar-power-to-grid/

Renewable energy vs climate sceptics

Have you ever noticed, after giving your dog a bath, how it will head straight for the nearest patch of renewable energy? Ours has a favourite sunny spot next to the dining room table where he will happily bask, while our solar-powered camping lamp, calculator and torches are recharging on the window sill.

Free sunshine – what’s not to like? As it happens, we have been preparing our little caravan for a weekend music festival in the bush. The 160 watt portable solar panel slides snugly under the bed. At $159, this has proved to be a worthy investment for our outback and bush music weekend adventures. It means you can keep topping up the caravan’s battery (if the sun is shining) and go to bed early if it’s not.

We are not expecting rain. No-one is expecting rain.

Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology has confirmed the winter just past was the hottest since records began in 1910. It was also the 9^th driest winter on record. The average maximum temperature was almost 2 degrees above the long-term average.

Meanwhile, Texas is suffering unprecedented flooding courtesy of Hurricane Harvey, the reporting of which has somewhat overshadowed devastating monsoon flooding in South East Asia. So far, in the latter disaster area, 1,200 people have been killed and almost two million children were unable to get to school.

As we ironically say in the privacy of our own home – “Just as well there’s no such thing as climate change, then!”

Now all, some of, or only a small part of these extreme weather events could be ascribed to global warming/climate change, which, 97% of scientists agree, is mostly caused by human activity.

Despite this consensus on behalf of an apparently overwhelming majority of scientists, sceptics disagree. I happened to read that former Prime Minister Tony Abbott is set to deliver a speech, “Daring to Doubt,” at an annual climate sceptics group meeting in London on October 9.

You might remember Tony Abbott – his reign as PM at one year and 361 days (cumulative terms), was longer than that of Harold Holt and Billy McMahon, but not by much. Abbott the Climate Change Sceptic is infamous in some quarters as the man who canned the government-funded Climate Commission as part of a Budget cost-cutting exercise.

The Climate Commission bounced back as the privately-funded Climate Council. A new report by the Climate Council concludes that the individual States are going their own way, with mixed results.

South Australia is a clear leader in the renewable energy field, the stakes raised by the government’s decision to replace ageing coal-fired power stations with a 150 megawatt solar thermal power plant.

FOMM foreshadowed this in 2014, when the SA government was trying to negotiate the future of the coal mine which fed its Port Augusta power stations. Now, after five years of lobbying and debate, the SA government is aiming to invest $650 million in renewable energy.

It hardly seems worth mentioning that 1,900 kilometres away, the Queensland Government, in a contrarian move, remains committed to the country’s largest Greenfield export coal mine. The Carmichael mine, which includes a dedicated railway line to take coal north to Abbott Point, is deeply unpopular among environmental groups because of the potential damage it could cause to the Great Barrier Reef, both by the number of ships traversing the narrow channels, and through coral bleaching as a result of human-induced temperature increases.

On the other hand, Queenslanders’ love affair with domestic solar panels is demonstrated by the fact that 32% of households are covered in 2017. Lobby group Solar Citizens (almost 100,000 members), welcomed last week’s decision by the Queensland Government to increase the regional feed-in tariff (FiT) program. This will allow solar systems up to 30kW to receive 10.1c per kWh – six times more than what was previously agreed.

Solar Citizens has an ambitious target of one million solar roofs by 2020.

“Queenslanders know a sensible idea when they see it – with 520,000 solar homes, our State has the highest rooftop solar uptake in the country,” a spokeswoman said.

However, critics of domestic solar energy say the flaw is that those who can afford to become self-sufficient do so, and those who cannot end up paying disproportionately more for energy.)

This week, the Climate Council presented its annual ‘state of the States’ renewable energy report. CEO Amanda McKenzie said the State survey showed a major step up from last year. All States and Territories (apart from WA), have strong renewable energy or net zero emissions targets. South Australia is building the world’s largest lithium ion battery storage facility, and over 30 large scale wind and solar projects are under construction across Australia in 2017.

“The good news is that many States are surging ahead and doing the heavy lifting for the (Federal) government.”

Last week, the Victorian government flagged new legislation which would increase its renewable energy target to 40% by 2025. There is also an intermediate plan to lift Victoria’s clean energy target to 25% by 2020.

So yes, it does seem as if individual States (and Councils) are setting their own renewable energy policies, in the absence of clear leadership at a national level.

Noosa Mayor Tony Wellington did not miss an opportunity to talk up his region’s commitment to solar panels. Noosa Shire, which de-merged from the larger Sunshine Coast Regional Council (SCRC), claims 9,000 households in Noosa Shire have solar installations, which is better than the State average. Cr Wellington told the Sunshine Coast Daily Noosa’s goal was to be ‘carbon neutral’ by 2050.

Not to be overshadowed, the SCRC opened a 15 megawatt solar farm in July. The SCRC was the first local government in Australia to offset 100% of its electricity consumption with energy from a renewable source.

But what can humble citizens do, as pro-coal lobbyists clash swords with the solar and wind farm warriors? The go-it-alone mentality arises from a failure on the part of our Federal Government to stimulate investment in the renewable sector. Australia has already promised, under the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 26% to 28% on 2005 levels by 2030. But Tony Abbott’s call as PM to reduce the renewable energy target (and now he advocates scrapping it altogether), was unhelpful.

Whatever way you judge it, a former PM addressing the Global Warming Policy Foundation is not a good look. The last Australian PM to do so was John Howard in 2013 (when he claimed global warming had stalled and was sceptical about the possibilities of an international agreement on climate change).

There have already been reports in the UK media which seized on old quotes by Mr Abbott referring to climate science as ‘bullshit’ and recycling his coal is ‘good for humanity’ comment.

As readers will know, we spent a week out at Carnarvon Gorge in July, a time of year when it is common for the temperature to dip below zero at night. We packed accordingly, then spent four nights kicking off the doona and keeping each other awake as the mercury stayed above 15.

It should be cool at night for the Neurum Creek Folk Festival, but I packed my shortie pyjamas, just in case there is such a thing as climate change.

Solar no easy energy fix

solar-energy-power — Solar-panels-energy Photo by Bob Wilson

Solar energy is great – we’ve got eight panels on the roof, a hot water system and a portable panel in the caravan. Pretty useless on Thursday, though, with ex-cyclone Debbie sending heavy rain our way. It would be great if we’d had a battery bank under the house to store the energy from the sunny weeks we’ve been having.

But battery bank technology is yet to become affordable for the 1.6 million Aussies who have solar PV panels.

I recently wrote about Australia’s troubled National Energy Network. We cited economist Professor John Quiggin, who suggested governments buy back the power grid and give the people what they want: cheap and reliable energy. Continue reading “Solar no easy energy fix”