Valores a desarrollar en la convivencia escolar

David Mofflin Peter Meurs Paul Wilkes Andy Wearmouth Ken Brown Anne Hill

Question: Apart from a commitment to 20 per cent change in renewable energy for 2020, what is your view on the Government’s appetite for spending on national infrastructure, and where do you think the transformational change in this area will come from?

Response: This discussion incorporates a long time frame, and it is easy to get disheartened when the world is discussing, for example the collapse of Greece, and the global financial crisis, and the health system in the United States. This will come back onto the agenda, because there is a community expectation that there is a change in this area. Right now, priorities are different, but the agenda will shift again. In addition, setting serious renewable energy targets is as significant as carbon taxes and other issues in driving behaviour. We don’t actually need a carbon tax if we just require 20 per cent electricity generation by renewable energy, as this sets a cost that must be addressed.

Additional Comment: We need to plan over longer timeframes as the Europeans are doing now. We are seeing increasingly integrated plans (transport, heating, cooling and electricity production) that go through to 2050, for examples Germany and Sweden. Without these we are unlikely to meet the required reductions in Greenhouse gases required in this timeframe.

Response: There appears to be a paradigm in government, in that government tends to stand back from infrastructure development, and so political dialogue in this area needs to change.

As the private sector is saying that Net Present Value analysis is not the only tool for making decisions, and factors other than financial return should be considered, governments are beginning to analyse things in this manner. However, government should not be the only entity involved in this - it involves all stakeholders, and it is up to government and the private sector to be working together, or even for the private sector to take the lead. There is a cost to infrastructure development, and if it is left to government, the result will be higher taxes.

The longer the delay in taking action, the more expensive action will be, so doing nothing is not an option.

The options for infrastructure development are increasing as a result of increased technology advancement and development for examples the low cost of the electric vehicle and the advent of shale gas.

Australia is behind in our approach to climate change - it should not be a matter for debate, it is the time to be developing solutions

The United States has probably invested more money in renewable energy than any other country on the planet over the last ten or twenty years, in the name of energy security, rather than as a response to climate change. Regardless of the purpose of these actions, the alignment of these issues (energy security and climate change) means that change will occur, even without massive government intervention.

2008 was the first year where more money was spent globally on renewable energy than on non- renewable energy, and the disparity was increased in 2009. This shows it is a growing and important industry, contrary to some ideas throughout the energy industry. In addition, among the biggest spenders in this area were China and India, showing that these developing countries are serious about renewable energy in their development.

The Stern Report recommended one per cent of global GDP be spent on addressing climate change, and not long after this, 14 per cent of global GDP was spent on addressing the global financial crisis. Of the Chinese government’s stimulus spending, US$221 billion was spent on ‘green projects’, while the United States only spent US$112billion. President Obama said in January (State of the Union address) that China is the world leader in renewable energy and that the United States would displace them, by striving to be the world leader in this field. This is a challenge to financial institutions because of the cost of renewable energies, and the way in which projects are analysed for financial viability in this area needs to change. A suggestion is that superannuation funds be required to invest five per cent of their funds into renewable energy projects - this would support growth of renewable energy infrastructure.

A change in attitude towards big grids, for example wind farms is needed, in that they are not always going to be ideally placed; and power systems need to be upgraded to cope with the new challenges. Society is very reliant on electricity and the security of power grids needs to reflect that. The engineering industry needs to be involved in leading this, because if it becomes politically driven, schemes can be large but disorganised and ineffective. The infrastructure must be in place to cope with these schemes; and we need to shift from an economically-regulated society into a sustainability-regulated society.

Question: From a technical point of view, if we are to achieve 20 per cent renewable by 2020, how would that be achieved?

Response: Western Australia has a quite a poor load factor similar to South Australia, and can probably take a seven per cent to 12 per cent wind power generation with existing technologies, but not much more. Solar thermal and geothermal energies are the two that should be focused on. Wave energy has issues with site selection and it is relatively expensive, so is not ideal. Renewable energy is complicated in that predictions of wind/sun/wave patterns and their subsequent energy generation are hard to predict. In Western Australia, the higher percentage of wind output is during the night time hours, which is not what is needed. Demand site management and control of loads for example electric vehicles, and will be an important component of solving these problems.

Smart grids are being discussed at various levels of the industry, in order to achieve a number of things such as remote meter reading, load control and better information to the customer. However, these can technologies also bring about a number of risks, mainly Cyber security where the power security will be governed by communications rooms and transmissions. The 20 per cent renewable energy target is achievable, but not by relying solely on wind.

Additional comments:

The variability of wind is a major challenge for generation, and so solar/thermal is an attractive option, because it will be producing at the peak load times of the day. Solar/thermal with large-scale storage is less attractive from an engineering perspective. However, with the current rules of engagement, the only commercially-viable renewable source at present is wind power generation, which will create problems in the near future.

The nature of wind turbines means they are asynchronous machines and inverter connected technologies, which means they will not feed a system fault. Birds landing on lines for example can create that fault, giving problems with the stability of an AC power system. If this happens at ‘fringe of grid’, there can be problems for the network.

Questions: In Western Australia, is there a role for biomass and biodiesel, or have they dropped below the horizon? And does ethanol production have any role in Australia?

Response: Biomass has a role (e.g. Albany has a facility currently under construction for designing a replacement for feed stocks for power stations using timber waste). The acceptance of first and second generation biofuels has dropped and is no longer seen as having environmental benefits; so Algal-based biofuels and fast-growing plants in non-arable land (next generation) need to be further developed. There is a need to move away from the food versus fuel debate; and away from using fresh water for producing oil, so a move to Algal-type biofuels is needed. There are rapid technology developments in this area, and it presents some attractive options for proceeding. Biofuels will also have economic impacts on the volatility of oil prices. Australia is doing a lot of research into Algal-based biofuels, in Queensland, South Australia and Murdoch University in Western Australia.

Additional comments:

The use of indigenous Algal species needs to be promoted, because if foreign species are used, in the event of a storm or other unpredictable event, the impacts from exotic Algae are likely to be detrimental. It is also sensible for production, as native species are tolerant to the environment here, making them easier to cultivate.

Biomass plant needs to be within 50km radius of its fuel source, implying a 50MW lump plant size

located in areas where you can sustainably deliver fuel year-round; this is not easy with a resource that has generally low average bulk densities.

The Albany facility is aimed at the European market due to a quite different REC regulatory requirement. Generators will source biomass material at almost any cost.

Question: Who is responsible for educating the public and stakeholders on renewable energies? And how would you do it?

Response: WorleyParsons is aiming at beginning this process by running workshops with its customers discussing the future of power generation. Companies like this can have a large amount of influence around the world with the customers of energy producers. Educating the community is also a crucial element, but companies may not be as equipped to do that as they are to dialogue with customers/users.

Additional comments:

The SEN computer simulation that Steve Gates presented in Session 6 is being increasingly used and is likely to be introduced into some school classes.

Behaviour changes are needed - and having the reality of ‘green power’ where customers can use/touch it for example home solar panels engages people. Making money by selling their power back to the grid is also an incentive - very rarely are these changes effected for altruistic reasons. It is important to remember this in education and promotion/implementation.

Individual change leads to wider change, and it needs to come from industry leaders as much as from government.

Peer mentality helps in education, and young people should not be discounted from the behaviour change process.

Energy systems need to be properly designed so that they are reliable, because people will not support something that is not as reliable as the system they had previously.

Glossary

ABARE Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics

CCSD Cooperative Research Centre for Coal in Sustainable Development CO2 CRC Cooperative Research Centre for Greenhouse Gas Technologies CPRS Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme

DBNGP Dampier to Bunbury Natural Gas Pipeline EPRI Electric Power Research Institute

HHV Higher Heating Value IEA International Energy Agency

IGCC Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle IPCC Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change LHV Lower Heating Value

MRET Mandatory Renewable Energy Target NEM National Energy Market

NPV Net Present Value

NWIS North West Interconnected System

RBMK High Power Channel-type Reactor (Russian: Reaktor Bolshoy Moschnosti Kanalniy) REC Renewable Energy Certificate

RET Renewable Energy Target (It expands on the previous Mandatory Renewable Energy Target (MRET), which began in 2001)

SWIS South West Interconnected System

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First published August 2010

Australia’s Energy Future: A Time for Reflection

ISBN: 978-0-9757634-3-8 $25.00 (inc. GST)

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