22 November 2016, One Step off the Grid, Victoria town (Newstead) calls for partners for 100% renewable energy plan. he Victorian town of Newstead is seeking proposals from potential project partners who could help refine its plan to reach 100 per cent renewable energy within 5 years, and which could act as a blue-print for other towns in the state to follow. Newstead, a town of around 500 people, is considered a flagship project project for the state, and is looking to build up its renewable energy capacity and then integrate these into the local grid with battery storage and new “energy market” ideas. Tosh Szatow, director for Energy for the People, which is advising the township, says the call for expressions of interest is designed to flush out ideas from solar companies, retailers, trading platforms and others that could be adapted to the town’s plans. “We have sketched out a plan, and know what a model could look like,” Szatow says. “Now we want to test some of this thinking and identify some of the partners that could help in the project.” The Newstead plan is seen as a fore-runner for other towns and cities in the state, and elsewhere in Australia. And far from being a rogue proposal, the idea has the support of the state Labor government and even the local network operator, Powercor, which is co-operating on data, network capacity and tariff design. Read More here
Category Archives: PLEA Network
22 November 2016, Renew Economy, Climate conspiracy grips Senate as Coalition attacks latte-sipping opponents of coal. The influence of president-elect Donald Trump’s attack on “elites” is taking hold in the Australian parliament, with the Coalition attacking “latte-sipping” opponents of coal mining and joining enthusiastically in a debate questioning climate science in the Senate. Frydenberg was asked in question time by Greens MP Adam Bandt about a US government report delivered in at the Marrakech climate talks that warned, amongst other things, of a 1.5m rise in sea levels by 2050 if greenhouse emissions continued at current levels. Frydenberg responded by claiming that Australia had an “ambitious” climate target for 2030 and had been praised “for innovation” and its work on carbon capture and storage at the recent climate talks in Marrakech. A few hours later, Canada announced it would phase out traditional coal fired generation by 2030 as part of its “vision for a clean growth economy”. The UK is phasing out coal by 2023, and France is phasing out coal too, although it has taken a rain check on that idea because one third of its nuclear fleet are sidelined by safety concerns.“It it is okay for the member for Melbourne to put his sandals up on the seat, sip his soy latte, sit in the streets of Brunswick and say that it is the end of coal,” but coal would continue to be part of the mix for decades to come, Frydenberg said. Read More here
19 November 2016, One Step off the Grid, Enova reaches major milestone, looks to expand and try peer to peer trading. Australia’s first community-based electricity retailer, Enova Energy, has reached major milestone of 1,000 customers, and is already looking to expand its geographic base and push into new areas such as peer to peer trading. Enova, based in Byron Bay in the northern rivers region of New South Wales, says it has reached its 1,000 customer level several months ahead of target, as it seeks to reach its break-even goal of 4,000 customers within the first two years of operation. CEO Steve Harris says the retailer has also attracted a higher number of business customers – 70 so far – which will help revenues, and possibly offset a small impact on margins from rising wholesale prices and high prices for large scale renewable energy certificates. Harris says there is clearly a groundswell of community interest in alternatives to the big oligopolies, and a fair deal on renewable energy. Nova, which describes itself as a “community owned renewable energy company”, pays 10c/kWh for solar feed in tariffs, more than 50 per cent above most retailers. “The higher feed in tariff is paying dividends for us. But it’s about community and it’s about environment. Households and businesses are showing they are quite happy to switch from their existing provider,” Harris told One Step Off The Grid in an interview. Harris says Enova is also benefiting from partnerships, such as a solar bulk buy program on the south coast of NSW, and another solar initiative in the ACT. Read More here
18 November 2016, ECO, UNFCCC – Fossil of the Day – The first Fossil of the Day award goes to…take a deep breath…Turkey, Russia, Australia, New Zealand, France, Japan and Indonesia for duplicity at the UN climate negotiations. While representatives from climate vulnerable countries, cities, businesses, and civil society organisations are fighting to keep dirty fossil fuels in the ground, as well as preventing the expansion of polluting airports (hat-tip to France), these countries still aim to increase their domestic fossil fuel extraction. By doing so, they are quite literally drilling under everyone’s efforts to keep global warming below the critical threshold of 1.5°C. These countries helped forge the Paris Agreement which is now in force, committing them to halt climate change, so they really need to get the left hand and the right hand talking to each other. Put your money where your mouth is, please! Read More here