Clean Energy Australia Report 2010

The Clean Energy Council of Australia has released it’s report for 2010,  an industry overview.

Australian Renewable Energy Snapshot
Percentage of electricity generation from renewables
The Australian electricity industry generated 251 terawatt hours of electricity in the past year to October. Renewable energy accounted for 8.67 per cent of electricity generated. This is a significant rise from previous years and was mostly due to the increased generation from hydro. Increased rainfall in key hydro catchments across the country provided a significant boost in hydro electricity. The increased capacity of wind power across the country also helped to boost generation. Although solar power still makes a relatively small contribution to the energy mix in Australia, the uptake of the technology has grown rapidly in 2010.

Clean Energy Australia 2010 5
Figure 1. Estimated annual electricity generation
Source: Clean Energy Council Renewable Energy Database, ABARE 2010, REC Registry, AEMO, IMO

Photovoltaic Solar Panels
There were over 187,000 solar photovoltaic (PV) systems installed at the beginning of October 2010, around 170,000 of which were installed during the last two years. The number of accredited solar installers and designers has almost tripled in 18 months to 2726.
Solar has become extremely popular with homeowners, who see it as an opportunity to take action on climate
change and protect themselves from rising electricity costs. A range of state and federal government incentives
has helped to make solar power more affordable for the average householder and the price of systems has fallen
by about half in the last three years. These costs are expected to continue to come down, with the full installation
price for solar power expected to decrease by up to 60 per cent by 2020.
Australia and the United States announced a research agreement in 2010 to try and make the cost of solar
competitive with fossil fuels within five years.

The state by state snapshots are inetersting.

Victoria
Installed capacity: 1417 MW
Percentage of nationwide renewable installed capacity: 12%
Number of projects: 73
Technologies: Solar PV, Bioenergy, Wind, Hydro
Feed-in tariff: Premium FiT for solar PV — 60 cents kWh (Net), F&R Tariff (Net) — at least 1:1 (FiT/Net)
Policy support for clean energy:*
• Victorian Climate Change White Paper
– Increase Victoria’s electricity supply from large-scale solar to 5% by 2020
– Introduce large-scale feed-in tariff
– Green Door – ‘one stop shop’ for energy projects
• $72 million Energy Technology Innovation Strategy to support the development of large-scale, precommercial
demonstrations of sustainable energy technologies
• Energy Saver Incentive – energy efficiency target scheme
* Victoria’s change in government may result in changes to the policies above
Western Australia
Installed capacity: 307 MW
Percentage of nationwide renewable installed capacity: 3%
Number of projects: 32
Technologies: Bioenergy, Wind, Hydro
Feed-in tariff: FiT: 40 cents kWh
Renewable Energy Buyback Scheme: 7 cents kWh (Synergy) – 18.94 cents kWh (Horizon)

Queensland
Installed capacity: 1184 MW
Percentage of nationwide renewable installed capacity: 10%
Number of projects: 58
Technologies: Geothermal, Bioenergy, Wind, Hydro
Feed-in tariff: 44 cents kWh (Net)
Policy support for clean energy:
• State Government’s Renewable Energy Plan to increase deployment of renewable
energy initiatives and accelerate growth of this sector established in 2009
• $50 million Renewable Energy Fund
• $15 million Queensland Geothermal Energy Centre of Excellence to drive
geothermal research and technology
• $50 million Smart Energy Savings Fund

South Australia
Installed capacity: 966 MW
Percentage of nationwide renewable installed capacity: 9%
Number of projects: 35
Technologies: Bioenergy, Wind, Hydro
Feed-in tariff: 44 cents kWh (Net)

Australian Capital Territory
Installed capacity: 10 MW
Percentage of nationwide renewable installed capacity: 0.09%
Number of projects: 5
Technologies: Bioenergy, Hydro, Solar PV
Feed-in tariff: 45.7 cents kWh (Gross)
Policy support for clean energy:
• Target of zero net greenhouse gas emissions by 2060
Developing Sustainable Energy Policy 2010–2020 to deliver this
• Home Energy Audit Program
• Expanded feed-in tariff scheme for household, medium and large-scale solar
• NSW Greenhouse Gas Reduction Scheme (GGAS) began operating on 1 January 2003
New South Wales
Installed capacity: 4,992 MW
Percentage of nationwide renewable installed capacity: 44%
Number of projects: 86
Technologies: Wave, Solar Thermal, Solar PV, Bioenergy, Wind, Hydro
Feed-in tariff: 20 cents kWh (Gross)
Policy support for clean energy:
• NSW Wind Renewable Energy Precincts
• State Government’s $700 million Climate Change Fund,
established in July 2007. Funds allocated in the following areas:
– $170 million Home Saver Rebates Program
– $30 million NSW Green Business Program
– $30 million Public Facilities program
– $40 million Renewable Energy Development Fund
– $20 million School Energy Efficiency Program
– $20 million Rainwater Tanks in Schools Program
– $150 million program under the Energy Efficiency Strategy
• Energy Savings Scheme – energy efficiency target scheme

Northern Territory
Installed capacity: 4 MW
Percentage of nationwide renewable installed capacity: 0.04%
Number of projects: 6
Technologies: Solar PV, Bioenergy
Feed-in tariff: N/A
Policy support for clean energy: Energy Smart Rebate Program

We’ll be giving this a good read!

Read the full report here.

Clean Energy in Australia – The Clean Energy Council

Potential for Solar to Power wheatbelt

This study from researchers at UWA confirmsthe potential for CSP in the wheatbelt and mining industries in the area.

A study by researchers from The University of Western Australia has confirmed the potential for Concentrated Solar Power to generate electricity for communities and mining interests across the Wheatbelt.

Assistant Professors Julian Clifton and Bryan Boruff of UWA’s School of Earth and Environment found that areas in the central and eastern Wheatbelt are ideal sites for Concentrated Solar Power (CSP).

CSP concentrates solar radiation which is then converted to steam to drive a turbine or engine for electricity generation. Unlike photovoltaic cells the heat may be stored to generate electricity outside of sunlight hours.

The Average American’s Annual Energy Consumption

Here’s a great infographic explaining on average, just how much energy our American friends use annually. Note that solar, wind and geothermal usage still sits on 3.7% and coal at 48.2%. We wonder how that’s going to change now with sweeping advancements in solar, wind and hydroelectric power generation.

How do we Australians compare to this? Take a look at some of the energy usage for Australians from Australian Bureau of Statistics Although the data is a little behind:

Thermal
Black coal	1,379	56.4
Brown coal	671	27.4
Oil	25	1.0
Gas	284	11.6
Total thermal	2,360	96.4
Renewables
Hydro	52	2.1
Wind and solar photovoltaic	23	0.9
Biomass	5	0.2
Biogas	7	0.3
Total renewables	87	3.6

This data is for household and industry usage over 2006-2007. In general it would seem we’re in a similar path, if not slightly ahead. We know that Perth / Western Australian solar industry has a large part to do with Australia’s overall renewable energy development.

Download the full statistics here.

Solar Energy Trends in Australia

By taking a look at search trends on Google, we can get an overall picture of what people are looking for online when it comes to renewable energy. We sat down and looked at solar. Below are graphs of search results from Google since 2004.

Below is a state by state breakdown of who is searching for “solar energy” on Google.

And a run down of what the top search keywords and their percentage against each other. As you can see, the solar energy rebate is what’s peaking people’s interest as the moment.