Showing posts with label AAA OCEANIA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label AAA OCEANIA. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 7, 2025

More than 40% of electricity used in Australia’s main power grid at start of year was renewable

 

Electricity was up 16% from rooftop solar panels, 18% from windfarms and 10% from large solar farms. Photograph: Aston Brown/The Guardian



 Data suggests pollution from energy is falling again after previously stalling, but experts say faster growth needed to achieve Labor goal of 82% renewable electricity by 2030

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Renewable energy generation rose substantially in Australia’s main power grid over the past year, producing 43% of electricity used across the five eastern states and the ACT between January and March.

The increase – from 39% last year – came as generation from black and brown coal-fired power plants fell to its lowest level on record for the first quarter, in part due to ageing stations being unavailable due to outages. Gas-fired electricity generation was also down.

The Australian Energy Market Operator said the shift from fossil fuels to zero emissions sources drove a 5.1% drop in greenhouse gas emissions from electricity on the east coast.

 

Electricity was up 16% from rooftop solar panels, 18% from windfarms and 10% from large solar farms. Output from battery storage surged 86% as several large batteries were connected to the grid.

Total demand for electricity hit a new record for the quarter, mainly due to people in Victoria and South Australia using air conditioners more. But demand for electricity from big generators and farms fell slightly as rooftop solar continued to play a larger role. More than 4m homes across the country have solar systems.

The data suggests that a recent pause in the expansion of large-scale renewable energy may be over, and that a stalled long-term decline in climate pollution from the electricity sector may have resumed. Experts said growth would need to accelerate to push the country towards the Albanese government’s goal of 82% of electricity coming from renewables by 2030.

 Average wholesale electricity prices were down 6% from the final quarter last year, but still 9% higher than the first quarter of 2024. The year-on-year increase was mainly driven by a big jump in wholesale prices in Tasmania, where the cost of hydro generation surged.

 

Average prices across the mainland eastern states varied, but fell overall by 2.5%. A hike in the cost of coal and hydro energy was mostly offset by the increased use of cheap solar and wind.

Stephanie Bashir, the chief executive of Nexa Advisory, said renewable generation and batteries were having “a positive impact on the system dynamics, wholesale prices and emissions reductions”.

“That’s good for power security, reliability, and affordability,” she said. “What we need right now from the majority-led Albanese government is ambition to accelerate this momentum.

“Transmission lines remain the missing link in the transition – we must unblock progress. Regional Australia matters … we need to ensure we are supporting our regions to reap the benefits and bringing them with us on the journey. Do this and we can keep the lights on while getting on with the ultimate objective of becoming a renewable energy superpower.”

The Climate Council’s Greg Bourne said the data showed “power use is increasing and renewables are meeting the challenge”.

“Renewables will keep breaking records as Australia’s wholesale energy becomes cleaner, more affordable, and more reliable,” he said.

 

Building capacity

The Albanese government won office in 2022 assuming that solar and wind developers would continue to build rapidly as long as authorities “rewired the nation” through a $20bn commitment to build transmission lines and interstate connections required to harness clean energy.

 

By November 2023 it acknowledged this was not the case as investment in major developments dried up, and the climate change and energy minister, Chris Bowen, announced a large expansion of a taxpayer-underwriting program – known as the capacity investment scheme – to meet the government’s 82% renewable energy goal.

He said Labor would underwrite 23 gigawatts of new solar and windfarms and 9GW of new storage between 2024 and 2027. Fossil fuel energy was not eligible.

The government commitment is to guarantee minimum revenue for developers for the electricity they generate. Taxpayers will pay the difference if the commercial return falls below this rate. Auctions for underwriting contracts are held every six months.

The capacity investment scheme was not initially enshrined in legislation, but became law in February after a request from the Greens in return for support for an unrelated bill.

Johanna Bowyer, an analyst with the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, said the rising renewable energy contribution, particularly when the sun is high in the middle of the day, meant wholesale electricity prices were zero or negative 18% of the time.

She said large-scale batteries now earned 88% of their revenue by buying and storing cheap solar and wind energy during the day and selling it when prices were higher in the evening. The remaining 12% of revenue was earned by providing the frequency needed to stabilise the grid.

 

Sunday, March 23, 2025

Ningaloo and Great Barrier Reef hit by ‘profoundly distressing’ simultaneous coral bleaching events


 Footage shows coral bleaching on Ningaloo reef as Great Barrier Reef hit at the same time – video

 Scientists say widespread damage to both world heritage-listed reefs is ‘heartbreaking’ as WA reef accumulates highest amount of heat stress on record

 

Great Barrier Reef

 Ningaloo
 



 

Australia’s two world heritage-listed reefs – Ningaloo on the west coast and the Great Barrier Reef on the east – have been hit simultaneously by coral bleaching that reef experts have called “heartbreaking” and “a profoundly distressing moment”.

Teams of scientists on both coasts have been monitoring and tracking the heat stress and bleaching extending across thousands of kilometres of marine habitat, which is likely to have been driven by global heating.


 


On the Great Barrier Reef, bleaching is being detected from around Townsville to the tip of Cape York, a distance of about 1,000km.

On Western Australia’s famous Ningaloo reef, waters have accumulated the highest amount of heat stress on record during an extended marine heatwave that has hit coral reefs all along the state’s vast coastline.

Paul Gamblin, the chief executive of the Australian Marine Conservation Society, said history would “record this profoundly distressing moment” when two world famous reefs both suffered widespread damage at the same time.

Corals begin to bleach at about 4DHW, and 8DHW can kill heat-sensitive corals. Scientists say levels up to 16DHWs have been detected on the Ningaloo coast. Photograph: David Juszkiewicz/Curtin University

Dr Zoe Richards, an associate professor and coral scientist at Curtin University, spent 10 days monitoring the health of Ningaloo reefs and the neighbouring Exmouth Gulf earlier this month.

She said in shallower areas known for their clear waters, which are popular with tourists, she had seen up to 90% of corals bleached and evidence of corals dying. Even slow-growing corals that were hundreds of years old were bleaching, she said.

Ningaloo last experienced widespread bleaching only three years ago.

 

The WA government, which is coordinating monitoring across reefs there, said bleaching had also been reported at Kimberley, Ashmore Reef, Rowley Shoals, Barrow Island, Dampier Archipelago, inshore Pilbara and Exmouth Gulf.

Richards said: “This isn’t isolated to Ningaloo – this is happening across the entire north-west shelf. There has never been this scale of impacts in WA. I am not aware of this ever happening before. Climate change has definitely caught up with the reefs in WA.”

Corals lose the algae that give them their colour and most of their nutrients if ocean waters get too warm. If bleaching is not severe, corals can recover, but studies show they are less able to reproduce and are more susceptible to disease.

Coral reef experts use a metric known as degree heating weeks (DHW) to show how much heat corals have accumulated. Generally, corals begin to bleach at about 4DHW, and 8DHW can kill heat-sensitive corals.

Dr Jessica Benthuysen, an oceanographer at the Australian Institute of Marine Science (Aims), first saw signs of heat accumulating in WA last August. By the end of December, she said, some areas had sea surface temperatures 4C hotter than normal.

Benthuysen said levels up to 16DHWs had been detected on the Ningaloo coast, which were the highest on record.

Bleaching at Lakeside Reef Front, Ningaloo. Paul Gamblin of the AMCS says scientists have warned of widespread damage from underwater heatwaves and cyclones to both reefs ‘for decades’. Photograph: Zoe Richards/Curtin University

Coral bleaching at Mesa Back Reef at Ningaloo in WA. Photograph: Chris Fulton/Australian Institute of Marine Science


The US government’s Coral Reef Watch says DHWs between 12 and 16 are enough to cause coral death across multiple species.

The federal government’s Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority has coordinated monitoring flights over northern reefs, finding low to high levels of bleaching on most reefs. Underwater checks found bleaching at 24 of 30 reefs surveyed.

Bleaching was worse farther north – there is no concern for reefs in the park’s southern section.

Last summer was the worst bleaching event on record for the reef and the fifth major outbreak in eight years, hitting all across the marine park.

Dr Neal Cantin, a coral reef biologist at Aims who was on the monitoring flights, said bleaching was generally worse closer to shore but there was “high to medium” bleaching on reefs from Cairns to the far north. He said in the far north, heat stress was between six and 13DHWs, which was “capable of causing mortality”.

Dr Roger Beeden, the chief scientist at the authority, said detailed analysis of the data from the flights was still being analysed, but he said the lack of recovery time for corals between major events was worrying.

“It’s the frequency as well as the severity that makes us most concerned,” he said.

Dr Emily Howells, a coral scientist from Southern Cross University who has been at the Australian Museum’s research station on Lizard island since February, said this was now the sixth summer in a row that bleaching had been seen there.

The island, in the north of the reef, was badly hit by bleaching last summer and scientists at Aims who visited in subsequent months said the area had lost one-third of its live corals due to the heat.

Howells said there was less coral mortality this year, “but that’s because a lot of the sensitive corals died last summer”.

“There just isn’t enough opportunity for these coral communities to bounce back. It’s heartbreaking,” she said.

“We’re making it more and more challenging for the corals. The solution is having stronger action on climate change. The longer we wait, the worse it will get.”

 

Northern parts of the Great Barrier Reef have also been heavily affected by flooding from torrential rains. James Cook University’s TropWATER group has recorded flood waters carrying sediments and nutrients in a plume across 700km of the coast and extending as far as 100km offshore.

Jane Waterhouse, a reef water quality expert at TropWATER, said major flood events appeared to be happening more often and flood plumes were reaching farther offshore.

“River discharge carries pollutants, sediments and nutrients,” she said. “You get muddy water that cuts the light that seagrass and corals need to grow, and that nutrient also allows algae to grow.”

Gamblin said the widespread damage from underwater heatwaves and cyclones to both reefs was “what our world-renowned scientists have been warning us about for decades”.

He said fossil fuel companies were “doubling down” to get more mega projects running, pointing to areas around Scott Reef in WA being targeted for expansion by Woodside.

He said: “More mega polluting projects up at places like Scott Reef will make a tragic situation worse. What will our children say to us?”

 


 

Monday, September 2, 2024

Australia sweats through hottest August on record with temperatures 3C above average

Crowds on Sydney's Bondi beach beat the heat on the last day of winter 2024. BoM data showed average temperatures across Australia in August were 3.03C above the long-term average. Photograph: David Gray/AFP/Getty Images
 

The 2024 winter was the second hottest on record since weather data collection began in 1910

 

Australia recorded its hottest August on record, with the national temperature 3C above average, as September kicked off with total fire bans in parts of New South Wales on Monday.

Bureau of Meteorology data showed average temperatures across the nation in August were 3.03C above the long-term average, easily beating the previous 2.56C record set in 2009.

The 2024 winter also ranked as the second hottest on record going back to 1910, the data showed, coming in at 1.48C above average. The hottest winter on record was 2023 at 1.54C above average.

 On Monday, the NSW Rural Fire Service issued total fire bans for greater Sydney and the Illawarra and Shoalhaven region.

 

Climate scientists have described the extreme temperatures across Australia since the middle of August as “gobsmacking”.

While high-pressure systems over the continent kept skies clear and pushed temperatures higher, climate scientists said the extreme nature of the heatwave was likely caused by global heating.

Dr Simon Grainger, a senior climatologist at the bureau, said: “When we get these significant heat events, they can break records by quite a large margin.”

He said ocean temperatures around the continent had been very high in July and this had “set the groundwork” for the warmer conditions.

Western Australia, South Australia and Queensland all set record winter high temperatures during the second half of August. Large parts of the country saw daily and nighttime temperatures more than 10C above average.

The hottest winter temperature on record for the country, 41.6C, was set on 26 August at Yampi Sound in the remote Kimberley area.

In NSW on Monday, the fire danger rating was high for greater Sydney and extreme for the Illawarra area.

 The NSW RFS inspector, Ben Shepherd, said it was not unusual to have elevated fire risk around this time of year.


“This is showing that while we did have wet weather initially, it quickly swung the other way to being very dry and warm. But it is the wind that is driving the fire danger up.”

There should be a return to moderate fire risk for the rest of the week, he said.

He said the past three years were relatively benign for fire weather, but the weather bureau forecasts were showing warmer than average conditions were likely for the next three months.

“That means now is the time to set up and get your property prepared and have your fire plans in place,” he said.

Later this week the Australasian Fire And Emergency Services Authorities Council is expected to release an outlook on the risk of bushfires around the country for spring.


Wednesday, December 30, 2009

PALO ALTO, Calif.--This is sort of like the "two, two, two mints in one" solution for the clean-tech set.


Australia's Terra Fuel Technologies has come up with a device that, when added to a diesel car, bus or truck, lets the vehicle also run partly on ethanol. You need to add a second gas tank on the vehicle to hold ethanol, but in the end, it's an ethanol-diesel car. The device, a black box, controls the flow of ethanol into the engine.

The company has tested it and will start selling it in the United States.

Who in their right mind would want this? Adding ethanol to a diesel engine actually improves performance of the vehicle by about 10 percent while reducing emissions, said Alexander Daniel, vice president of Business Strategies International, which is trying to help Terra Fuel get traction in the States.

Running a diesel engine on vegetable oil, a clean alternative, can degrade performance a little, even according to biodiesel fans.

Diesel drivers, of course, can reduce emissions by running their cars on a mix of regular diesel and biodiesel. But biodiesel is made from oil, Alexander and others at BSI noted, and a lot of countries don't have a lot of spare vegetable oil. Australia, for instance, grows sugarcane, which can be turned into ethanol.

PALO ALTO, Calif.--This is sort of like the "two, two, two mints in one" solution for the clean-tech set.


Australia's Terra Fuel Technologies has come up with a device that, when added to a diesel car, bus or truck, lets the vehicle also run partly on ethanol. You need to add a second gas tank on the vehicle to hold ethanol, but in the end, it's an ethanol-diesel car. The device, a black box, controls the flow of ethanol into the engine.

The company has tested it and will start selling it in the United States.

Who in their right mind would want this? Adding ethanol to a diesel engine actually improves performance of the vehicle by about 10 percent while reducing emissions, said Alexander Daniel, vice president of Business Strategies International, which is trying to help Terra Fuel get traction in the States.

Running a diesel engine on vegetable oil, a clean alternative, can degrade performance a little, even according to biodiesel fans.

Diesel drivers, of course, can reduce emissions by running their cars on a mix of regular diesel and biodiesel. But biodiesel is made from oil, Alexander and others at BSI noted, and a lot of countries don't have a lot of spare vegetable oil. Australia, for instance, grows sugarcane, which can be turned into ethanol.

Friday, September 11, 2009

India's Bhoruka backs Australian oilseeds expansion





SYDNEY, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Indian conglomerate Bhoruka Group will invest A$63 million ($54 million) in an oilseed and crushing facility in Australia that could spur an increase in the amount of oilseeds planted in Australia.

The plant, which will start production in October next year in New South Wales state, will have the capacity to crush and refine 170,000 tonnes of oilseed annually, largely for export markets including India and Japan.

It will require about 125,000 additional acres in Australia to be planted with oilseeds, or 5 percent more than currently planted, Bhoruka said.

Australia produces over 600,000 tonnes of edible oils and fats annually, but to date has largely exported unprocessed oilseeds such as canola rather than refined products.

The project, called Riverina Oils & Bio Energy (ROBE), expects to export 65,000 tonnes a year of refined vegetable oil once operating, and has plans to double output if an initial 12 months of operation proves successful.

It said some farmers may switch from water-hungry crops such as rice to oilseeds.

Bhoruka Chairman Sartya Agarwal and Indian businessmen Dhruv Saxena and Ravi Uppal will own 60 percent of the project, while U.S. venture capital firm Lotus Ventures will hold 40 percent.

Agarwal said his firm had been attracted to Australia because of the productivity of the agriculture sector and the potential to add value by crushing and refining oilseeds for export.

The ROBE plant will also produce up to 75 million litres of biodiesel over the long term, converted either from refined oil or imported palm oil.

Agrawal said Bhoruka is also considering a larger investment in Australia's agricultural processing sector, possibly a biomass fuelled power plant, capitalising on the group's experience as India's largest renewable electricity generator. ($1=1.170 Australian Dollar) (Reporting by Bruce Hextall)

India's Bhoruka backs Australian oilseeds expansion





SYDNEY, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Indian conglomerate Bhoruka Group will invest A$63 million ($54 million) in an oilseed and crushing facility in Australia that could spur an increase in the amount of oilseeds planted in Australia.

The plant, which will start production in October next year in New South Wales state, will have the capacity to crush and refine 170,000 tonnes of oilseed annually, largely for export markets including India and Japan.

It will require about 125,000 additional acres in Australia to be planted with oilseeds, or 5 percent more than currently planted, Bhoruka said.

Australia produces over 600,000 tonnes of edible oils and fats annually, but to date has largely exported unprocessed oilseeds such as canola rather than refined products.

The project, called Riverina Oils & Bio Energy (ROBE), expects to export 65,000 tonnes a year of refined vegetable oil once operating, and has plans to double output if an initial 12 months of operation proves successful.

It said some farmers may switch from water-hungry crops such as rice to oilseeds.

Bhoruka Chairman Sartya Agarwal and Indian businessmen Dhruv Saxena and Ravi Uppal will own 60 percent of the project, while U.S. venture capital firm Lotus Ventures will hold 40 percent.

Agarwal said his firm had been attracted to Australia because of the productivity of the agriculture sector and the potential to add value by crushing and refining oilseeds for export.

The ROBE plant will also produce up to 75 million litres of biodiesel over the long term, converted either from refined oil or imported palm oil.

Agrawal said Bhoruka is also considering a larger investment in Australia's agricultural processing sector, possibly a biomass fuelled power plant, capitalising on the group's experience as India's largest renewable electricity generator. ($1=1.170 Australian Dollar) (Reporting by Bruce Hextall)

Monday, April 13, 2009

Air New Zealand tested a jet fuel made from the jatropha plant.


For two hours, pilots tested the oil, in a 50-50 blend with conventional jet fuel in one of the four Rolls-Royce engines powering a Boeing 747-400 aircraft — the first test flight by a commercial airline using jatropha oil. Rob Fyfe, Air New Zealand’s chief executive, called the flight a milestone in commercial aviation. “Today we stand at the earliest stages of sustainable fuel development and an important moment in aviation history,” he said. The project has been 18 months in the works.
Unlike other biofuel crops like soybeans and corn, jatropha needs little water or fertilizer and can be grown almost anywhere — even in sandy, saline or otherwise infertile soil. Each seed produces 30 to 40 percent of its mass in oil, giving it a high per-acre yield, specialists said.
The results of the flight — and two others planned by rival airlines in the United States and Japan in January — will be closely watched by an industry that is trying to shift toward renewable, low-emissions fuels.
A sharp rise in crude oil prices — to more than $145 a barrel in July — offer a strong incentive for the industry to reduce its exposure to volatile oil prices. But pressure to reduce carbon emissions has also driven the search for alternatives.
The International Air Transport Association, which represents 230 airlines, wants its members to use 10 percent alternative fuels by 2017. The association has the goal that airlines will be able to fly carbon-free in 50 years, with the help of technologies like fuel cells and solar energy.
Such goals have ensured that research and development into greener flying have continued, despite the plunge in oil prices below $40 a barrel.
Having conducted a series of tests Tuesday, Air New Zealand and its partners, the aircraft manufacturer Boeing, the engine maker Rolls-Royce and the technology developer UOP, a part of Honeywell, will review the results “as part of our drive to have jatropha certified as an aviation fuel,” the flight’s chief pilot, Capt. David Morgan, said.
The hope is that the test results will lay the groundwork for jatropha to be commercially available in three to five years, executives from the companies said.
In February, Virgin Atlantic became the first airline to test a biofuel blend in a commercial aircraft, using a 20 percent mixture of coconut oil and babassu nut oil in one of its four engines.
Two more airlines are to test their alternatives next month. Continental Airlines will conduct a test flight on Jan. 7 using a blend that includes algae and jatropha, the first biofuel test flight of a commercial airliner owned by an American company.
And Japan Airlines is planning a test flight Jan. 30 using a fuel based on the camelina oilseed.
But the potential use of jatropha has not been free of criticism, with some observers fearing that farmers could be tempted to grow jatropha rather than edible crops in the hope of getting better prices.
Algae may be free of this potential problem, but research into algae is not as far advanced, said an Air New Zealand spokesman.
Air New Zealand said the jatropha used on Tuesday’s flight had been grown in Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania.

Air New Zealand tested a jet fuel made from the jatropha plant.


For two hours, pilots tested the oil, in a 50-50 blend with conventional jet fuel in one of the four Rolls-Royce engines powering a Boeing 747-400 aircraft — the first test flight by a commercial airline using jatropha oil. Rob Fyfe, Air New Zealand’s chief executive, called the flight a milestone in commercial aviation. “Today we stand at the earliest stages of sustainable fuel development and an important moment in aviation history,” he said. The project has been 18 months in the works.
Unlike other biofuel crops like soybeans and corn, jatropha needs little water or fertilizer and can be grown almost anywhere — even in sandy, saline or otherwise infertile soil. Each seed produces 30 to 40 percent of its mass in oil, giving it a high per-acre yield, specialists said.
The results of the flight — and two others planned by rival airlines in the United States and Japan in January — will be closely watched by an industry that is trying to shift toward renewable, low-emissions fuels.
A sharp rise in crude oil prices — to more than $145 a barrel in July — offer a strong incentive for the industry to reduce its exposure to volatile oil prices. But pressure to reduce carbon emissions has also driven the search for alternatives.
The International Air Transport Association, which represents 230 airlines, wants its members to use 10 percent alternative fuels by 2017. The association has the goal that airlines will be able to fly carbon-free in 50 years, with the help of technologies like fuel cells and solar energy.
Such goals have ensured that research and development into greener flying have continued, despite the plunge in oil prices below $40 a barrel.
Having conducted a series of tests Tuesday, Air New Zealand and its partners, the aircraft manufacturer Boeing, the engine maker Rolls-Royce and the technology developer UOP, a part of Honeywell, will review the results “as part of our drive to have jatropha certified as an aviation fuel,” the flight’s chief pilot, Capt. David Morgan, said.
The hope is that the test results will lay the groundwork for jatropha to be commercially available in three to five years, executives from the companies said.
In February, Virgin Atlantic became the first airline to test a biofuel blend in a commercial aircraft, using a 20 percent mixture of coconut oil and babassu nut oil in one of its four engines.
Two more airlines are to test their alternatives next month. Continental Airlines will conduct a test flight on Jan. 7 using a blend that includes algae and jatropha, the first biofuel test flight of a commercial airliner owned by an American company.
And Japan Airlines is planning a test flight Jan. 30 using a fuel based on the camelina oilseed.
But the potential use of jatropha has not been free of criticism, with some observers fearing that farmers could be tempted to grow jatropha rather than edible crops in the hope of getting better prices.
Algae may be free of this potential problem, but research into algae is not as far advanced, said an Air New Zealand spokesman.
Air New Zealand said the jatropha used on Tuesday’s flight had been grown in Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania.

Summer 2025 was hottest on record in UK, says Met Office. Unprecedented average temperature made about 70 times more likely by human-induced climate change, says agency

The water levels at Broomhead reservoir in South Yorkshire have been low this summer. Photograph: Richard McCarthy/PA by   Damien Gayle The...