Privately held MBD Energy is seeking up to $10 million from investors in a new round of expansion funding that will help develop its various projects to use algae farms to sequester carbon emissions from power stations and create a new line of feedstock and sustainable fuels. It is the first fund raising since last November when MBD brought in mining giant Anglo Coal as a major investor.
MBD wants to use the money to fund the staged deployment and commissioning of its “proof-of concept” display plant at the Tarong power station in Queensland - the first of its kind in the world - and its ongoing R&D program at its R&D facility at the James Cook University in Townsville. The money will also be used towards feasibility studies and leveraging government grants being made available at its other project sites at the Loy Yang A power station in Victoria and the Eraring power station in NSW.
MBD hopes to start construction on $4 million display plant at Tarong later this year and commission it by the third quarter of next year. If all goes well, a $30 million pilot plant would follow in 2013, and a $300 million demonstration plant by 2015. This plant would cover around 1,500ha, sequester some 1.4 million tonnes of CO2 each year, as well as produce around 250,000 tonnes of oil and 450,000 tonnes of algal meal.
Rock steady
Aspiring geothermal producer Green Rock Energy has been buoyed by an independent estimate that it says confirms a substantial geothermal resource at its Alkimos play, around 40kms north of Perth. Alkimos is the site of a planned new residential community. The estimate by industry consultants Hot Dry Rocks suggests that the Alkimos permits contained around 61,000 petajoules of stored heat. More confirmation of these estimates will come in the next 12 months when the company drills two 500m exploration wells that will be jointly funded by the state government.
Green Rock plans to use the geothermal resource to provide district cooling, in the same way it intends to do in a smaller project at the University of Western Australia. Green Rock managing director Richard Beresford says ten projects, each producing 10MW of thermal energy, would tap into less than 1 per cent of the stored heat. He says the resource could also be used for other direct purposes, such as district heating, sea-water desalination and purification of waste water by distillation.
Star connections
Listed solar group Solco says it has secured an exclusive agreement to distribute solar modules for leading Chinese solar company Astronergy in Australia, New Zealand, and Pacific Island nations. Solco said that because supply of solar products had been a major concern for players in the domestic solar industry, this deal would secure Solco’s growth and development strategy. Solco says it will distribute Astronergy’s entire line of solar products, including monocrystalline solar PV, polycrystalline solar PV, and high-efficiency thin film PV, which can be used for residences, government and schools as well as larger scale projects.
Solco recently upgraded its fiscal 2010 profit forecasts to $3.15 million, a rise of 76 per cent over the previous year, with revenue expected to rise about 25 per cent to $34.5 million. It forecast further growth in 2011, based upon rapidly falling product prices, rising energy costs and community awareness. “However, until grid parity is reached, which puts solar on an equal footing, unforeseen changes in government policies may have a dampening effect on the market,” it said at the time.
Carbon cluster
The Victorian state government has launched the “Melbourne Carbon Export Cluster” to help local businesses export their green services and products overseas. The government is contributing $800,000 towards the initial two years of the cluster, which will pool expertise on carbon project development services, as well as clean technology providers, engineers and experts in project finance, brokers and legal specialists, and carbon auditors. Companies involved in the cluster include Ernst & Young, Bakers & McKenzie, Perenia Carbon, Viridis Solutions, AGL, TFS Green and the National Australia Bank.
Following the sun
The US-based SunPower Corp has completed the installation of a 505-kilowatt solar power facility, the largest solar tracking system in the country, at two sites in the Pilbara. The facility at Marble Bar and Nullagine, built on behalf of the local government-owned utility Horizon Power, will power the world's first high penetration, hybrid solar-diesel power stations. Suntech says the power stations will generate approximately 1,048 megawatt hours of solar energy per year and will produce between 60 and 90 per cent of daily electricity needs. The plant employs flywheel technology developed by PowerCorp that is used to smooth the energy from the solar panels and stabilise power quality between the diesel power station and the solar farm.
Privately held MBD Energy is seeking up to $10 million from investors in a new round of expansion funding that will help develop its various projects to use algae farms to sequester carbon emissions from power stations and create a new line of feedstock and sustainable fuels. It is the first fund raising since last November when MBD brought in mining giant Anglo Coal as a major investor.
MBD wants to use the money to fund the staged deployment and commissioning of its “proof-of concept” display plant at the Tarong power station in Queensland - the first of its kind in the world - and its ongoing R&D program at its R&D facility at the James Cook University in Townsville. The money will also be used towards feasibility studies and leveraging government grants being made available at its other project sites at the Loy Yang A power station in Victoria and the Eraring power station in NSW.
MBD hopes to start construction on $4 million display plant at Tarong later this year and commission it by the third quarter of next year. If all goes well, a $30 million pilot plant would follow in 2013, and a $300 million demonstration plant by 2015. This plant would cover around 1,500ha, sequester some 1.4 million tonnes of CO2 each year, as well as produce around 250,000 tonnes of oil and 450,000 tonnes of algal meal.
Rock steady
Aspiring geothermal producer Green Rock Energy has been buoyed by an independent estimate that it says confirms a substantial geothermal resource at its Alkimos play, around 40kms north of Perth. Alkimos is the site of a planned new residential community. The estimate by industry consultants Hot Dry Rocks suggests that the Alkimos permits contained around 61,000 petajoules of stored heat. More confirmation of these estimates will come in the next 12 months when the company drills two 500m exploration wells that will be jointly funded by the state government.
Green Rock plans to use the geothermal resource to provide district cooling, in the same way it intends to do in a smaller project at the University of Western Australia. Green Rock managing director Richard Beresford says ten projects, each producing 10MW of thermal energy, would tap into less than 1 per cent of the stored heat. He says the resource could also be used for other direct purposes, such as district heating, sea-water desalination and purification of waste water by distillation.
Star connections
Listed solar group Solco says it has secured an exclusive agreement to distribute solar modules for leading Chinese solar company Astronergy in Australia, New Zealand, and Pacific Island nations. Solco said that because supply of solar products had been a major concern for players in the domestic solar industry, this deal would secure Solco’s growth and development strategy. Solco says it will distribute Astronergy’s entire line of solar products, including monocrystalline solar PV, polycrystalline solar PV, and high-efficiency thin film PV, which can be used for residences, government and schools as well as larger scale projects.
Solco recently upgraded its fiscal 2010 profit forecasts to $3.15 million, a rise of 76 per cent over the previous year, with revenue expected to rise about 25 per cent to $34.5 million. It forecast further growth in 2011, based upon rapidly falling product prices, rising energy costs and community awareness. “However, until grid parity is reached, which puts solar on an equal footing, unforeseen changes in government policies may have a dampening effect on the market,” it said at the time.
Carbon cluster
The Victorian state government has launched the “Melbourne Carbon Export Cluster” to help local businesses export their green services and products overseas. The government is contributing $800,000 towards the initial two years of the cluster, which will pool expertise on carbon project development services, as well as clean technology providers, engineers and experts in project finance, brokers and legal specialists, and carbon auditors. Companies involved in the cluster include Ernst & Young, Bakers & McKenzie, Perenia Carbon, Viridis Solutions, AGL, TFS Green and the National Australia Bank.
Following the sun
The US-based SunPower Corp has completed the installation of a 505-kilowatt solar power facility, the largest solar tracking system in the country, at two sites in the Pilbara. The facility at Marble Bar and Nullagine, built on behalf of the local government-owned utility Horizon Power, will power the world's first high penetration, hybrid solar-diesel power stations. Suntech says the power stations will generate approximately 1,048 megawatt hours of solar energy per year and will produce between 60 and 90 per cent of daily electricity needs. The plant employs flywheel technology developed by PowerCorp that is used to smooth the energy from the solar panels and stabilise power quality between the diesel power station and the solar farm.
-- Giles Parkinson