Industrial giant General Electric has joined the EV Engineering consortium that is looking to develop a fully-electric version of the Holden Commodore that will include battery switching capabilities. The addition of GE to the consortium, which already includes Bosch, Air International, Continental and Futuris, as well as electric vehicle infrastructure and services provider Better Place, comes as Holden warned of the future of manufacturing in the country because of the scaling down of federal green car initiatives.
GE is investing heavily in the EV market, committing to buying 25,000 electric cars by 2015 to replace half of its leasing fleet, developing the WattStation electric vehicle charging station, and striking an alliance with Better Place, where it will help finance the battery-leasing arrangements. ”We’re investing early (in EVs), said Ben Waters, the head of GE’s Ecomagination project in Australia. “This is a game changer for the motoring industry, and for the electricity industry.”
EV Engineering CEO Ian McCleave said GE was making a clear statement about the important role EVs will play in Australia’s transport mix. “EV Engineering believes Australia’s automotive future lies in electric vehicle,” he said. The consortium plans to produce 7 EV Commodores to test the feasibility of producing large electric cars with switchable batteries in volume.
The Better Place model is based around selling models at comparable prices to their fuel-guzzling equivalents, and then delivering battery power and recharging for less than the cost of fuel and maintenance. McCleave said the reluctance of the federal government to subsidise the cost of EVs, unlike government overseas, may not matter. “Those incentives have limited tenure,” he said. “My view is that once these technology can become more affordable, we will see a competitive offering in the market place and maybe they will not be needed in three to four years time.”
A strengthening wind
AGL Energy has agreed to sell its 67.2MW Oaklands Hill wind farm in Victoria to an undisclosed corporate buyer, recouping the $172 million it has spent on the development to date and pocketing a $38 million “development fee” on the way. The sale of Oaklands Hill, which is being built to satisfy part of AGL’s contract to supply renewable energy to the Victorian desalination plant, is not unusual because AGL has done similar deals on other wind farms it has developed.
However, the details of the transaction do point to a potential turning point in Australia’s renewable energy market, and hope that pricing and off-takes can finally be transacted so that the huge pipeline of projects can be developed. The announcement reveals that the off-take price for the wind farm, including renewable energy certificates, is $98/MWh until mid 2014, and $115.50/MWh thereafter. Interestingly, AGL is also sharing the risk of wind speed variability, unlike previous arrangements.
Deutsche Bank analyst John Hirjee says the pricing arrangements show the company's confidence in the outlook for LREC pricing. “We note AGL has previously expressed its view that the LREC market will enter deficit in 2014, and we assume this underpins the step-up in off-take pricing.” Potential developers – who need to strike a power purchase agreement with AGL or one of the other major retailers, Origin and TRUenergy – will be hoping so.
Eon sees green
German power group Eon has decided to stop agitating against the closure of the country’s nuclear power plants and declared that the switch to renewable energy represents a “huge opportunity” to develop new technologie and business models. “Germany will become a laboratory for the accelerated switch to renewable energy,” CEO Johannes Teyssen said in an interview with the Financial Times. “Eon will position itself in this process – and then take what it learns out into the world.”
Teyssen said these technologies would include electricity storage and smart networks, both considered essential to marshal the energy produced by renewable energy sources. Eon will continue to seek compensation for the early closure of its nuclear plants, and a nuclear fuel tax, but Teyssen said this was not now a matter for the CEO. “I think of this like a traffic accident – a matter for the claims department,” he said. “Our strategy has to be, ‘What can we do [and] where?’,” he said. “We can’t sit in the corner and sulk and say to the government, ‘You should have done this or that better’.”
Industrial giant General Electric has joined the EV Engineering consortium that is looking to develop a fully-electric version of the Holden Commodore that will include battery switching capabilities. The addition of GE to the consortium, which already includes Bosch, Air International, Continental and Futuris, as well as electric vehicle infrastructure and services provider Better Place, comes as Holden warned of the future of manufacturing in the country because of the scaling down of federal green car initiatives.
GE is investing heavily in the EV market, committing to buying 25,000 electric cars by 2015 to replace half of its leasing fleet, developing the WattStation electric vehicle charging station, and striking an alliance with Better Place, where it will help finance the battery-leasing arrangements. ”We’re investing early (in EVs), said Ben Waters, the head of GE’s Ecomagination project in Australia. “This is a game changer for the motoring industry, and for the electricity industry.”
EV Engineering CEO Ian McCleave said GE was making a clear statement about the important role EVs will play in Australia’s transport mix. “EV Engineering believes Australia’s automotive future lies in electric vehicle,” he said. The consortium plans to produce 7 EV Commodores to test the feasibility of producing large electric cars with switchable batteries in volume.
The Better Place model is based around selling models at comparable prices to their fuel-guzzling equivalents, and then delivering battery power and recharging for less than the cost of fuel and maintenance. McCleave said the reluctance of the federal government to subsidise the cost of EVs, unlike government overseas, may not matter. “Those incentives have limited tenure,” he said. “My view is that once these technology can become more affordable, we will see a competitive offering in the market place and maybe they will not be needed in three to four years time.”
A strengthening wind
AGL Energy has agreed to sell its 67.2MW Oaklands Hill wind farm in Victoria to an undisclosed corporate buyer, recouping the $172 million it has spent on the development to date and pocketing a $38 million “development fee” on the way. The sale of Oaklands Hill, which is being built to satisfy part of AGL’s contract to supply renewable energy to the Victorian desalination plant, is not unusual because AGL has done similar deals on other wind farms it has developed.
However, the details of the transaction do point to a potential turning point in Australia’s renewable energy market, and hope that pricing and off-takes can finally be transacted so that the huge pipeline of projects can be developed. The announcement reveals that the off-take price for the wind farm, including renewable energy certificates, is $98/MWh until mid 2014, and $115.50/MWh thereafter. Interestingly, AGL is also sharing the risk of wind speed variability, unlike previous arrangements.
Deutsche Bank analyst John Hirjee says the pricing arrangements show the company's confidence in the outlook for LREC pricing. “We note AGL has previously expressed its view that the LREC market will enter deficit in 2014, and we assume this underpins the step-up in off-take pricing.” Potential developers – who need to strike a power purchase agreement with AGL or one of the other major retailers, Origin and TRUenergy – will be hoping so.
Eon sees green
German power group Eon has decided to stop agitating against the closure of the country’s nuclear power plants and declared that the switch to renewable energy represents a “huge opportunity” to develop new technologie and business models. “Germany will become a laboratory for the accelerated switch to renewable energy,” CEO Johannes Teyssen said in an interview with the Financial Times. “Eon will position itself in this process – and then take what it learns out into the world.”
Teyssen said these technologies would include electricity storage and smart networks, both considered essential to marshal the energy produced by renewable energy sources. Eon will continue to seek compensation for the early closure of its nuclear plants, and a nuclear fuel tax, but Teyssen said this was not now a matter for the CEO. “I think of this like a traffic accident – a matter for the claims department,” he said. “Our strategy has to be, ‘What can we do [and] where?’,” he said. “We can’t sit in the corner and sulk and say to the government, ‘You should have done this or that better’.”