Australian renewables group Greenearth Energy says it has secured the worldwide licence for new technology that it says can use solar power to transform C02 emitted from generators and other heavy emitters into fuel. The deal has been struck with Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science, which is developing the technology, and is being bankrolled by Leslie Erdi, a Melbourne-based businessman and philanthropist.

Greenearth managing director Mark Miller says the technology, proven only in laboratory trials, uses concentrated solar energy to dissociate CO2 to carbon monoxide (CO) and oxygen (O2), and at the same time dissociate water (H2O) to hydrogen (H2) and oxygen (O2). The CO, or the mixture of CO and H2 (called Syngas) can then be used as gaseous fuel for power plants, or converted to liquid fuel such as methanol.

Miller says the target market will be brown coal generators such as those in Victoria and emitters such as cement plants. “We see this as potential alternate to sequestration. We would be taking emissions and driving a reaction to produce fuel, rather than liquefying it, burying it and then hoping it never reappears.” Miller says a pilot test could be up and running with a few years, and it could be commercially ready within 5 years if all goes well.

 Erdi’s private company will inject $1 million into Greenearth through a share placement that will allow it create a new subsidiary, NewCo2Fuels, and provide initial funding for the project. The shares are being purchase at 11.7c each, nearly double the recent trading price. (The stock jumped to 7c on Thursday). Erdi will provide a further $US4.5 million to fund a pilot project, and has an option to buy out the joint venture for $US20 million plus royalties if it gets to the stage of commercialization.

Wind sale loss

Infigen Energy has revealed it will record a loss of $32.5 million in the 2010/11 fiscal year from the sale of its German wind portfolio, which was completed on Thursday. Infigen said the losses represent an underlying loss of $17.9 million, forex losses of $3.6 million, and assorted costs included interest rate swap termination costs and transaction cost and taxed of $11 million.

Infigen said he €154.6 million sale to German asset manager KGAL will enable it to amortise about $164 million from its global debt facilities, and a €26 million of financial lease liabilities on the 36.5MW Eifel Wind Farm would also be removed from its balance sheet. Infigen says its remaining portfolio comprises interests in 24 wind farms in Australia and the US with a total installed capacity of 1,646MW.

Energy economics

Professor Quentin Grafton, a senior academic at the Australian National University, has been named as the first head of Australia’s newest economic agency, the Bureau of Resource and Energy Economics. The BREE, wich was announced earlier this year, takes the “RE” our of the long-standing economic body, ABARE, the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences, and will be housed as an independent group within the Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism.

Grafton, who will take the chair in August, is currently director of the Centre for Water Economics, Environment and Policy and Professor of Economics at the Crawford School of Economics and Government at the ANU. Energy Minister Martin Ferguson described his as a leading economic thinker. "With the pressures of rapid growth in mining and the transition to a clean energy economy, we need a deep pool of reliable and insightful analysis," Ferguson said.  

Ferguson said the BREE would work to fill “large gaps in our knowledge and give us a more detailed understanding of how Australians use energy in industry and at home, both on-grid and off-grid.” An advisory board has also been appointed. This includes AGL Energy economist Paul Simshauser, Rio Tinto chief economist Vivek Tulpulé, Westpac economist Justin Smirk, University of Sydney energy market expert Lynne Chester; Commonwealth Treasury’s Deputy Secretary Dr David Gruen and ABARES’ executive eirector Phillip Glyde.