The Australian solar industry has expressed astonishment at the forecasts used by the NSW government to justify its decision to slash the feed-in tariff for rooftop solar PV by 60 per cent, saying jobs have already been lost and some businesses will soon close. The NSW government based its decision on a report by consultancy group AECOM, which predicted that cutting the gross feed-in tariff from 60c/kwh to 20c/kwh (less than the retail price of electricity in some areas) would have only a minor impact on industry growth.

AECOM forecast 777MW of solar PV would be installed by 2016 under the lower tariff, compared to nearly 1000MW under the higher tariff. “They are kidding themselves. That is a joke,” said John Grimes, the head of the Australian Solar Energy Society. He said the industry fears a drop in business of 80-90 per cent in NSW. “Thousands of jobs will go as a result of this decision, and millions of dollars will be lost in investment.”

The solar industry is taking to the streets in an attempt to have the decision at least partly reversed, and a more sustainable tariff re-introduced to support the industry. It plans a rally at the Town Hall in Sydney on Thursday in an attempt to galvanise community support. But it faces a tough battle on the political front, with both Labor and the Opposition showing little sympathy for the cause.

“We need to change their minds,” Grimes said. “Both parties have bought into the price scare campaign of the utilities. No one wants to be responsible – they will find anything they can to blame on rising prices, other than the poor management of networks over the last 25 years.

King looks to clean baseload solution

Origin Energy may well have received partial approval for what could be one of Australia’s largest wind farms at Stockyard Hill in Victoria, but CEO Grant King clearly believes that too much wind is, well, too much. Addressing the AGM on Friday, King expressed concern that the intermittency of wind would cause problems if wind power alone was used to meet the 20 per cent renewable energy target, and he preferred to pursue opportunities in baseload renewables, such as geothermal and hydro.

King says Origin continues to work on developing new and unconventional sources of geothermal energy – both hot dry rock and sedimentary aquifer – in the Cooper Basin, where it is partnered with Geodynamics. “This is challenging and risky work, but in our opinion a risk worth undertaking,” he said. King also spoke of the PNG hydro-electric plan, which he said could deliver 1,800MW of emissions free energy, including a considerable amount to north Queensland via a high voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission line.

However, he also said the company’s solar joint venture with Micron was making “good progress in developing new and competitively priced technology for making solar photovoltaic cells for large-scale deployment on a grid-connected basis.” King said Origin had a substantial wind development portfolio, including the now 157-turbine Stockland Hill, but would only deploy these wind farms if was the most effective way to meet its RET liability. Origin has has met most of its requirements for upcoming years through the purchase of renewable energy certificates following the price fall caused by the swamping of the market by certificates generated from rooftop solar.

 GE hearts EVs

 The world’s largest industrial group, General Electric, has announced it will place an order for “tens of thousands” of electric vehicles to help kick-start the industry. GE CEO Jeff Immelt told a conference in London late last week the company expected to have half of its 45,000 strong sales force at the wheel of an EV. “Industry must create its own momentum on sustainability ahead of government,” Immelt was quoted as saying in a Bloomberg report.

GE does have a vested interest in EVs. As provider of around one third of the equipment needed for the world’s electricity, the company estimates that it will gain around 10c of revenue for every dollar spent on EVs. It also has a financing division that has teamed up with EV infrastructure group Better Place to help fund the rollout of EVs and to amortise the upfront capital costs of batteries.

Green Rock’s hot property

Green Rock says an estimate of its geothermal energy resource in its north Perth Basin permits suggests it could easily support a 100MW geothermal energy facility. The study was conducted by consultant Hot Dry Rocks Ltd and suggests one million petajoules of stored heat resources in hot sedimentary aquifer and hot rock reservoirs, with temperatures of 125C or more. Green Rock will begin drilling in the permit areas in 2011, and will target areas it suspects has the higher water flow rates to improve the economics of the project. “The HDR estimate supports our view of the huge potential of our permits in the North Perth Basin within a region of rapid power demand growth,” CEO Adrian Larkin said.

-- Giles Parkinson