Archived News for Energy Sector Professionals

A report co-published by the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) and the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) has found that strong action on climate change would lead to job growth throughout Australia.

The Clean Energy Council has countered media reports that the cost of solar energy is now cheaper than that of coal fired electricity, saying they are “premature and inaccurate”.

Clean Energy Council chief executive Matthew Warren said solar electricity was becoming more affordable, more efficient and more reliable, but it still needed responsible government assistance to compete with carbon-based electricity generation.

"Claims that the cost of solar energy are competitive with coal, while intended to be constructive, risk doing more harm than good. Leading solar industry analysts expect that the falling cost of solar will meet the rising the cost of fossil fuel electricity somewhere between 2015-2018. At this point we will achieve what is known in the industry as 'grid parity'.

"If solar electricity was at or very close to grid parity anywhere in Australia at the moment then systems would be going up on every roof and every business without government assistance. That simply isn't the case yet.

"We have seen a big fall in the cost of these systems over the past decade and it's clear that solar energy is going to play a major role in Australia’s energy supply over the rest of this century," he said.

Mr Warren said the industry was currently on a knife-edge.

"Since the closure of the NSW Solar Bonus Scheme we have seen the industry come to a complete standstill. We have come so far in developing this exciting clean energy industry. But we still have to finish the job," Mr Warren said.

"Delivering a safe, efficient and responsible solar industry is like landing a plane. We're approaching the runway, but we haven't landed yet. If we cut the engines now the plane will still crash," he said.

"Government support for solar energy has been one of the success stories of the 21st century. We now have sufficient scale, expertise and competition to deliver this technology affordably across Australia.

"If we cut off support at this point, we damn hundreds of solar businesses that have helped deliver this transformation, along with thousands of solar jobs."

Arrow Energy’s plan to construct a multi-billion dollar LNG plant on Curtis Island off Gladstone in Central Queensland has taken a major step forward with the awarding of the front-end engineering design (FEED) contract.

Federal Climate Change Minister Greg Combet has announced that the Government’s planned carbon tax will be introduced before parliament in September and could be legislated before the end of the year.

Solar energy R&D and manufacturing company, Silex Solar, has announced a restructure of its silicon PV panel business at Sydney Olympic Park that will result in cells made by Silex being replaced by "third party cells from a new strategic partner", believed to be Chinese, with the loss of around 30 Australian jobs.

Professor Maria Forsyth, Chair in Electromaterials and Corrosion Sciences at Deakin University and Associate Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science has been awarded a 2011 Australian Laureate Fellowship.

Western Australian energy utility Horizon Power has signed a three year ICT managed services contract with Japanese IT services giant Fujitsu, in one of the vendor’s first major deals in the state since opening a new datacentre in the region in late 2010.

Ausgrid, one of Australia’s largest electricity distributors, has reported that the company is experiencing an unprecedented drop in household power demand.

The Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) has released an issues paper into solar feed-in tariffs as part of its review into the Solar Bonus Scheme, which was closed to new participants on July 1st.

A report has been released by the Economic Regulation Authority of Western Australia which finds that the electricity market in the South West of Western Australia is at a cross-road and warns against higher power prices due to renewable energy incentives.

The Federal Government has released the Australia's National Greenhouse Gas Inventory: Update report which provides estimates of Australia's national greenhouse gas inventory based on the latest available data and the accounting rules that apply for the Kyoto Protocol.

Australia could achieve significantly greater than expected emissions reductions by 2020 if the Federal Government passes it successfully implements its carbon package, according to research conducted by environmental think-tank ClimateWorks Australia.

International recruitment specialist Hays has launched its major project jobs website where jobseekers can view positions in major oil, gas, resources and mining and energy and construction projects in Western Australia.

The Western Australian Government will retain its 16 per cent domestic gas reservation requirement for all gas projects, and implement measures to improve transparency in the gas market.

Brisbane-based Carbon Energy Limited  has announced that it has achieved electricity generation using syngas produced through its unique process of Underground Coal Gasification (UCG).

Origin Energy has completed the subscription agreement facilitating the acquisition by Sinopec of a 15% ownership interest in Australia Pacific LNG Pty Ltd in Gladstone, Queensland.

Ocean energy company, BioPower Systems, has completed testing of its full-scale O-Drive power conversion module, successfully delivering stable power to the grid over extended periods with a high level of efficiency. The technology will now be used in a pilot demonstration off the Port Fairy coastline in western Victoria.

The Australian Government has called for applications for its $126 million Emerging Renewables program established to support promising renewable energy technology projects such as geothermal, solar and ocean.

Four geothermal companies have been forced to return Federal Government funding  due to inability to attract matching private sector funds for the grants.