MORE SUNDAY WORLD, 6-21 (AUSTRALIA CAN MAKE WAVES; IRANIAN STUDY ON BETTER WIND; WHERE GERMANY’S FEED-IN TARIFF ISN’T)

AUSTRALIA CAN MAKE WAVES
WWF calls for Australia to ride the waves to power
June 19, 2009 (Energy Current)

"Australia should look to the oceans to provide clean, baseload renewable energy as well as thousands of jobs, according to…[Power to Change: Australia's Wave Energy Future] by World Wildlife Fund-Australia…and Carnegie Corp., which operates a CETO wave energy demonstration plant in Western Australia."

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"The report estimates that the wave energy industry will create 3,210 jobs by 2020, including jobs in local manufacturing and maintenance. By 2050 this figure is expected to grow to 14,380 jobs…[and] the jobs created would not be limited to white collar work…

"…Carnegie Corp., expects significant growth in the wave energy industry as Australia puts a price on carbon…Regions such as Geraldton and Albany in Western Australia, Port MacDonnell in South Australia, Portland, Warnambool and Phillip Island in Victoria, western Tasmania and the southern and central coasts of New South Wales are optimal sites for wave energy plants, according to WWF, which is calling on the Australian government to support emerging base loads renewable energy sources like wave by changing the Renewable Energy Target (RET) Scheme…"

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"WWF stressed that building any infrastructure in the marine environment should include an assessment of all ecological risks before construction begins…"


IRANIAN STUDY ON BETTER WIND
How To Get Wind Turbines To Work Harder
June 17, 2009 (ScienceDaily)

"…Abolfazl Ahmadi and Mehdi Ali Ehyaei of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, at Iran University of Science and Technology-Arak Branch, in Arak, have made a big advance for green energy by investigating the "exergy" of wind power. Exergy is a term from thermodynamics that measures that the energy a system that is available to do work…

"Ahmadi and Ehyaei point out that wind turbines have to compete with many other energy sources, primarily fossil fuels but also other green energy sources such as solar and biomass technology. As such, a wind turbine has to be cost effective in order to be environmentally effective."

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"Turbine design must meet load requirements and produce green energy at a minimal per dollar cost…[P]erformance characteristics such as power output versus wind speed or versus rotor angular velocity must be optimized. Exergy analysis looks at the "quality" of the energy produced by a system. To be viable, there is little point in producing intermittent power at wildly varying levels, as this feeds only low-quality energy into the power supply system.

"Usually, wind speeds of above 9 meters per second are considered irrelevant in exergy calculations of wind turbines and previous research has not taken all factors that are required for a holistic analysis of green energy into account…"

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"…[The Iranian team has] developed a [more detailed] exergy analysis for wind turbines…Their approach gives them a model of how the turbine's potential for green energy can be lost…[and] a way to optimize a wind turbine's three main parameters, cut-in, rated, and furling wind speeds, so that usable energy is maximized at any given wind speed from the gentlest breeze to a roaring gale; within the safe working parameters of the turbine.

"They have carried out an exergy analysis of turbines sited in two cities in Iran, Tehran and Manjil, where wind speeds are very different. Tehran has low average wind, whereas Manjil is a windy city. Their formula offers optimized values for wind turbine rotation speed, which can be altered depending on wind speed. The results are a theoretical boost of 20% efficiency at both sites and a decrease in "wasted" green energy of 80%."


WHERE GERMANY’S FEED-IN TARIFF ISN’T
Why California Doesn’t Have a German-Style Solar Feed-In Tariff
Jennifer Kho, June 18, 2009 (Earth2Tech via Reuters)

"…German utilities pay a high [feed-in tariff] price for any solar electricity fed into the grid, with the cost distributed among the country’s ratepayers. The much-esteemed policy made Germany a huge solar market, with 1.5 gigawatts of new capacity installed last year…[T]he United States would need 6 gigawatts of annual solar installations, 20 times more than it has today, to reach the same level of market penetration.

"…[S]ome California solar insiders [recently] voiced skepticism about whether a German-style feed-in tariff would be the end-all policy for the state…California already has a feed-in tariff, but it’s ineffective because the price is low, based on prices for natural gas. The state also has a net-metering program in which solar customers use the electricity they generate for their own use, then feed excess electricity into the grid, running their meters backward. In addition, California has a solar incentive program, which offers declining rebates for solar projects, and a renewable portfolio standard, which requires utilities to get 20 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2010."

Germany's success began with the feed-in tariff. (click to enlarge)

"… Why hasn’t California copied Germany for its much-lauded feed-in tariff? Here are some of the reasons California solar insiders have put forth:

"1). A feed-in tariff doesn’t factor in where and when the electricity is generated: Because a feed-in tariff pays the same price for any kilowatt-hour of solar electricity, it doesn’t encourage generation when and where the electricity is most needed…[by incorporating market signals] such as time-of-use and location…

"2) Germany’s feed-in tariff led to higher panel prices: Because the tariff offered such a high price for solar electricity, it created a shortage of panels that led to much higher prices…Germany [grew] the global manufacturing base but…it built the manufacturing base around the $4-a-watt panel…"

California has a traditional program like Gainesville, Fla, had before it moved to the feed-in tariff. (click to enlarge)

"3) California’s many utilities, each with their own unique conditions, make it more difficult to create a feed-in tariff: …[California] has more than 30 vastly different utilities. Some are legally prohibited from increasing some of their rates…[O]thers have very low prices for conventional electricity…[P]rices — and peak demand — in Germany don’t vary as widely.

"4) The feed-in tariff only addresses wholesale electricity sold to utilities, and doesn’t encourage energy efficiency: California’s mix of policies encourages a wider range of solar projects than Germany’s feed-in tariff, which is focused mainly on wholesale electricity…[California’s policy mix needs to include] a retail-electricity program to help consumers reduce on-site demand, a utility-scale program, and a wholesale-electricity program like a feed-in tariff…"