Use it or lose it  

The Australian reports that the WA government is looking to force companies sitting on undeveloped gas fields to develop them or lose their rights (along with another comment on the report on natural gas security).

COMPANIES holding undeveloped gas reserves face tougher requirements that could force them to use it or lose it as a result of recommendations published yesterday. A joint working group of officials reporting to two ministerial councils has recommended that existing gas "retention leases" be reviewed and the commercial viability test be re-evaluated.

Under existing legislation, retention leases can be granted over a known gas resource that may not have immediate commercial viability but does have genuine commercial potential in the foreseeable future. The initial term of a retention lease is five years and leases can be renewed for a further five years if lease conditions are met.

Oil and gas companies maintain that after spending scores of millions of dollars on exploration they should not be forced to develop gas reserves in the absence of commercial reasons for doing so. It is also argued, however, that keeping such reserves "in the bank" is not necessarily in the national interest, particularly when energy security is becoming a paramount national issue alongside greenhouse emissions abatement.

The working group, headed by West Australian bureaucrat Jim Limerick, has also recommended that the current exploration acreage management process should be improved to "ensure that processes are transparent and that tests of commerciality are rigorously enforced". The group was established last year on the recommendation of Prime Minister John Howard to consider Western Australia's controversial domestic gas reservation policy in terms of national energy security.

While the report makes no direct reference to the policy, which requires that 15 per cent of gas reserves associated with onshore export LNG development be set aside for future domestic use, it notes that market conditions in Western Australia and the eastern states have changed since the policy was introduced. Gas prices on both west and east coasts have risen and that trend is expected to continue.

The report notes that more work needs to be done to identify the position of natural gas in Australia's energy future for a national emissions trading system, the possibility of east coast LNG plants proposed by Arrow and Santos, and the relative costs of using natural gas for downstream processing or conversion to transport fuel, as proposed by SASOLChevron for the Wheatstone reservoir off the Western Australian coast.

The SMH reports Federal environment minister Malcolm Turnbull has approved the development of the Gorgon gas field (bringing joy to Nyosians everywhere but dismay to Barrow island wildlife) after considering the proposal for a few weeks.

The Federal Government has given the go-ahead to the country's largest resource development - the Gorgon gas development on Barrow Island in Western Australia. In a joint statement, Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane said the development had been given the green light with strong measures to protect the environment. "Strict environmental protection measures will be required to protect Commonwealth environment matters, including listed threatened and migratory species and rare vegetation on Barrow Island," Mr Turnbull said.

The measures build on developer Chevron's existing commitment to put in place a suite of environmental protection measures including $60 million by the Gorgon joint venturers to conserve the flatback turtle and other endangered species. Other new measures include the development and implementation of a quarantine management plan, overseen by an expert advisory panel, to protect threatened species on the island. They also include environmental management plans for the operation of the gas field and refining plant and annual environmental performance reports to Mr Turnbull's department.

The ministers said the development will involve recovering gas from the Gorgon field near the North West Shelf gas fields off the West Australian coast and constructing a gas refining and liquid natural gas facility on Barrow Island. Mr Turnbull said the Gorgon project will inject about $20 billion into the national economy, with about 6000 jobs expected to be generated over the life of the project. Mr Macfarlane said the Government has committed $60 million from the low emissions technology demonstration fund to support the capture and storage of carbon dioxide from the gas refining process - the largest in the world.

The Australian notes that even fast cuts in carbon emissions can't halt climate change (but will obviously make it much less bad than not making any cuts at all).

SIGNIFICANT climate change may be inevitable even if the world agrees to cut emissions of greenhouse gases immediately. The worrisome prediction comes from the final report of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, to be released next month at its meeting in Valencia, Spain.

Figures from the draft final synthesis report, obtained by The Australian, show global cuts of 50-85 per cent are needed by mid-century to contain global temperatures within 2C of pre-industrial levels.

However, Monash University climate scientist and Melbourne-based consultant Graeme Pearman said continuing change could not be avoided as concentrations of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane were rising, pushing up the global temperature and triggering changes in the world's climate system. As detailed in IPCC working group reports in April and May and synthesised in the final report, key changes that may be unstoppable include sea-level rise and acidification of the oceans, as well as increased frequency and intensity of hurricanes and droughts.

"We are at a tipping point," Dr Pearman said.

Bureau of Meteorology climate scientist Geoff Love said: "The 2C target is essentially a European target. They say any warming more than 2C causes dangerous climate change. I think they're right."

The Cleantech Blog has a post on the very popular Solar Power 2007 conference.

Like a castle under siege, Solar Power 2007 was such a hot event that registration had to be closed a week prior to the conference opening in Long Beach, California. Over 12,500 people attended last week. There was enthusiasm for high growth and technology advancements in photovoltaics (PV) and in large-scale concentrating solar power (CSP).

In 2006, PV grew over 40% to $20 billion in revenue and over 2,500 MW of new solar power. The European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA), forecasts a €300 billion industry by 2030 which will meet 9.4 per cent of the world's electricity demand. By 2030, solar is forecasted to be the least expensive source of energy in many sunny regions of the world.

In the last 12 months, over 40% of PV installations were in one country – Germany – where high feed-in tariffs make it financially compelling to sell solar power to the electric utility than to buy power from the utility. Some presenters argued that even in select U.S. markets, such as Hawaii, subsidized solar is at price-parity with grid delivered electricity.

PV prices have fallen 90% in the past twenty years; 40% in the past five. This is good news to counter a hot-climate future as solar prices drop and coal prices increase.

The PV growth rate would be higher, but polysilicon will be scarce through 2010 according to most forecasts from the conference’s CEO panel. Polysilicon supply is expected to triple by 2010 from 2006 capacity. The shortage has also been a driver of technology that delivers the required electricity output with less silicon. These technologies include thin film, high efficiency PV, organic, concentrating PV (CPV), and balance of system improvements.

World leader, Sharp (SHCAY) is participating in all these technologies. Sharp continues with market share leadership, despite little growth due to the polysilicon shortage. Sharp plans to bring online new capacity to maintain leadership. Q-Cells (QCEG.F) and Kyocera (KYO) have taken market share from Sharp with their high growth. Suntech (STP) wants to take advantage of China’s low cost structure and vast market to surpass all.

First Solar (FSLR) has the cost to beat with its cadmium telluride (CdTe) alternative to polysilicon. First Solar's (FSLR) production costs are $1.25 per watt of generating power vs. $2.80 for traditional solar systems. In the next few years, First Solar plans to be the first to achieve $1 per watt. This year, First Solar did not have an exhibit at Solar Power 2007. It is backlogged for several years, with contracts for $4 billion through 2012. Other cadmium telluride producers are in early-stage mode.

Public utilities had a record presence at Solar Power 2007. Many are mandated to increase their renewable portfolio. For example, the California RPS program requires that by 2010, 20% of their electricity will be from renewables. By 2020, it must be at least 33%. SB1368 closes California to coal produced electricity unless CO2 sequestration is used. This leaves California utilities highly vulnerable to the price of natural gas, providing an added incentive to diversify to renewables.

Utilities are especially interested in large-scale CSP plants delivering 10 to 600 MW. Four GW of CSP is being installed globally. Southern California Edison and San Diego G&E have contracted for 500MW with Stirling Energy Systems. This large-scale plant will include 20,000 curved dish mirrors each concentrating light on a Stirling engine. Other large-scale plants in Europe will also provide hours of thermal storage so that plant output can match the peak load demands of utilities. This counters the utilities’ concerns about intermittency of PV and wind. CSP costs are projected to drop to 8 cents/kWh, making it competitive where coal and natural gas greenhouse gas producers must buy greenhouse emission credits.

By 2010 major utility PG&E will meet its 20% target of delivered electricity from clean renewable energy. This will include 553 MW of concentrating solar power (CSP) from a new Solel project. When fully operational in 2011, the Mojave Solar Park plant will cover up to 6,000 acres, or nine square miles in the Mojave Desert. The project will rely on 1.2 million mirrors and 317 miles of vacuum tubing to capture the desert sun's heat. It will be the largest CSP project in the world. Solel utilizes parabolic mirrors to concentrate solar energy on to solar thermal receivers. The receivers contain a fluid that is heated and circulated, and the heat is released to generate steam. The steam powers a turbine to produce electricity.

FPL Group announced $2.4 billion investments in CSP and smart-grid technology. The planned investment includes up to $1.5 billion in new solar thermal generating facilities in Florida and California over the next seven years, and up to $500 million to create a smart network for enhanced energy management capabilities. FPL plans to build 300 MW of solar generating capacity in Florida using Ausra http://www.ausra.com/ solar thermal technology. The company recently received a $40 million in funding from Silicon Valley venture capital firms Khosla Ventures and Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers (KPCB).

Ray Lane, a Managing Partner at Kleiner Perkins gave a compelling opening keynote speech at Solar Power 2007. He declared that there is no energy shortage, because there is no shortage of sunlight. Mr. Lane showed a map of 92 x 92 miles of desert in California and Nevada. Using CSP, that unoccupied area could generate enough solar power to meet all power needs in the U.S. Challenges of such a project include multi-billion dollar investment in high-voltage lines to carry the electricity to remote cities. Storage is another major challenge. Although these investments are significant, the potential will drive strong CSP growth.

Expect solar to continue with its historic 35% growth over the next decade. Forecasts for solar supplying over 9% of the world’s energy needs by 2030 are achievable.

Jamais Cascio is speculating about the uses for a combination of energy storing paper and transparent thin film solar panels.

Researchers in Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute announced in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences the invention of a paper battery. Infused with carbon nanotubes, this material is currently able to hold a reversible charge of >>110mAh/g -- a bit better than the typical alkaline battery, a bit worse than the typical lithium-ion battery.

The difference is that this paper battery -- which can also function as a high-discharge super-capacitor -- is extraordinarily flexible, and can be torn, folded or cut without damaging the energy storage properties.

Given that blood and sweat can serve as an electrolyte for the battery, much of the speculation has focused on biomedical applications. But what struck me was that this was a perfect partner for photovoltaic polymers -- "nano-solar" -- as an integrated, flexible power generation and storage system. Imagine buying power by the square meter: the combination of solar plastic and paper battery means that issues around intermittence can be mitigated, and the flexibility means easy installation by non-specialists.

One likely first use: self-powered animated bumper stickers.

The current production methods are time-consuming and fiddly, but another RPI announcement just a few days later might change that: desktop printing of carbon nanotube "ink" onto paper, using an off-the-shelf ink-jet printer.

Links:

* Andrew Leonard - How global warming will save us from peak oil
* Matt Mushalik and Gail Tverberg, The Oil Drum - "Did Katrina Hide the Real Peak in World Oil Production?" and Other Oil Supply Insights
* The Australian - Queensland invests in rail for coal. Thats one bottleneck we would be better off leaving alone.
* SMH - Greens warn drought may continue for six more years
* Science Alert - Ice age only froze the North
* Futurismic - Southern Californian water cut by 30% next year
* TreeHugger - Al Gore Warns of Crises Facing World's Oceans
* The Australian - Woodside Seismic Testing Raising Fears For Whales
* IHT - Biofuel industry, government experts defend plan to plant sugarcane in Amazon for ethanol
* The Energy Blog - Air Products and Konarka to Work on Transparent Solar Modules for Building Applications
* The Energy Blog - Clipper to Develop 7.5 MW Wind Turbine
* SF Chronicle - Green power a new clean mantra in Silicon Valley
* Inhabitat - UK Tax Breaks for Zero Carbon Homes
* Inhabitat - Solar-powered ‘Energy Bucket’ collects sunshine
* EcoGeek - Funky 300 MPG Car Taking Pre-Orders
* TreeHugger - Brockton, Massachusetts Adopts Solar Initiatives
* SMH - Push To Ban Power hungry Plasma TVs. Its not energy use that counts as much as how clean the energy is - instead of banning devices we would be much better off taxing carbon...
* AlterNet - Will the Military Halt an Iran Attack?
* The Nation - Ron Paul: "This is just war propaganda!"
* Glenn Greenwald - What FISA Capitulations Are Democrats Planning Next?
* Cryptogon - Again: Minot B-52 Nuclear Weapons Story