Renewable Energy News
November 2011
Solar Energy
There's only two certainties about the direction of energy prices - renewables are getting cheaper and traditionally sourced energy can only get more costly, says Gerry McGowan, managing director of CBD Energy.
"We don't need government subsidies to make solar energy competitive, technology has done that for us," he said.
The introduction of new technology and cheaper ways of making solar panels is leading to plummeting solar prices while coal sourced energy prices continue to increase.
"The sun's rays cost nothing and today's systems involve far less cost and are more effective, while everyone can see their quarterly energy bill going higher all the time," said Mr McGowan.
Energy in NSW now costs between 20 and 30 cents a kilowatt hour, reaching 43 cents at peak, while solar energy costs 5 cents.
With the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal, which governs electricity pricing in NSW, already having approved a 17.6 per cent lift in prices for 2011, the differential with solar is set to widen further, he says.
The cost to install a solar system ranges from $2,000 to $12,000, depending on the size of system, giving a payback period of six years at projected electricity prices.
In January 2010, the NSW government introduced a feed-in tariff scheme but the scheme was so popular that it had to be closed 10 months later, with disastrous effects on the solar industry and scaring many off using solar energy.
Mr McGowan said the introduction of the scheme led to boom conditions in the industry which evaporated once the scheme came to a halt, leading to many solar energy suppliers and installers not surviving. In the process, many consumers have fallen back on the myth that solar energy is expensive while at the same time they are seeing their energy bills rise.
Wave Energy
Carnegie Wave Energy has welcomed the UK Government's proposal for increased support of wave energy, which will see wave projects receive more than 5 times the tariff of onshore wind projects.
The UK Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) consultation sets out the Government's proposals for levels of tariff support for the period 2013-17. While some renewable technologies, such as onshore wind and solar PV, will have their support levels reduced, wave will receive 5 Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROCs) per MWh - or a sale price of over of 40c/ kWh - up from the current 2 ROCs.
The UK Government's 2011 Renewable Energy Roadmap identifies marine energy as one of the technologies which have either the greatest potential to help the UK meet the 2020 renewables target in a cost effective and sustainable way or offer great potential for the decades that follow, said Carnegie.
The Roadmap estimates that commercial-scale wave project deployment is expected to increase through the second half of this decade, reaching in the order of 200-300 MW by 2020 and possibly as high as 27,000 MW by 2050.
To date, the UK Government has supported marine energy with £100 million of grant funding. Another £20 million of grants to support the deployment of pre-commercial array demonstrations was released in June 2011.