Generating more wind power

While much made of the growth of the solar energy industry, wind development has also forged ahead within Australia. NSW has approved 14 wind farms, or 908 wind turbines, with a total capacity output of 2486 Megawatts since 2005 and recently added Silverton Wind Farm, that when completed, is destined to become one of the  largest wind farms in the world.

At a cost of approx $2.2 billion, Silverton’s first stage is projected to deliver enough green energy to power approximately 200,000 households, with a single wind turbine able to generate enough energy to power up to 732 homes per year – the equivalent of taking about 1,170 cars off the road annually

Announced in early June, NSW Premier, Nathan Rees said, “This development will be one of the world’s largest wind farms and has the potential to provide electricity to three states across the country occupying about 32,000 hectares of Crown Land and will form a central part of the state’s electricity infrastructure.”

Construction of the wind farm will be in two stages.

Stage two of the development will include a further 316 turbines and a 305-kilometre power line linking the Silverton Wind Farm to Victoria’s Red Cliffs substation and requires further environmental assessment and approval.

Wind farms are known to have the lowest environmental impact of all energy sources, occupying less land area per kilowatt-hour (kWh) of electricity generated, than any other energy conversion system; apart from rooftop solar energy.

The source of the wind is the sun whose rays, due to the orientation of the earth’s surface to the sun’s rays near the equator, strike the earths surface at more optimum angles. This causes the air near the surface in tropical regions to heat more than the air near the surface in polar regions, resulting in the development of convection currents in the atmosphere. ie the movement of air due*to changes in its density and pressure. This air movement is the principal cause of the winds.* According to well known wind scientist Brian Hurley, “The total available global wind resource on land is more than adequate to supply a very significant proportion of the overall world’s electricity demand.”

In approving Silverton’s first stage the NSW Government has imposed a range of conditions regarding noise, visual amenity and environmental impacts on the development.

“When all of these wind farms are up and running they will save more than six million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions annually,” Mr Rees said. “This is the same as taking over one million cars off the road and will have capacity to power approximately 800,000 houses.”

* Wind Site Evaluation

Further development – geothermal

It was interesting to read the press release  from U.S. Dept of Energy. Energy Secretary Steven Chu recently announced nearly $50 million from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act to advance commercial deployment of the renewable heating and cooling systems, which use energy from below the Earth’s surface to move heat either into or away from the home or building. The DOE says expanded manufacturing and installation of geothermal heat pumps (GHPs) could aid in the creation of new jobs while reducing the use of fossil fuels.

“The heat from the Earth represents a significant energy resource that can be tapped to reduce emissions contributing to climate change.” said Secretary Chu. “Expanded use of GHPs in the United States will create new jobs for engineers, manufacturers and technicians while at the same broadening our nation’s clean and renewable energy portfolio.”

To read the entire release http://www.cleanedge.com/news/story.php?nID=6162

Geothermal energy developments

“Premier Mike Rann has announced that this week’s State Budget will outline plans to create an even greater renewable industry in South Australia, and to increase the state’s renewable energy production target to 33 per cent by 2020. The first project to be funded from the Renewable Energy Fund will be the South Australian Centre of Excellence for Geothermal Research at the University of Adelaide, which will receive $1.6 million over two years.”

At a domestic level Energycore, a Melbourne based company with operations in most states, utilises the latest geothermal technology to offer energy efficient heating and cooling, hot water heating, and swimming pool & spa heating.

There are two main geothermal heating & cooling systems available to Australian households – the revolutionary refrigerant-based EarthLinked^® system (of which Energycore is the sole-distributor in Australia) and the more traditional water-loop based systems. While not widely known in Australia Earthlinked has been around for close to 30 years used extensively throughout the U.S. as well as in 14 other countries.

Because the Earth’s core temperatures are stable and unaffected by weather patterns or sunlight hours, this system is able to provide stable temperatures all year around. This intelligent system reduces both energy consumption and emission of greenhouse gases, while providing a safe, energy efficient way to heat and cool your home, meaning you can stay comfortable all year round, without the guilt factor! ..read more

In regional Victoria government rebates of 50 to 100% are now available for commercial or public geothermal installations.

Fed govt investment into cleantech

Reported today, the release of the federal government’s renewable energy target (RET) – $20 billion of new clean energy investment to be tabled in the coming weeks. This will result in thousands of new jobs in ‘green’ projects, development and research as well as initiating delivery of the first big cuts in greenhouse emissions.

Clean Energy Council (CEC) chief executive Matthew Warren congratulated the federal government for delivering on its commitment on a clean energy industry.

“Successfully deploying the 20 per cent target of renewable energy in Australia by 2020 will unleash the ingenuity of Australia’s energy industry, accelerate research and development and will reveal quickly the scale and potential of this important emerging industry,” he said.

The CEC has been working closely with the government since January to fine tune the draft legislation released in December.

Mr Warren added, “The refined RET legislation incorporates crucial changes which will ensure accelerated investment in clean energy so the industry can play an immediate role in reducing Australia’s greenhouse emissions and help drive a new green economy,”

Building Industry Network’s Adelaide site – www.buildadelaide.com.au is currently working with the South Australian Centre for Innovation to assist companies within the Cleantech sector to network and support each other through a new group – Clever Green Connect. The format for this event will allow approx 10 companies to exhibit their product or service while allowing attendees to observe and communicate as well as network with others in attendance. The event will occur every six weeks and a program of exhibitors will be sent to all invited attendees.  Attendance and participation in this event is free, if you are interested in attending this event or would like further information, please email d.hensman@buildadelaide.com.au

We look forward to the opportunity of extending this event to the Sydney market in the future.

Renewable energy

As global awareness of climate change and environmental responsibility increases, house prices will become more and more affected by a home or building’s energy rating; insulation standard, energy usage, etc.

The Australian Government’s position is also to support this shift encouraging environmental construction and supporting growth in the cleantech sector. Research by the Australian Climate Institute found $31 billion worth of clean energy projects underway or planned nationally.

Climate institute chief executive, John Connor, said “If climate change and renewable energy legislation passes through federal parliament without being weakened it will help drive the industrial shift that can put Australia at the front of a global renewable energy boom.” He added, “It’s time the polluters and politicians stopped arguing about climate action policies so we can get to work building these projects and their jobs.”

The report also indicated the Rudd Government’s 20 per cent of energy from renewable sources by 2020 target, $4.5 billion funding boost to support the growth of clean energy technologies and emissions trading scheme could build almost five times the energy capacity of the Snowy-Hydro scheme.

From a more domestic perspective solar home energy systems are still eligible to receive the solar rebate until June 30^th, 2009.

We looked at the following two systems: Chromagen which is available nationally and Zen Home Systems which is currently only available in South Australia but has won huge acclaim with their Community Home Energy System.

Chromagen

Since 1962, Chromagen has accumulated years of experience in harnessing the sun’s unlimited energy. Chromagen Solar Electric panels generate electricity using the photovoltaic (PV) effect. The solar panels are fitted to your roof and convert light into electricity. This electricity is fed through an inverter directly to the house or through a meter directly into the grid.

When you use electricity you are using solar generated power or power from the grid if the solar energy is insufficient. If you are using little or no electricity, your solar system is feeding electricity back into the grid and the electric company buys that power from you.

In effect, your home becomes a mini power station generating electricity and selling it to the grid for use by you or your neighbours. If you consistently generate more electricity than you use, the electricity company will pay you for the excess.

Chromagen also offer the ‘Solarfirst’ brand available from Bunnings stores around the country.

…read more

Zen

ZEN Home Energy Systems is now one of the largest installers of Solar Home Energy Systems in Australia. ZEN is an acronym for Zero ENergy and is the leading brand in the evolving Home Energy Sector.

The comfort of knowing that the guesswork and research has been taken out of the decision making process, ZEN has selected and produced the highest quality components to create a system which is easy to use and will last for many years of trouble free solar power.

The Zen “Community Purchase of Renwable Energy Program has seen several council areas within South Australia join in the program which enables communities to access the Fully Branded and Wireless Premium ZEN Home Energy System at a Community Price and produce some remarkable long term community benefits to the local region through employment and training of local trades to install these systems.

“Our company has designed a dedicated online project management system specifically for our industry that allows ZEN to install large numbers of high quality Solar Home Energy and Solar Hot Water Systems around the country with a consistent high level of customer service and at an affordable price” says Zen CEO, Richard Turner.

…read more

Freaky weather & lots of rain!

Well Queensland is flooding and the rest of the country is still struggling with drought. Ironic when both South Australia and Victoria are adding desal plants and the Murray river is very quickly disappearing.

There is little doubt that all this is related to climate change but are we really committed to doing much to reduce it?

The building and construction industry is responsible for a large percentage of CO2 emissions and it appears that there is slowly a move towards more sustainable building practices. The encouragement by the government to offer free insulation for un-insulated homes is a step in the right direction. Another excellent way to dramatically increase a home or building’s energy efficiency is double glazing.

In Sydney Magnetite have a great range of options suitable for a variety of applications including commercial and industrial properties where they can be applied to any style and type of window with excellent results. Magnetite has been involved in several jobs for hospitals, schools, offices, restaurants, businesses, and hotels…read more

In South Australia Double Glazed manufactures high-quality uPVC windows and doors fabricated from high grade Kommerling un-plasticised polyvinylchloride which is a pure form of PVC. This uPVC has been specifically engineered by Kommerling for the Asia Pacific Region so that it can withstand the high UV radiation experienced in South Australia without the warping, twisting and fading seen in some of the cheaper imported products. Not only are  double glazed uPVC window and doors more thermal efficient but the uPVC (unplasticised polyvinyl chloride) is a sustainable environmentally friendly product which is totally recyclable…read more

At the end of the day while it may cost a little more to initiate some of these energy efficiencies, the longer term benefits will remain with reduced operating costs for heating & cooling and importantly, much higher property value in the future as people consider the energy efficiency of the homes they are purchasing.

Improving trade efficiency

Along with providing comprehensive information for building and renovating, both www.buildadelaide.com.au and www.buildsydney.com.au provide some of the latest developments and technologies that assist the trade to operate efficiently and improve service delivery. One of these technologies is SimPro.

If you’re running a small trade business in the building industry then being able to quote, schedule and invoice jobs is not only time consuming but can be open to problems with missing paperwork, human error, etc. A single system that would synchronize job scheduling, quoting, invoicing and accounting, and enable the creation of a profitable workflow would most definitely be an advantage.

Well it seems that SimPro have done just that. SimPRO, a system originally developed out of necessity by Brisbane Company Quantum Data and Electrical in 1999, is browser based, not a desktop application. The two most significant advantages are that you can access your business information from any PC or PDA handset with web access where your status, labour, parts used and client signature capture is updated in real-time – and all updates are fully automated. It also means that technicians can access all the details they need on the job.

Read the full article about SimPro

Introducing ‘Build’

If you’re living in Adelaide or Sydney then this information portal is for you!! So maybe you’re not renovating or building right now but it’s always good to stay in touch with the latest trends, new products – including many new technologies which are helping to make homes and buildings all the more environmentally friendly and save money in energy too.

If you’re business minded then we can introduce you to some of the ‘green’ players that can help your business – from energy auditors to green printers!

www.buildadelaide.com.au launched in mid 2006 and then www.buildsydney.com.au launched about a year later.

We hope that this blog will introduce you to a whole lot of players in the building industry, to some of the products and services that are leading the way in building techniques.

Check out the ‘BuildEco’  Climate Change blog too – experts such as Prof Barry Brook talking about innovative renewable energy including IFR