Australian And New Zealand Solar Energy Society (SA Branch)

SOLAR NEWS SA Formerly the ANZSES CHATTER

www.anzses.org sa @ anzses.org NOVEMBER 2007

WELCOME
… to this month’s edition of Solar News SA.
PRINTING THIS NEWSLETTER
If you want to print this newsletter off, a PDF copy is available at www.35s.com.au/anzses

SOLAR CHALLENGE
A good ANZSES crowd turned up Friday week ago to see the top 10 cars from the Solar Challenge in Victoria Square.
They are impressive to view close up – how can they do 130k on less power than a hair dryer??
Thanks to Albert Thompson and Chris Selwood for organising.
THE ISES SOLAR WORLD CONGRESS BEIJING SEPTEMBER 18-21 2007
This ISES conference attracted approximately 1000 delegates of whom 28 were from Australia and at least 6 from South
Australia including Wasim Saman, Monica Oliphant, John Boland, Chris Bryant and Stewart Martin.
There were 25 keynote speakers covering all aspects of renewable energy, up to 12 parallel sessions and over 200
poster papers.
There was much optimism at the conference with significant progress being reported in the development, production and
implementation of all the RE technologies and the release by Chinese delegates of significant targets for RE production.
China plans to produce 15% of its primary energy from renewable sources by 2020 this includes 30GW of wind, 30GW of
Biomass, 1.8GW of PV and 210GWth of solar thermal. In particular the manufacture of solar hot water and photo voltaic
systems including the silicon feedstock is increasing rapidly. PV production in China is growing at 150%/year and it is
anticipated that it will become the largest manufacturer of photovoltaic systems by 2010. This optimism was tempered
somewhat by the knowledge that China is planning to build 1 new coal fired power plant approximately every 5 days over
the next 8 years.
Some of the papers of particular interest included the following:
David Mills (Ex Sydney and now Ausra, Palo Alto, California) Solar Thermal Power as a Plausible Basis of Grid
Suppy.
David has been working for many years on solar thermal concentrator systems using linear Fresnel reflectors. A prototype
system was built at the Liddell power station in the Hunter Valley to boost the input temperature of water into a
conventional fossil fuel generator. David has now moved to California where he is the Chairman and Chief Scientific
Officer of Ausra. The company is planning to build stand alone versions of these concentrator systems in the Southern
USA (probably California and Texas). Ausra announced in September that they will build a 175MW system with 16 hours
storage at a cost of $US 500 million with the cost of the power output in the range from 5 to 7c/kWh depending on the
cost of the capital. Construction is expected to begin in late 2008 and be completed in 2010. A power purchase
agreement has been signed with PGE (see www.ausra.com for more details).
Martin Green (University of NSW). The Future of Thin Film Solar Cells
Prof Green spoke about the future of thin film solar cells including crystalline silicon on glass (CSG) initially developed at
UNSW and now being produced by CSG solar in Germany. He also discussed the CdTe cells now available from First
Solar and the options for increasing the efficiency of thin film cells by for example using multiple layers and quantum dots
in a dielectric matrix.
Keith Lovegrove (ANU).Solar Dish Concentration for Multi-Megawatt Power Generation
In this paper the second generation parabolic dish to be built at ANU was described. It will have an area of 484m2 (approx
26m diameter) and be capable of concentrations of at least 2000 times. The dish design can be used to generate steam
to drive a generator directly with an efficiency (solar to electrical) of approximately 19%, or be used to dissociate ammonia
to produce nitrogen and hydrogen which can be stored and then recombined to produce heat for steam production
whenever it is required.
Keith also described the demonstration project at Whyalla where at least4 dishes will be built to generate approximately
500kWp. Waste heat may be used to warm sea water to enhance the efficiency of a reverse osmosis desalination plant. If
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the project funding permits it is possible that a further 6 dishes will be added to give a total output of 1MWp by the end of
2009.
Industrial Display
The industrial exhibition was one of the biggest I have seen at a conference and included approximately 100 companies,
the majority from China specialising in all aspects of renewable energy but particularly on solar hot water and photo
voltaic systems and production.
ANZSES AGM ALICE SPRINGS 5th OCTOBER
The Anzses AGM was held at the conclusion of the Alice Springs conference some of the key points which were raised
are described below, further details should be published in the next Solar Progress.
1. Financial
• The 2006 (Canberra) conference and SHD 2006 resulted in a surplus of approximately $69k.
• It is anticipated that the 2007 conference will have a surplus of approximately $15k.
• Income for the financial year 2006/7 has exceeded expenditure with a small surplus.
• All branch and Central accounts with the exception of 1 SA Branch deposit account are held in a
Westpac branch in Sydney. Officers of all branches can view the accounts. Transactions can only be
carried out by members approved by the Branch executive. This transparency should facilitate much
simpler auditing of accounts.
• The Renewable Energy Promotion Officer is now on a contract which gives him a bonus, in tiered
steps, for sponsorship income in excess of $50k.
2. Membership
• Membership has declined nationally by 10% in the past year.
• The appointment of a Membership/Executive Director with a performance contract is under
consideration.
3 Solar Progress
In view of the financial difficulties which the Society has had over the past 3 years it has been decided that
future editions of Solar Progress, beginning November 2007, will be web based. This should save the
Society approximately $15 000/year.
4 Constitution
A constitutional review group headed by Albert Thompson and John Rolls from the SA branch has been set
up bring the Constitution of the Society up to date and to clarify the relationship between State Branches
and the Central Body.
5. Anzses Executive
The following were elected unopposed:
Chair: Artur Zawadski
Treasurer: Howard Pullen
Secretary: Mark Snow
6 Anzses Solar Conference 2008
This will be held in Sydney from 24th to 26th November.
ELECTRICITY (FEED-IN SCHEME – RESIDENTIAL SOLAR SYSTEMS) AMENDMENT BILL 2007

Greens Amendments - Briefing Note

Why introduce a feed –in tariff?
Purely and simply to encourage more people to install photo-voltaic (PV) systems.
Will the Government’s Bill do that?
According to the Clean Energy Council (formerly the Business Council on Sustainable Energy) the answer is a
resounding NO:
the current proposed feed-in scheme is highly unlikely to drive any significant additional market growth for solar PV over
and above the growth that could otherwise be expected. It would result in a benefit for those who already have solar PV
installed or who would have installed it anyway in the absence of such a scheme. While this does improve payback for
solar PV owners, it is unlikely to see the proposed scheme achieve objectives such as additional market growth, network
or greenhouse benefits. Furthermore, while not promoting any significant additional societal benefits it would still incur a
scheme cost.
(See: http://www.bcse.org.au/docs/Publications_Reports/BCSE%20SA%20Feed-in%20Submission%20final.pdf)

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So, not only will it fail to encourage more people to install PV systems, it will channel money towards those who have
already installed systems, thereby still incurring costs ie policy failure.
Why won’t the Government’s Bill work?
Basically, the tariff and timeframe is set too low.
The reason why feed-in schemes work overseas, and in particular Germany, is the tariff is set at a rate that provides a
decent return over 20 years, allowing consumers to invest in a PV system knowing they will reach ‘payback’ in a
reasonable time. The Government admits as much in its discussion paper on the Bill:
The long-term stability and security of the German feed-in program [which is 20 years] and a generous payment regime
that ensures photovoltaic investment is profitable, all contribute to the success of the scheme.
If we are going to get a feed-in scheme, then at least it should be set at a level that delivers results. Otherwise, why do it?
Different Schemes: Massively Different Results
The other big difference between the Government’s scheme and how feed-in laws operate in most other places is the
mechanism used to work out the return to consumers. The vast majority of overseas countries (including Germany) use
what is called ‘gross production’ metering. The SA Bill proposes instead ‘net export’ metering.
With ‘gross production’ metering, the homeowner is paid the higher tariff (in this case $0.44c/kWh) for all the electricity
exported to the grid at all times ie the full production of the system, no matter how much electricity is being used in the
home at the time.
With ‘net export’ metering, the homeowner is paid the $0.44c/kWh for all the electricity exported to the grid minus what is
being used in the home at the time of production.
The impact is considerable. Most of the time a household will not produce, at any given time, much more electricity than
it uses. Therefore, many system owners will only rarely be able to take advantage of the higher tariff offered, especially
during the ‘peak’ midday to afternoon period. The Government is therefore exaggerating how much PV owners will
actually be able to earn.
The Clean Energy Council suggests the following comparison:
Metering on ‘gross production’ at a = Metering on ‘net export’ at a
tariff of twice the standard retail rate tariff of five times the standard retail rate
Instead of this, the Government has gone for ‘net export’ at twice the retail rate.
Now that we have ‘net export’ metering….
The Greens don’t propose to change the mechanism from ‘net export’ to ‘gross production’. We accept the Government
has chosen to go down that path.
However, the Government should recognise (in the tariff they offer) that ‘net export’ metering will significantly reduce the
potential return for all households.
Greens Amendments
We propose the following amendments to make the Government’s Bill actually deliver outcomes:
Increase the tariff to $1/kWh (ie 5 times the standard retail rate as the Clean Energy Council recommends)
Increase the length of time the scheme will operate from 5 to 20 years (as per Germany, Spain and other
jurisdictions).
Recognising that a higher tariff and timeframe will lead to increased costs for other electricity users, we intend to share
that cost across all users of electricity, not just households (the Government’s intention is to share the cost across
households only). According to the Clean Energy Council, the average cost increase for households under these
circumstances would be no more than the Government’s scheme ($5/household/year).
However, if small businesses share the costs, they should also be able to access the benefits of the scheme. Also, the
Greens are keen to protect those on low incomes from increased electricity costs.
Therefore, in addition we propose:
That small businesses should also be able to access the scheme
To make pensioners and health care card holders exempt from the increased cost.
The Result
The Greens amendments would:
Achieve the Government’s aim of increasing the uptake of PV installation
Allow small businesses to also access the scheme, and
Spare those on a low income from the small increase in household electricity costs
for no additional cost than the Government’s scheme on an average household.

ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY ASSOCIATION SOUTH AUSTRALIAN BRANCH

Tuesday 13th November
Tower Hotel, 621 Magill Rd, Magill,
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commencing at 7.30pm
Presentation: John Ward of Solar Water Purifier: The production of potable water from germ or arsenic-laced water using
solar power
What's happening - future events
Uraidla Show and Sustainability Fair, Feb 16th 2008, call for volunteers
Green City Festival, Feb 17th 2008, call for volunteers
Other events - see email
Who am I? Clive Blanchard of Coolmax (energy efficient air conditioner) launching his book 'House Taming'- reducing
greenhouse gases in comfort.
Who can help me?
Next meeting date and topic 11th December - Bruce Campbell, incoming CEO of ATA - Overview of ATA nationally and
internationally including community solar projects in East Timor. Future trends and directions.
COMING EVENTS
Sunday 11th November:
Conservation Council SA, Walk against Warming - day of action on climate change. Three options:
Adelaide 1.00pm Victoria Square - walk to Elder Park or
Port Willunga 10.00am Star of Greece Cafe via cliffs to Gull Rock or
Victor Harbor 9.45am Kondole Lookout (Hindmarsh Rd) walk to Warland Reserve

Tuesday 27th November, 5-30 to 7-00:

Archicentre free seminar - integrate healthy living and long service life into your home.
To make bookings and check venue, phone 8228 0300

Saturday 17th November:

Dept for Sustainability 'Inside Out'Green City Tour - 9 am or 10-45 am from SA Museum foyer. Bus and walking tour of
solar and wind installations in CBD. Bookings essential via Dept for Sustainability website.
Wed 21st Nov 2007
Investigator Lecture, Opportunities for success in a resource limited world. Dr James Bradfield Moody. 6-30 pm, Adelaide
Convention Centre.
BRANCH COMMITTEE 2007:
President: Stewart Martin
School of Electrical and Information Engineering, University of SA, Mawson Lakes 5095
Ph 8302 3048 (w) 8261 4630 (h) fax 8302 3389 email: stewart.martin@unisa.edu.au
Secretary: Albert Thompson
aat@internode.on.net
Treasurer: John Rolls
103 Lansdowne Terrace Vale Park 5081 Ph 8463 6907 (w) 8269 3879 (h) 04 1029 4638 (m) 8463 6900 (f)
emailjrolls@picknowl.com.au
Solar News SA Editor: John Held
Ph 8271 4555 (w) 8272 6608(h) Email jfheld@rusyel.com.au
Publicity Officer:
Margaret Dingle ph 8362 7007 email mdingle@chariot.net.au
Solar House Tours Coordinator:
Monica Oliphant 8277 3357 (h) 0404 898277(Mob) email: oliphant@adam.com.au
Committee Member:
Mark Needham
FUTURE MATERIAL FOR SOLAR NEWS SA
We are keen to distribute as much information and news as possible in this format. Obviously it’s quickest, easiest and
fastest by email – so if you are getting this by post, and have an email address, please contact John Held at
jfheld@rusyel.com.au . Please send me any news, meetings of interest to members, and other bits of information!

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