Dec
12
By GreenFingers
Categories: Construction, Economy, Energy, Government, Solar
Tags: australia, energy prices, rising
Dec
12
According to a recent article on energymatters.com.au the price of electricity is going to rise dramatically over the next couple of years. The main culprit appears to be inflationary pressures and the cost of replacing ageing infrastructure to meet demand. Perhaps this will make the politicians make some tangible progress on taking Australia out of the fossil fuel cycle and invest heavily in renewables like solar thermal, geothermal and Solar PV for isolated locations where connecting to the grid consumes a lot of energy to put in place the infrastructure.
In June, the AEMC estimated residential electricity price increases of 30% by 2013. According to the latest AEMC report, the contribution to the revised projected 37% price increase from each component is as follows:
Transmission: 6.0%
Distribution: 33.6%
Wholesale: 40.2%
Retail: 12.1%
Feed-in tariff: 2.8%
LRET (Large Scale Renewable Energy Target: 3.8%
SRES (Small Scale Renewable Energy Scheme): -0.8%
Other state based schemes: 2.3%While the AEMC’s findings clearly show small scale solar power is not the main villain in electricity price hikes over the next few years – less than 5% of the 37% national average – some in the media have again chosen to amplify its impact in the overall situation. Factors related to replacement of ageing infrastructure, gas-fired generation and the upcoming carbon tax appear to play a greater role.
The AEMC have also provided a breakdown of each state’s outlook.
Queensland – residential electricity prices forecast to jump by 42%, with the main drivers being the wholesale electricity component and distribution.
New South Wales – increase of 42 per cent forecast, again primarily due to distribution and wholesale electricity price increases, with the latter being the result of a price on carbon and increases in gas-fired generation capacity.
A.C.T – 42 per cent jump in nominal terms.
Victoria – 33% increase in residential electricity prices predicted.
Tasmania – 25 per cent electricity price hike forecast, mostly due to the wholesale component resulting from increased gas-fired generation and a minor wind component.
South Australia – residential electricity prices are forecast to increase by 36 per cent in nominal terms; driven in part by volatile demand, South Australia being a relatively small market and a high dependence on gas-fired power generation.
Western Australia – electricity supply to residential customers is forecast to increase by 30 per cent with over 80% of the hike due to increases in distribution and wholesale factors.
Northern Territory – The AEMC predicts Northern Territory residential electricity prices will rise 16 per cent in nominal terms between the base year and 2013-2014.
Nov
4
Lighting a home is a constant drain on energy. Getting the right amount of light is also a difficult task without spending money on multiple light sources and having switches all over a room. buying new lights to replace old burnt out lights is another financial drain and in these fiscally prudent times it is just one more thing to worry about. The case for Light Emitting Diodes or LED’s in the house is an open book once you take the time to really look into it.
LED lights can be used to light up a whole room with a fraction of the energy that a normal light would require. Running a strip of LED’s along a wall and bouncing the light off the corners of a room provides a nice even glow and a consistent spread of light.
One of the more interesting aspects of LED lights is the range of colors that are available. It’s possible to find full spectrum LED strips with remote control that allow you to change the color of a room at anytime. If you’re lucky the remote sensor will also respond to your TV remote control which gives a whole new meaning to changing the channel.
The power consumption of LED lights is a fraction of the energy required by conventional lights so you can either cut back dramatically on your power usage for lighting your house or you can have more light throughout the house for the same energy footprint.
Clever use of LED lighting through hallways and rooms can provide almost the same clarity as a sunny day. With the addition of colours and hues and a remote controller lighting a room becomes fun and helps to set the mood for those special intimate occasions with family, friends and lovers.
Nov
3
Proponents of the Solar economy often argue that as the price of solar panels decreases the time to see a complete return on investment also shortens. What they often miss is the cost in terms of energy, environmental impact and government subsidies that solar panel manufacturing and installation incurs. Given that the majority of the solar panels being produced today are manufactured in China and the lack of transparency in the operations of these companies it stands to reason that a significant amount of the true cost is hidden from the mainstream and therefore left out of the discussion.
The manufacturing process for solar panels includes chemical reactions, enormous amounts of heat, off gassing of poisonous gasses and disposal of waste products. The amount of energy used in the complete manufacturing cycle of a solar panel is massive and centralised which means the decentralisation of energy gathered via solar panels is offset by the amount of centralised energy required to manufacture them in the first place.
In addition the cost in terms of energy required for mining the raw materials, smelting the metals required for the framing and components, transporting the raw materials and end products and the associated fuel consumed in that process generally is not taken into consideration when people look at the overall cost in terms of price when calculating the ROI for the purchase and installation of a solar array.
The cost in terms of inflation and personal income tax that is represented by the excessive government subsidies for the mining, energy and manufacturing industries is almost completely ignored.
The true cost of solar panels are therefore an energy negative solution to the energy problem. At barely 20% efficiency and approximately USD$1 per watt the price will have to fall to almost zero to balance out the true financial cost of the manufacturing and installation process.
Oct
16
It seems Sydneyites especially North Shore residents have realised the value of having a solar installation on their roofs recently. There has been a marked increase in solar panels at prominent locations on the North Shore. Of course this is the most likely place for solar installations to happen in Sydney as the residents of the North Shore tend to be the wealthy and trendy types. In addition they will have noticed the fact that having solar panels and “greening” your house helps maintain or even increases property value. Given that the majority of North Shore residents are not planning to sell their houses while the real estate market is performing so badly it makes sense for them to invest in solar panels so they can at least be prepared for when the oil stops flowing and the cost of electricity literally shoots through the roof.
It is a worthwhile investment for the wealthy urban elite to make at this stage. We expect to see a lot more installations copping up over the next year as the next door neighbours realise that they need to do likewise to stay competitively valued and the price of solar panels continues to drop. It’s a pity that the real power hogs such as the enormous sky scrapers and department store complexes don’t follow suit. At the very least they could be installing efficient solar thermal heat pumps and solar lighting systems to offset the cost in energy of running the massive air con units and lighting systems throughout the day. With all that prime roof top real estate to use for solar panel and parabolic reflectors they are not making wise business decisions by continuing to ignore the cost savings and benefits to shoppers that natural light and natural cooling can do for the shopping experience.
Sep
30
Eco Houses are supposed to be for the environmentally conscious but the reality is that owners of Green Houses are more interested in energy security and being prepared for the inevitable global energy crunch than actually saving the environment. After all it costs just as much energy or more to make a house green and eco friendly as the house will generally produce over the course of it’s lifetime. Once Government subsidies for Green tech are factored in and the cost in terms of Traditional Fossil Fuel Energy for manufacturing, transporting and installing the latest advances in Green Tech to enable a house to be energy neutral or even export energy back to the grid are calculated the true cost of a “green” eco house is much more in terms of energy spent than energy saved. Because of this issue Green tech is widely accepted as being Energy Negative meaning it costs more in terms of energy to create it than you get from it over the course of it’s lifetime. Effectively we are stealing the energy from future generations by consuming it today to manufacture our Green Energy technology.
Most people are not really aware of this issue as the global mainstream media is intent on painting the problem in terms of Global Warming and Carbon production thereby ignoring the cost in terms of energy consumed while creating green technology. If we are really concerned about that aspect as Green house owners then we wouldn’t be putting solar panels on our houses or any new tech for that matter. In fact if anything we would be making the conscious choice to build out houses only from locally sourced products with ad minimal environmental impact as possible. Essentially building our houses from mud, sand, rock and trees that we can source within walking and carrying distance.
This utopian ideal is not exactly viable for the average flash packer or techno hippy. Instead we find ourselves making the trade off between maintaining an low carbon foot print and still having access to all the latest mod cons that we need in order to function in a modern human society. The general consensus is that Solar panels provide the balance that we need to enable us to live off the grid and be secure in our energy consumption for at least another 50 years. Anyone who has a house at this point and is not installing solar is missing out on an opportunity to ensure that they will still be able to have electricity in case of emergency outages or when the grid eventually fails due to overloading and degradation once the Fossil fuels are depleted to the point where only the mega wealthy are able to afford to purchase and consume energy derived from oil, gas and coal.
We can forget about nuclear energy coming to the rescue. After the true impact of Fukushima is fully realised by the world the nuclear industry will be turned off. Only scientific research and despotic ruthless regimes will continue to rely on energy produced by Nuclear power stations.
In the meantime there are lots of options for building an energy neutral house and making sure that your energy needs are secured for the coming century. Solar Thermal, Heat capturing, Solar water heating, Solar Storage, Rain Water storage, Eco Sanitation Systems are the corner stone of an eco house. Understanding the right angle for the sun, maximising roof space to capture rain water, ensuring you have the right sanitation system for your environment and getting the funds together to make it all possible and major concerns when planning the build process.
