Category: Archive

Vic renewables scheme overwhelmed by wind, solar and hydro entrepreneurs

admin /19 July, 2006

Victoria’s Renewable Energy Target (VRET) scheme has identified more potential investments than it can support, reported The Age (19 July 2006, p.2). The scheme has a budget to support 800-1000MW of renewable energy projects. But new energy projects producing 1106MW have applied.

$890m-worth of projects on table: Companies are investing heavily in Victorian energy, the article said. Renewable energy operators contacted by The Age had healthy investment plans. All up, the investments could be worth $890 million.

Pacific Hydro: Pacific Hydro planned to spend $500 million in the next five years on three projects totalling 350MW. AGL has plans for a 130MW hydro power investment at Bogong as well as 410MW of wind at Dollar and Macarthur.

B&B and Roaring 40s: Babcock & Brown has plans to develop two wind sites in Victoria. Roaring 40s, a venture between Hydro Tasmania and China Light and Power, will also look at potential wind energy projects in Victoria.

Solar Systems and Acciona: Solar Systems is planning a 154MW plant near Mildura. Chief executive Dave Holland said the $400 million project could get up as a result of VRET if it also qualified for federal grants for greenhouse abatement technology. Spain’s Acciona has also announced a 192MW project.

Over the top: All up renewable projects total 1106MW – excluding the Roaring 40s and Babcock plans – which exceeds the VRET budget of 800-1000MW.

The Age, 19/7/2006, p. 2

Source: Erisk Net  

Byron Shire excludes self from fluoridation scheme

admin /19 July, 2006

There’s something in the water on the Far North Coast of NSW and it is not fluoride, suggests The Sydney Morning Herald (19 July 2006 p3). Hate campaign removes White smile: Since calling for the fluoridation of water supplies for Lismore City, Richmond Valley, Ballina Shire and Byron Shire councils last year, an Australian Dental Continue Reading →

Porous pavement to harvest city stormwater

admin /19 July, 2006

A team of researchers at Melbourne’s Monash University is already on the case, reports The Australian (19 July 2006 p27). Academics at the Institute for Sustainable Water Resources have won a $90,000 Australian Research Council linkage grant, for joint university-industry projects, to study the efficacy of porous pavement for city surfaces. Aussie product: They will Continue Reading →

Israel Crosses the Line

admin /18 July, 2006

http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=9301 
The Israeli offensive against Iran – until now, purely polemical – morphed into military action the moment the IDF crossed the border into Lebanon and took on Hezbollah. As our regular readers know, this turn of events was predicted in this space three months ago:

"War with Iran will probably not begin with a frontal assault by the U.S. and/or Israel on Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons facilities, or even a skirmish along the Iraq-Iran border. Look to Lebanon and Syria for the first battlegrounds of this developing regional war. The Israelis know perfectly well that Iran’s nuclear ambitions, if they ever materialize, are not an immediate threat: their real concern is their volatile northern border, where their deadly enemies – Hezbollah – are an effective obstacle to Israeli influence. The Israelis are also looking to exploit growing opportunities to make trouble in Syria, where the restive Kurds are their reliable allies, and the brittleness of the Ba’athist dictatorship is an invitation to regime change."

The suggestion, by Professors John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, in their now famous " The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy," that the Iraq war was fought for Israel’s sake, and against our own interests in the region, was received in many quarters with outright horror, and not only from the Amen Corner. Noam Chomsky and Stephen Zunes both objected to this thesis of an Israel-centric foreign policy: Israel, they insist, is the "junior partner" of the American hegemon, and is only acting at the behest and under the de facto control of its masters in Washington.

New wind farm proposed for Ballarat

admin /18 July, 2006

Alinta Bo Peep Wind Farm Pty Ltd has proposed to construct up to 14 wind turbines with 2 alternative wind turbine positions on private land approximately 12 kilometres west of Ballarat. Geographical boundary: The area is generally bounded by Smarts Hill Road in the north, Haddon-Windermere Road in the east, Ballarat-Carngham Road in the south Continue Reading →

Barnaby Joyce still fights for biofuel

admin /18 July, 2006

Six MPs and Senators raised the biofuel issue in the Coalition party room meeting in Canberra last week, three of those openly called for a mandated 10 per cent biofuel component in all petrol, reported Farm Weekly (22/6/2006, p.24). Barnaby Joyce set to introduce own bill in August: Both Liberal and National MPs supported the Continue Reading →