Category: General news

Young Entrepreneur of the year, Leigh Storr, is pleased to be in the fastest growing sector of the fastest growing industry.

“The only constraint on our growth, right now, is a lack of investment capital,” he told Westender.

“In America investors would be throwing money at a company like BioSolar, in Australia, the financial institutions see rapid growth and call it risk.”

According to Storr, the secret to his growth is high-quality panels, components and installations and a focus on affordability. He achieves that by providing customers with a payment plan to keep up-front costs down, and rigorous attention to cashflow in his business.

“Many solar companies are selling incentives and are vulnerable to the whims of government policy. As governments slash incentives, our business has soared.”

He explains that customers have simply done the numbers on their power bill.

“If power prices continue to rise at 12.5% p.a. over the next ten years, the average Australian will spend an entire year of their work life, just paying for electricity.”

BioSolar now employs over 400 people and has invested in a workplace culture that has earned it the nickname ‘Google of the Gabba’. It has a vegan cafe, cinema and gym on premises and an independent yoga studio on-site. The company has a major operational centre in Darra and offices in NSW and Victoria.

Storr believes the current focus on propping up the fossil fuel industry will cost the Australian economy dearly as other countries shift to cheap, distributed energy and unleash innovation.

Before the end of the year, BioSolar will be selling low cost battery technology and generators that will allow homes and businesses to be independent of the grid (read about Guerrilla Disconnection below).

He points to companies like Google in the USA who are independent of the grid, precisely because they need to guarantee their electricity supply and control their electricity costs.

Consumer protection by Guerrilla Disconnection

The challenge for the electricity industry, recently exposed by Four Corners and The Monthly, is that the cost of the infrastructure for fossil fuel generated electricity is increasing as fewer customers need it. As a result the service charges on your electricity bill have increased much faster than the charges for the electricity itself. Not content with printing false statements blaming these costs on environmental regulation in large red letters on their bills, electricity companies are now lobbying governments to further penalise owners of solar panels with higher connection charges. The price paid for solar generated electricity is already a ridiculously low 4 cents per kilowatt and the amount of electricity that can be supplied to the grid has been capped by export limiters.

The best protection for consumers, according to BioSolar owner and CEO, Leigh Storr, is to disconnect from the grid altogether.

He said that consumers can achieve this, by simply notifying their provider of an imminent disconnection date, online. On that date, the consumer throws the switch on the export limiter and the utility records no further use.

“What are they going to do? Drive around and issue fines for people who have the lights on without being registered to a fossil-fuel-powered generator?”

He thinks the crunch will come in 2017 when the cost of being connected to the grid will exceed the cost becoming self-sufficient.

Given the positive comments in the media and the strength of the property market, it is incredible to believe that house sales are down by 45% in West End for the first 6 months of 2014 in comparison to the same period last year.

Using a 10 year average for this period of the year, the numbers of houses sold is usually around 25 compared to the 14 sales this year. So based on these facts, is it a problem with buyers or are sellers just holding on for longer?

As a local resident and Real Estate agent, I believe it’s a number of factors. Firstly, while interest rates remain low, consumers continue to pay down existing debt while still remaining frugal and cautious about the future (Recent research indicates the average mortgage holder is 20 payments ahead of schedule).

Secondly, unemployment remains a concern since the GFC. So while there has been a lift in confidence and retail spending, there is still a concern with the osmosis effect to unemployment – ‘what if it happens to me?’

Thirdly, the area is the cultural hub of the city with GOMA, The Cultural Centre, Southbank and The Convention Centre located here. Add to this the great schools, universities, hospitals, sports stadiums close by and great dining experiences and it’s easy to see why there is a reluctance to move to another part of Brisbane.

The continued residential unit development is also delivering some knock-on benefits to residents such as Aldi, Woolworths and a proposed second ferry terminal.

The big winners in the current market are local house sellers who have very little competition and are achieving outstanding prices from many buyers in the market that recognize the benefits that all local residents currently experience.

If you have any thoughts on this article, please email me on john.k@harcourts.com.au

The real estate sector is hitting back at the two major players in the online real estate market, realestate.com.au and domain. Competition has emerged in two separate announcements this week, from the Real Estate Institute of Queensland and the Certified Practicing Real Estate Agents. Touting REIQ.com.au and Roomeo respectively, the two organisations are clearly out to break the duopoly.

Owned by media giants News Limited and Fairfax, their aggressive pricing and deep reach into the consumer’s pocket via smartphones have taken a large slice of the margin traditionally enjoyed by your friendly, local agent.

“We know how much it costs to run these services because you can buy an ad on domain in Brisbane, or realestate.com.au for about one hundredth of the price they charge in their home cities,” one agent told Westender.

The REIQ site has a significant head start on Roomeo which is still in start up mode and not available to the public.REIQ features over 70 listings in West End alone. Roomeo probably has the marketing edge, though. It is a bit hard to imagine anyone crooning “REIQ, REIQ, where art thou, REIQ.”

<caption>Local tyro Leo Tsimpikas is top of the pops at REIQ

Lock the Gate Alliance national president, Drew Hutton, will be the subject of next Monday’s (August 4) Australian Story program on the ABC.

The Lock the Gate campaign was launched on 22 November, 2010 when farmers from south-east Queensland gathered in Brisbane around a farm gate, vowing to take a stand to protect their farms and communities from inappropriate mining.

The Lock the Gate Alliance now includes more than 200 grassroots groups and more than 32,000 supporters comprising farmers, landholders, conservationists and Traditional Owners.

The group transcends political divides and is unprecedented in the history of Australian social movements. Mr Hutton has paid a heavy personal toll during the many years he has devoted to environmental and community activism.

He describes himself as “an ordinary Australian” but he has achieved extraordinary things, including galvinising traditional right and left in the battle against invasive mining.

“My story is of an ordinary Australian who loves his country, doesn’t want to see it ripped up for short term gain for a few and is prepared to stand up to those bullies who want to force us into that future. Fortunately I am not alone in this,” Mr Hutton  said.

“I and all those at Lock the Gate are worried about the impact of mining on our food lands, our access to clean water, our regional communities and our sense of a fair go.” Also appearing on the program will be former Queensland Premier Peter Beattie, outspoken radio presenter, Alan Jones and environmentalist Dr Bob Brown.

Short history of Lock the Gate

The Lock the Gate Alliance was formed in 2010 with Drew Hutton becoming its president in early 2011, following meetings of landholders, organisations and communities concerned about the ongoing and rapid expansion of coal and coal seam gas development.

It was at a meeting at Warra on Queensland’s Darling Downs that a local farmer coined the name “Lock the Gate”.  (Drew had suggested ‘Shut the Gate’ originally.)

So began the campaign calling on all landholders to refuse to negotiate access to coal seam gas companies and refuse to negotiate sale of their properties to coal companies.

Campaigning officially began on 22 November, 2010 when farmers from south-east Queensland gathered in Brisbane around a farm gate, vowing to take a stand to protect their farms and communities from inappropriate mining.

Representatives from more than 40 groups from across Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia met in the Hunter Valley of NSW to discuss the challenges. One of the main concerns was the role of government in the expansion of the coal and coal seam gas industries and the lack of consideration of the will of local residents and communities in the approvals process.

Four years on, under the national leadership of beef farmer Phil Laird, Lock the Gate continues to grow with around 200 member groups and more than 32,000 rural and urban supporters from all over Australia.

One of its main aims is to educate and empower all Australians to demand sustainable solutions to food, clean water and energy production. Drew Hutton is now the group’s National President.

More info: http://www.lockthegate.org.au/

Get set for a nice crescent Moon for the start of the weekend and boy, isn’t the sky going to be great for stargazers! This is the month they say our Aussie skies are at their best, especially away from city lights. With bright moonlight lasting till almost midnight it’s a good time to test out a new telescope or go panning around looking for star clusters.  Head just to the right of the Southern Cross and do a sky sweep, then tell me that wasn’t good advice. See all those bright spots? Yep, brilliant clusters and gas clouds. By the way, anything except full moon nights are great for telescope viewing.

It’s hard to imagine Earth without a moon isn’t it? Life itself might have evolved from the ocean to land thanks to tides induced by the moon’s gravity. Astronomers believe a body as big as Mars once smacked into our infant Earth, breaking off a large piece which fell into orbit, eventually forming into the moon we see today.  A lot of that debris fell back on the Earth too making huge craters which, over time, have been smoothed over by volcanism. You know what? Somebody’s actually weighed the Earth! True. The Earth has a mass of 6, million, million, million, million kilograms, or, if you prefer, 6 sextillion tonnes. Try that one at your next trivia night.

In the early evening Saturn with its beautiful ring system is readily visible high in the western sky. Even in small telescopes it’s an amazing sight and never fails to impress. Talking about stunning views, check out what’s hanging low in the eastern sky before sunrise. That bright ‘star’ you see is in reality our sister planet Venus, also known as the evening star.  This week Venus is absolutely spectacular and already generating the odd UFO report or two. If you stare at it awhile it appears to move around or wobble. Try it.

Hey, while you’re in the mood, why not take time out and try my favourite celestial sport, meteor watching. The Perseids meteor shower makes an appearance in the coming week and after midnight a few decent meteors should flit across the starry sky each hour in a spooky display. The meteors peak on August 12 and are produced by debris from an earlier passing of Comet 96P/Machholz.

Perseids typically have fast and bright meteors and are known to create the odd fireball or two with flaming tails that streak across the dark early morning sky. More northern centred this year, the radiant may be a little low, but still worth a try. Fireballs are meteors that actually start to melt and catch on fire! Are they dangerous? The simple answer is no, not at all.

Nobody has ever been injured from watching meteor showers.  Travelling at speeds of up to 60 kilometres a second, most meteors quickly vapourize 50 kilometres above the ground. Almost all are destroyed in this process – the rare few that survive and hit the ground are known as meteorites. The largest ever found was found in Hoba, Namibia. It weighed 60 tons!

Now for an after dinner treat. Want to see the space station passing over your place this week? Well, if you go to www.spotthestation.nasa.gov/sightings and enter your location a chart will come up for the entire week giving dates and times to go and look. Simple huh? There’s also a great aussie app you can download called ISS Flyover.  Just imagine, when you see the space station remember it’s moving at 28,000 kilometres an hour and astronauts onboard see 16 sunrises and 16 sunsets every day! What a cool job!

Did you know that when the station crew return to earth they look forward to a good long hot shower. In space you can’t do that easily. In fact, astronauts wear the same underwear for the entire mission! You don’t sweat as much in space.  Spacesuits are fitted with ‘nappies’ so that astronauts can work outside for long hours especially during spacewalks. They hardly shower at all. You have to remember, in space water doesn’t fall down, it falls up and ‘sponge baths’ are the norm. They use wet cloths for washing and special shampoo for their hair which doesn’t require water.

You know, I get a lot of people telling me they only have a small telescope and want to know if it’s any good to stargaze with. My answer – sure can! Smaller telescopes are capable of doing a lot more than you imagine. I started out with a telescope you could fit in your pocket! Remember, cheapie telescopes under about $200 are made to a price, not a quality, and the trade-off is in the eyepieces.

If your cheapie telescope isn’t giving you satisfactory views I bet it will if you get a good quality brand eyepiece from your camera store. Around $30 -$50 should do it.  Stargazers can take it to the next level with some special software that mimics the night sky. I frequently bring my laptop into the field with me to use Stellarium, a free program that gives a real time view of the sky and labels nearby stars. You can recreate the night sky from almost any era in history, and move forward hundreds of years to view an eclipse yet to happen! Download it, you won’t be sorry.

David Reneke is an astronomy writer, lecturer, broadcaster and media personality. Get David’s free astronomy newsletter and a free 323 page e-book called ‘The Complete Idiots Guide To Astronomy. Visit the webpage: www.davidreneke.com 

Local office supply company Howard Williams has just taken shipment of a new range of safety work wear that includes a range of fire retardant, light weight cotton clothing for use in the food industry. Other stand out products include stock printed vests with popular names such as visitor, staff, traffic controller and first aid. Howard Williams’ Greg Heath told Westender that clients can order gear printed with their own wording.

“We are always looking for new and innovative ways to improve our range as requirements for business supplies have changed,” he said.

The diversification into safety wear has been driven by customer demand, according to Heath, with health and safety regulations paying much more attention to how workers are protected.

Explore the Prime Mover catalogue at Howard Williams website.