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Category: General news

Managing director of Ebono Institute and major sponsor of The Generator, Geoff Ebbs, is running against Kevin Rudd in the seat of Griffith at the next Federal election. By the expression on their faces in this candid shot it looks like a pretty dull campaign. Read on

  • Financial crisis Paves the Way for Chinese Solar Giants

     

    Better cost advantages played a key role. Up until mid-2008 Chinese manufacturers had to buy extremely high priced polysilicon, a major part of solar modules production cost, while their international competitors had access to long-term supply agreements at significantly lower prices. However, following the financial crisis, the global polysilicon price slumped by 87.5 percent, giving the Chinese a way in. 

    In addition, the Chinese processing cost is 30 percent lower than that of their European counterparts, which is a “remarkable cost advantage,” said Shawn Kravetz, founder of Esplanade Capital LLC, an investment firm in Boston that focuses on solar companies.

    Due to this product cost gap, Chinese manufacturers are able to attract large-scale solar project developers, while their European and U.S. counterparts suffer losses in the price competition, according to Trina’s Tzou.  

    China’s Suntech Power Holdings, the world’s second largest solar modules supplier, also attributes its growth in shipments last year to improved cost competitiveness, said Rory Macpherson, the company’s investor relations’ director. Suntech sales in 2009 are estimated to have increased by around 32 percent over 2008.

    This advantage is expected to continue, despite the fact that increasing western manufacturers, such as SunPower Corp. and SolarWorld AG are opening new factories in Malaysia, South Korea and other Asian countries, in the pursuit of lower processing cost.

    But cost competitiveness isn’t China’s only advantage, said analyst Jiang Qian with Shenzhen Zhongzhe Investment Consulting Co. “China’s well-developed supply chain, cheap electricity, supportive policies and even low environmental standards, all contribute. While, currently, solar manufacturing conditions in Malaysia still lag behind.”

    Another major advantage for Chinese solar companies is their ready access to finance amid the global economic downturn. Backed by China’s preferential policies towards renewable energy, domestic solar modules makers have benefited from supportive local banks.

    “This is something that European companies do not enjoy,” said Frank Haugwitz, former European Union Renewable Energy manager within the EU-China Energy & Environment Program. “Chinese companies have easier access to local finance institutions who could help them in their endeavor in developing new markets.”

    Such new markets include North America. In its latest second quarter statement, Suntech reported that “major investment in the U.S. market has resulted in rapidly growing dealer network.” The company now has more than 200 authorized dealers throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico. 

    Like Suntech, other Chinese solar manufacturers are gearing up further expansion. As China’s solar demand was awakened by government incentives last spring, Yingli Green Energy, a top Chinese solar manufacturer, opened a factory in South China’s Hainan province in July, aimed at the domestic and Southeast Asia markets.  And this year, Canadian Solar, another solar leader in China, will develop solar projects in South Korea together with LG Group. 

    Furthermore, China’s state-owned investment companies that are involved in overseas solar projects may drive up the country’s solar modules sales around the world. For instance, China Energy Conservation Investment Corp., which previously partnered with several local solar module makers in China, is talking to European developers about financing solar projects in Germany, Spain and Italy, according to a December report from Wall Street Journal. 

    While for now things look good, Chinese solar manufacturers may face challenges in the future, due to rising trade frictions with Europe and the U.S., where about 90 percent of their solar modules go to. In addition, the Chinese have to fight the concerns about quality that come from the “made-in-China” image, even though they have achieved equal or better quality ranks as Western manufacturers, said Esplanade Capital’s Kravetz.

    It seems Chinese solar manufacturers are winning the battle, but have not yet won the war.

    “Well now, we [the Chinese] have good timing, advantage of financing, we get the market share, and then that will be our market share forever?” asked Haugwitz. “No, no, no. That would be a little bit too easy. The competition will go on…I look at a company, how good its quality, reputation and price.”

    Coco Liu is a professional writer, based in Shanghai, covering renewable energy and business news. Contact Coco at cliu.info@gmail.com.

  • Senior Chinese climatologist calls for reform of IPCC

     

    Lü Xuedu, the deputy director general of the National Climate Centre and a Chinese delegate to the Copenhagen conference, said the use of flawed projections about the speed of melting of Himalayan glaciers and recent allegations that scientists blocked criticism proved there are problems with the way some IPCC documents are assessed and checked.

    Although he stressed support for the IPCC, of which China is an active participant, Lü said the young institution needed to strengthen its credibility.

    “The IPCC is still in a developing stage. It cannot be perfect or complete. It needs reform, especially after problems were exposed,” he said. “Some scientists take a political stance and wear coloured glasses, which means they do not look at issues in a comprehensive and objective way. The managing institute, authors and contributors of the assessment reports should be more objective in order to be more convincing.”

    However, he rejected calls for the resignation of the IPCC chair, Rajendra Pachauri, who has admitted it was wrong to include a prediction that Himalayan glaciers would melt by 2035.

    “I have full confidence that he can lead the IPCC,” said Lü. “The assessment reports involved so many materials and people that it is impossible for them to be perfect. As long as the IPCC officially admits problems, it is positive.”

    Chinese scientists have long been critical of the now-rejected claim that all Himalayan glaciers could melt by 2035, though there is wide acceptance that the glaciers in Urumqi in north-east China and elsewhere are shrinking, albeit at a slower pace.

    The National Climate Centre is a state body that has a strong influence on China’s position on the science of climate change.

    The government accepts that global warming is taking place, that China is affected and that, despite uncertainties about the degree of human responsibility, the country should take action to mitigate the impact as a responsible member of the international community.

    Lü suggested confidence in the IPCC could be improved if the organisation drew on a wider range of sources, invested in research institutions in developing nations and more-carefully cross-checked “grey literature” that is not peer-reviewed.

    “The majority of the IPCC’s references came from Europe and North America. Developing countries also want their voices to be heard in the drafting stage,” he said.

    Many Chinese scientists, all funded by the government, remain wary of global efforts to reduce carbon emissions and question whether even a 2C rise in the world’s temperature will be as calamitous as the IPCC has predicted.

    “The equivalent of climate sceptics in the west are the climate conspiracy theorists in China, who believe this is all part of a western plot against China,” said Yang Ailun of Greenpeace.

  • Ice age coral could point to future sea levels

    Ice age coral could point to future sea levels

    ABC February 11, 2010, 9:35 am

     

     

    Every day thousands of tourists flock to north Queensland to witness the Great Barrier Reef in all its glory.

    But soon a different group of travellers will visit the reef in order to dig up samples of ancient coral buried deep in the ocean floor.

    A group of international scientists say this sediment holds clues to how the Earth adapted since the last ice age.

    Buried deep under layers of coral reef lies a time-capsule of chemicals and sediment and scientists say that contains the clues to how the Pacific Ocean looked several thousand years ago.

    Professor Neville Exon from the Australian National University is one of the masterminds behind the project.

    He says the coral samples will tell researchers how the sea levels and water temperatures have changed in the past.

    “The real proof of a lot of scientific theories developed in other ways is to drill a hole and actually see what’s there,” he said.

    “You often have a pretty good idea of what you’ll get but you don’t have any detail, and this gives you the detail.

    “To build up a good idea of the future you have to understand the past, you have to understand what’s happened in recorded history and you’ve got to have good modellers who understand how all these things interplay.”

    Climate change evidence

    Dr Jody Webster, one of the scientists in charge of the drilling expedition, says the coral samples will provide concrete evidence of climate change since the last ice-age.

    “From other work that we’ve done in different parts of the world, there’s evidence, still quite controversial evidence, that a sea level rise following the end of the last ice-age was not smooth and continuous; there’s these periods of accelerated sea-level rise,” he said.

    “It hopefully will provide better constraints on past sea level rise and a better understanding of past dynamic ice-sheet behaviour, so the way in which some of these perhaps catastrophic ice-sheet collapses occurred.”

    He says this year’s dig is one of just many since the project began seven years ago.

    “It is very expensive 0 I don’t know the exact dollar value but in the order of $5 million to $10 million is being spent,” he said.

    Professor Exon says the scientists are hoping to release the findings to the public after documenting their deep sea treasure.

    “It will be public domain information, and what that means is all the geo-physical information, all the well logging information and all the samples are available one year after the expedition, they are available to all comers,” he said.

    “This is what makes science great, is when it’s in the public domain as this one is.”

  • Roof caves in on Garrett’s green house plan

     

    PricewaterhouseCoopers has been hired to audit the operations of the Environment Department and the accreditation body for assessors.

    Under the scheme, households first apply for an assessment for energy- and water-saving measures, then they can later apply for a zero-interest loan to pay for measures such as the installation of solar panels.

    But the scheme has been racked with problems as demand for household assessments surged, with 205,000 booked in less than a year. Original forecasts for the scheme predicted 360,000 bookings that were expected to take four years to complete.

    The 5000 assessors accredited under Green Loans have also complained about inconsistent access to the government’s hotline to book assessments.

    At Senate estimates last night the secretary of the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, Robyn Kruk, said it was operating with ”significant challenges”.

    A Greens senator, Christine Milne, told the hearing she had been contacted by dozens of assessors about late payments, which meant businesses had to take out bridging loans.

    Ms Kruk admitted that payments to assessors, which the government stated would be made in 30 days, has been ”too low and too slow”, blaming the surge in demand.

    Departmental officials also revealed that the department had no requests for loans last week even though close to 22,000 household assessments were undertaken in the week.

    The Government has set aside money for 70,000 loans over four years and expected 20,000 loans to be taken this year. So far 1000 have been approved.

    Mr Garrett’s decision to suspend foil batts from the rebate scheme came after an audit of 1000 homes in Queensland found that 2 per cent of those installed with foil batts had live electricity running through the ceiling because of the installation.

    Installation of foil batts has been linked to three deaths in Queensland, the latest a 25-year-old worker electrocuted while working in a ceiling at Millaa Millaa, southwest of Cairns.

    To date 37,000 houses have been installed with foil batts under the $1200 rebate scheme. Master Electricians Australia said 460 households could have live ceilings.

    Yesterday the opposition environment spokesman, Greg Hunt, called for a full judicial inquiry into whether there was any correlation between the Queensland deaths and the insulation program. He said all households fitted with foil batts should be audited immediately.

  • Labor at crossroads in test of Rudd’s character

     

    How does Rudd respond to such political pressure?

    He insists the ETS is “the most effective and least costly” way of tackling emissions. Rudd’s argument is correct. But he faces a choice: either find the means to implement your policy or walk away from it. This requires from Rudd the conviction to fight and risk seats at a double dissolution for an ETS that Abbott is hell bent on turning into a political dog.

    Related Coverage

    Since he became leader Abbott has been gifted by the Copenhagen fiasco that, in Ross Garnaut’s words, means the major emitters are unlikely to enter binding agreements to reduce emissions.

    Abbott’s direct-action plan on climate change has little policy credibility compared with the ETS. But, unfortunately for Labor, this is not the pressing issue.

    Rudd’s problem is that his ETS policy is in serious short-term trouble. At home, the ETS is either not understood or being discredited as a giant new tax, a campaign Labor seems unable to deflect.

    Abroad, the acceptance of national targets, verification procedures for emissions and the foundations for genuine global agreement to sustain emissions trading do not exist and may not exist for some time. This is the significance of Copenhagen. It showed, again, that China and

    India will not enter binding, verifiable agreements. Nor is it likely the US will accept this position any time soon, despite President Obama’s own commitment.

    The roadblocks for the US Congress are the economic crisis with its high jobless rate and the impossibility of binding US action without China being tied into similar commitments.

    Under three presidents, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, the US has not ratified Kyoto. The Kyoto model is broken (as Australia accepts) because it excludes the big developing nation emitters, yet the world cannot devise an alternative model.

    Post-Copenhagen, Garnaut warns that “as a consequence the costs of Australia meeting any particular target may be substantially above the levels” previously expected. Given the global diplomatic stalemate Garnaut speculates that Australia should consider “an alternative model for trade in entitlements that does not depend on universal acceptance of binding commitments.” The game is up, at least in the short term.

    In philosophical terms Australians have been subject to a hoax on this issue. For years the media paradigm has been a scientific-based universal utopianism that all nations must act together in common cause to save the planet.

    This narrative concealed the alternative political truth: that climate change action is about competing national interests. (Just ask China after it sabotaged Copenhagen.) Climate change action is about contested economic advantage, income re-distribution and competitiveness. This is the reason the world, so far, cannot settle on a new agreement.

    Political leaders seek both to safeguard their national interests now as well as to save the planet in 2100 and such differentiated goals are integral to the way governments respond to climate change.

    An irrevocable lesson from Copenhagen is the need to terminate the UN as fora for negotiating a new agreement. Unless this change is made then future agreement on effective mitigation is finished. The only hope rests upon serious negotiation between the US and China bilaterally or among a small group of major economies that are the main emitters. It would repudiate the chorus of ideologues, greens and NGOs who think they “own” the process and prefer the optics of cheering China’s stooges from the Sudan to any effort to strike a new post-Kyoto methodology.

    In summary, at every point Rudd’s policy is under pressure, measured by weak global progress, entrenched delay in the US, flawed international negotiations, uncertainty over the likely carbon price, growing debate about economic alternatives such as a carbon tax and, most significantly, a rising lack of community confidence in the ETS.

    For Labor, it is neat to argue the ETS is the best policy and Abbott is just playing politics. This is true but misses the larger point.

    In climate change, policy and politics are chained together. Abbott has an elemental grasp of this point. Australia’s ETS only works if other nations make the political commitment to emissions trading (note, by the way, Abbott says he would have his own ETS if the world takes this route). Moreover Rudd’s ETS only works if Australian public understanding is sufficient enough to generate tolerable community trust. That point has not been reached.

    Last month Garnaut discussed compromise options to manage the present tribulations. The Greens have initiated talks with the Rudd government over their own fresh compromise, an “interim” alternative to break the Senate deadlock. It involves Rudd ditching his present scheme, legislating instead a two-year fixed carbon price of about $20 a tonne, reducing industry assistance and, post-election, presumably with the Greens holding the Senate balance of power, finalising a new ETS.

    This would be a retreat too far for Rudd. He would look weak and intimidated.

    Indeed, it would reinforce the idea of a Prime Minister short on belief and too keen to compromise under pressure. It would make Abbott look a giant-killer.

    However, the question the Greens raise won’t go away. It is whether the Rudd government, somehow, some way, will devise a Plan B to avoid a double dissolution showdown on the ETS, thereby seeking to deny the full force of Abbott’s populist campaign. Plan B is for a Labor Party that loses its nerve and has no heart. This is a test of Rudd’s character and judgment in the teeth of the Abbott onslaught that Labor never expected.

  • Help the Greens break the climate deadlock

     

    If you send a letter to the editor of your local newspaper, please remember to keep it short and to the point – if it’s less than 150 words, it’s far more likely to be published! Also make sure you put your contact details into your email – they will not be published but they are vital to allow the paper contact you and confirm your letter.

    Key points on the Greens’ proposal:

    You can read all about the Greens’ proposal to break the climate deadlock here, and details on our position on emissions trading and the CPRS here. Here are a few dot points to get your creative juices flowing.

    • The Greens are now in good faith discussions with the government towards their proposal to break the political deadlock on climate action, adopt Professor Garnaut’s suggestion of a two year interim scheme with a fixed price, no trading and no offsets.
      • The government should negotiate with the Greens in good faith to make sure we can take a positive step in climate action in Australia.
    • Mr Rudd is making no attempt to get his CPRS through the Senate. The Greens are putting forward a constructive proposal to get Australia moving towards the zero carbon future.
    • The Greens’ proposal is designed as a building block for future climate action that’s got real teeth. Mr Rudd’s CPRS is impossible to strengthen after it’s passed, locking in failure before we begin.
    • The Greens’ proposal gives half its revenue back to Australia’s householders and is still in the black. Mr Rudd’s CPRS pays polluters to keep polluting and ends up deep in debt.