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Supply lag reaches 5-7 years: He told a Gold Coast conference that the cost of steel, oil rigs and staffing was doubling. "Development of supply generally comes with a lag of three to five years," Voelte said. "This year we’re talking five to seven years.

Rigs priced at $500,000 a day: "We as an industry are struggling to meet demand. We just contracted a rig for $500,000 per day and we’ve got between five to 10 rigs (operating) at a time."

Ergon wants higher electricity price: Meanwhile, Ergon Energy chair Keith Hilless told the conference consumers were not paying enough for their electricity although the cost of coal and oil kept increasing. "We’re selling the stuff too cheap," he said.

The Harbin Power Plant Equipment Group, based in the capital city of Northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province, has signed an agreement with the Australian company HRL Ltd to build a coal-gasification power project which is sympathetic to the environment.

    The project, to be located in Victoria, Australia, will employ the HRL’s electricity generating technology based on brown coal gasification and will have a generation capacity of 400,000 kilowatts. The technology is reportedly able to reduce greenhouse gas emission by 30 percent and water consumption by 50 percent.

    Sources with the Chinese company said the project is the largest ever power project based on clean brown coal gasification and China’s largest power plant equipment export project in a developed nation.

    Most equipment for the project will be supplied by the Chinese company at a value of more than 500 million Australian dollars.

    Chinese company sources said the Harbin Power Plant Equipment has also clinched a deal with the Australian company to cooperate in five similar projects in other developed nations.

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Federal environment minister Ian Campbell last week denied responsibility for the shelving of $550million investment for windfarms. He rejected claims by wind generator, Roaring 40s, that the failure to increase the Mandatory Renewable Energy Targets from two per cent was responsible for pulling back from the projects. "The companies have known the targets for a long time," he said. He was also incredulous of media claims that renewable energy missed out in the budget."We are investing hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars into renewable energies, over and above the massive boost we gave to the renewable sector through the target program," he said.

The Land, 27/4/2006, p. 25

Source: Erisk Net  

He claimed further that the government supported the development and expansion of the clean energy industry in NSW, such as:

• The Building Sustainability Index (BASIX) – new homes built in NSW to produce 40 per cent less greenhouse emissions than the current state average;

• The $200 million Energy Savings Fund that rewards projects and activities that led to reduction in energy and greenhouse emissions; and,

• The Greenhouse Gas Abatement Scheme (GGAS) that required electricity retailers to reduce the greenhouse intensity of the electricity supplied to customers.

Early results positive: Brazzale gave the following examples:

• nearly a quarter of new homes were now planning to install solar water heaters under BASIX;

• $20 million was offered to 28 projects under the Energy Savings Fund; and

• over 20 million Greenhouse Abatement Certificates were registered to date – accounting for a market in carbon abatement of nearly $300 million.

Aim to keep green building rules firm: "There are of course some teething problems with these schemes that we will be seeking to have addressed," he said. "Under BASIX our challenge will be to ensure that the initiative is not watered down in response to pressure from the building industry".

He said the Australian Business Council for Sustainable Energy’s aim was to ensure:

• GGAS was expanded and extended, and delivered more real clean energy projects in NSW; and

• the good results from Round One of the Energy Savings Fund were built on to ensure industry capacity and market transformation.

Reference: EcoGeneration (May/June 06, p. 6)

EcoGeneration, 5/2006, p. 6

Source: Erisk Net  

The Australian Financial Review, 13/5/2006, p. 23

Source: Erisk Net