Wind turbines in Victoria.
Rod Myer
July 10, 2006
DETAILS of Victoria's proposed renewable energy encouragement scheme could be delayed in the lead-up to the state election, despite the fact the energy industry wants to have the detail as quickly as possible to allow for planning.
The plan was to have been launched in the middle of the year but a Government spokesman has now told The Age it would not be released for months. That would put it close to the state election later this year.
The scheme is modelled on the Federal Government's Mandated Renewable Energy Target, which requires power retailers to buy specified amounts of renewables and spread the extra costs across their customer base. It is being introduced because the federal scheme has reached its target, but the renewable industry remains undeveloped in Victoria.
Designing the scheme has involved a lot of horse trading. Initially Victoria wanted to boost renewable generation to 10 per cent of the total by 2010. However, as energy minister Theo Theophanous did the rounds of the power sector, he started to hit resistance.
It came from coal-fired generators, who feared their profits would be cut if the scheme was too aggressive. This is because wind power is a direct competitor with base-load generation and the scheme will result in rapid growth in the wind industry.
Wind farms operate whenever the wind blows, and are not influenced in production levels by power prices. As a result, they would pump power into the system at times of very low prices while enjoying the subsidy the scheme would deliver them. That will push down power prices, much to the chagrin of base-load generators already struggling with low prices.
As a result the Victorian Government has done a deal that will slow the trajectory of renewables growth. Like the Federal Government before it, it has converted the 10 per cent target into an absolute energy output. The Federal Government turned a 2 per cent initial target into 9500 gigawatt hours for its MRET scheme. As a result of faster-than-expected power usage in the national market, that initial 2 per cent target by 2010 will in fact be around half a per cent.
In Victoria's case the 10 per cent figure is believed to have been converted into its energy equivalent, about 3000 GWh. But the sting for the renewable energy businesss is that the date for this figure to be reached will be pushed back to around 2015 to 2017.
As a result of growth in the market during the extension time, 3000 GWh will amount to a lot less than 10 per cent of the state's power market by the time it is reached.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/business/state-energy-plan-blows-in-the-wind/2006/07/09/1152383611122.html
V ictoria's energy scheme 'half baked'
Windy way ahead: the Alinta wind farm in Geraldton, Western Australia.
Mathew Murphy
July 10, 2006
WIND farm developers could be forced to abandon Victoria because the State Government's proposal to set up a state-based renewable energy scheme is "too weak", industry groups claim.
In March, The Age revealed the Government would move to bring in legislation before the November election that would require retailers to generate a higher percentage of their power from renewable sources.
Cabinet is reviewing a range of measures that have been put forward to create and sustain a renewable energy market in Victoria.
While most agree the proposal is "the only show in town", given the Federal Government's refusal to extend its mandatory renewable energy target, some stakeholders have expressed concern at implementing a "half-baked" scheme.
Christian Spitzner, the managing director of Turnus Energy, said a recent Government briefing to the energy industry revealed:
■ The Victorian Renewable Energy Target scheme would cease 15 years after being implemented.
■ An election promise of 10 per cent of electricity from renewable sources by 2010 would not be met, with the target extended to 2015 or 2017.
■ The penalty for not reaching the target would be $40 per megawatt hour.
Mr Spitzner said wind farms, to be viable, needed to be financed for at least 20 years, penalties needed to be higher than $40 per MWh and the 10 per cent target should be reached before 2015.
Mr Spitzner said Victoria's low energy prices meant wind farm developers would need to consider large-scale developments in coastal areas to justify set-up costs.
Australian Wind Energy Association chief executive Dominique La Fontaine said larger wind farms were a reality of the proposal.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/victorias-energy-scheme-half-baked/2006/07/09/1152383612959.html
Estimated 45% expected to live in cities by 2020
July 8, 2006
Ha Noi — The total amount of people living in Viet Nam’s urban areas is projected to reach 30.4 million by 2010 and it is estimated that there will be 46 million urban dwellers by 2020.
The urbanisation rate is expected to increase to 33 per cent by 2010 and 45 per cent by 2020.
In 2000, 19 million of the country’s 80 million people lived in urban areas, with an urbanisation rate of 22 per cent.
In that year, urban land accounted for 63,300 ha, or about 0.2 per cent of the country’s total area. The figure is expected to rise to 243,000 ha or 0.74 per cent by 2010 and to 460,000 ha, or 1.4 per cent, by 2020.
Director of the Centre for Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development Professor Dr. Le Hong Ke said that Viet Nam had formulated specific policies on infrastructure development in its socio-economic development strategy. These included water supply and sewage systems, electricity and post and telecommunications, particularly those at the national, regional and provincial levels.
Ke said that a good plan for future development was an important factor in shaping a sound urbanisation process.
Urbanisation was part and parcel of the country’s industrialisation and .modernisation, he said. However, the urbanisation process has further widened the development gap between urban and rural areas.
He said that the flow of migrants from rural to urban areas had put pressure on the already poor infrastructure in major cities. This was also one of the factors driving property prices in urban areas to "artificial" heights.
Ke was appreciative of the Government’s policies to give special treatment to project developers involved in infrastructure construction with concession credit schemes through Official Development Assistance (ODA), or the State budget. Ke said that most of the funding for the country’s infrastructure system came from ODA funds.
Ke said that Viet Nam had set the target to irradicate slum dwellings in urban areas by 2020.
Following that dictum, while building many more new towns, Viet Nam was paying attention to restoring or upgrading old streets, residential areas and slums.
Ke said that any urban development plan had to, under the master plan for urban development by 2020 and the sustainable development strategy, satisfy the three conditions of establishing good living, work and relaxation environments.
Sustainable urbanisation, Ke said, should be understood as a combination of sustainable development between the economy, society and eco-biological environmental sustainability.
The urbanisation process would serve as a bridge linking urban and rural areas and close the gap between these two areas, Ke added.
Viet Nam has 708 cities and towns at present, of which major cities including Ha Noi, HCM City, Da Nang, Hai Phong and Can Tho. — VNS
http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/showarticle.php?num=09SOC080706
_____________________________________________________________________________
Share with your friends: | 
