Harvey Norman Invests in Solar Panels

RETAILER Harvey Norman plans to be a market leader in the domestic solar industry after placing a substantial order for user-friendly solar panels. 

United States-based Westinghouse said today it had received an order for five megawatts of its Solar Instant Connect solar panel systems from Harvey Norman.

The order represents a significant investment in the green technology, which will result in Westinghouse's shipments in 2012 more than doubling from 2011.

Harvey Norman said the uptake of solar energy in Australia was stronger than in most other parts of the world, with over 830 megawatts sold in the local market in 2011.

"With Australian power pricing continuing to rise, we are continuing to see very strong demand for solar installations," Harvey Norman commercial division franchisee Alan Stephenson said in a statement.

"In addition to supplying kitchen, bathroom items, hot water and air conditioning systems, we have established a solar business, which we believe will be a market leader."

The newly ordered solar panels require Australian certification, and the first shipments to Harvey Norman are expected to begin in late-2012, Westinghouse said.

Clean-Tech's Surge Masking Troubled Times

SOMETHING very unusual has been happening in the Australia sharemarket. In each of the past three months and for the last quarter as a whole, Australian clean-tech stocks have outperformed the broader index by a ratio of about two to one.

In January, the ACT Australian CleanTech Index, which comprises 77 local stocks with a combined market cap of $8 billion, recorded a 10 per cent gain, double the rise of the Australian sharemarket's benchmark S&P/ASX 200.

Over the last three months, the CleanTech index has enjoyed a gain of 5.5 per cent, compared with a 1.9 per cent loss in the broader index.

Renewable Energy Firms Plan Profits Sans Subsidy

Renewable energy companies are approaching the point where they can generate electricity at a price competitive with fossil-fuels without subsidies, the biggest wind and solar manufacturers said.

Suntech Power Holdings Co. Chief Executive Officer Zhengrong Shi said solar will reach parity with fossil fuels on electric grids by 2015. Vestas Wind systems A/S expects its turbines to compete without incentives "in the coming years," said Peter Brun, head of governmental relations.

"Wind in some cases already is, or can in coming years, be fully cost-competitive with fossil fuels," Brun said today by e-mail from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. "Fossil-fuel prices will continue to rise, and that increases the competitiveness of new technologies. We are preparing the whole industry for getting off the subsidy-need."

Caught between oversupply and tumbling prices, the companies are reminding governments that their products are taking the biggest share of new power generation and increasingly rivaling oil and gas. That’s pushing green growth up the agenda as Germany and Japan close nuclear reactors and President Barack Obama defends U.S. support for renewables.

New electricity generation from the wind, sun, waves and biomass drew $187 billion in 2010 compared with $157 billion for added capacity from natural gas, oil and coal, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, the first time investment in renewables has exceeded that of fossil fuels.

"Renewables are the energy of the future, and there’s been a larger investment in renewable energy than conventional energy," said Steve Sawyer, secretary-general of the Global Wind Energy Council in Brussels, who first attended Davos in the early 1990s as a lobbyist for Greenpeace when clean energy companies were tiny.

Subsidies to renewables totaled $66 billion worldwide in 2010, according to the most recent figures from the International Energy Agency. Incentives must be retained to meet existing targets of diversifying the energy supply, the Paris- based group said.

Power from solar panels costs more than triple natural gas, according to levelized cost of energy data from New Energy Finance. Onshore wind is close to parity with coal, and about a quarter more pricey than gas.

Solar power will be "very competitive" within a decade, and in some places, it’s already near "grid parity," meaning it can compete without subsidies, Trina Solar Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Jifan Gao said in an interview in Davos. He spoke through an interpreter.

"We see costs coming down and manufacturing efficiency being improved all the time," said Gao, whose company is the fifth biggest maker of silicon-based solar panel. "In places like Australia, this year they will reach grid parity; next year Italy will, and in 2014 regions like California."

Gao’s comments support those of Suntech’s Shi, who told Bloomberg television that with government support, the industry has made "tremendous progress," and solar prices have been cut in half in a year.

"We believe that by 2015, there will be around 50 percent of countries where it reaches grid parity," Shi said.

Brun at Vestas said that the cost of wind power is "site- specific" and that the technology may reach grid parity in the breeziest areas by 2020. He declined to say where. Governments and the industry should consider re-allocating subsidies to turbines in areas with lower wind speeds, and offshore, where winds are stronger and costs are higher, he said.

With incentives for wind and solar power under threat in the U.S. and the European Union as governments tighten budgets, Davos serves as a forum for industry executives to remind governments of the need to promote renewables as part of the effort to stem climate change, said Tulsi Tanti, chairman of Suzlon Energy Ltd., India’s biggest wind-turbine maker.

"Davos is the one place the most important decision makers of the world — be it government or business — converge," Tanti said in e-mailed answers to questions. "The most crucial issue this year will be to argue for policy certainty despite the economic environment."

In the U.S. the wind industry is threatened by the loss of a tax credit which expires at the end of this year. Vestas has said it may fire 1,600 U.S. workers if the credit isn’t renewed, and Obama in his State of the Union Speech on Jan. 24 urged Congress to "pass clean-energy tax credits."

"I will not walk away from the promise of clean energy," Obama said.

Read on

Australia's First Commercial Solar Roof Lease Launched In The ACT

National solar solutions provider Energy Matters recently launched Australia's first commercial solar roof lease; further affirming the ACT's standing as Australia's solar power capital.

Energy Matters' groundbreaking 'pay now, pay later, pay never' commercial solar initiative was launched to prominent ACT business owners at Ullrich Aluminium’s Hume site on Tuesday 17th May. The launch was presided over by Simon Corbell, Minister for the Environment and Sustainability, who lauded the program for its positive impact in "cementing the ACT as the solar capital of Australia".

Energy Matters has a commitment to playing its role in ensuring all Australians have the opportunity to participate in reducing carbon dioxide emissions and accelerating the uptake of renewable energy in Australia, but understands the challenges that the cost of system ownership can pose.

As the first ever program of its kind in Australia, the Ullrich Aluminium solar lease launch paved the way for ACT businesses to benefit from generous government incentives; whether their budgets stretch to outright system

Changes To PV Incentives In Australia Prompt "Solar's Last Chance" Rally

The global governmental trend of revisions to solar incentive programs continues, as Australia has become the latest country to roll back its financial support for solar energy. Earlier this month, Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency Greg Combet announced changes to the country's popular Solar Credits offering.

In the announcement, Combet attributed the revisions to "continued strong growth in the industry, the impact of this on electricity prices and the impact of the Solar Credits' support on demand for other clean energy technologies such as solar hot water heaters."

Australia's Solar Credits, which provide support under the Small-Scale Renewable Energy Scheme (SRES) by multiplying the number of certificates that these systems would generally be able to create under the Large-Scale Renewable Energy Target scheme, will be reduced to a multiple of three (from four) on July 1. The new multiplier is expected to provide residential PV system owners with an up-front credit equal to approximately one-third of out-of-pocket costs, based on a standard 1.5 kW installation.

The multiplier will be further reduced over the next few years, declining to two in July 2012 and to one in July 2013.

According to the minister, these changes will "help reduce the oversupply of certificates, which is currently suppressing the certificate price in the SRES." A statutory review of the SRES is scheduled for mid-2012 and every two years thereafter.

The government has also announced plans to partner with state and territory governments to evaluate feed-in tariffs (FITs), which are still provided in addition to the Solar Credits mechanism.

The officials will verify that the existing FIT levels are consistent with certain previously agreed-upon principles and do not create an "unjustifiable burden on electricity consumers, either through cross-subsidy mechanisms or their impact on the SRES," the minister explained.

However, in New South Wales (NSW) - Australia's most populous state - FIT changes announced by Premier Barry O'Farrell have already led to backlash from the state's solar sector.

Last week, the NSW government closed its Solar Bonus Scheme and reduced FIT levels for existing participants from $0.60 AUD per kWh to $0.40 AUD per kWh. (The FIT for customers at the $0.20 AUD FIT tier remained unchanged.)

Government officials blamed the closure and changes on excessive taxpayer burden and program mismanagement; program costs are projected to reach up to $1.9 billion.

"We acknowledge customers who joined the original 60 cent Scheme had certain expectations of financial returns; however, the scheme was never intended to provide windfall profits to a few at the expense of many," NSW Minister for Resources and Energy Chris Hartcher stated in the announcement.

John Grimes, chief executive of the Australian Solar Energy Society (AuSES), criticized the decision, noting that the NSW government had promised it would not enact FIT cuts affecting residents who had already installed PV.

"Barry O'Farrell must keep his promise to the NSW electorate and immediately reverse his decision to retrospectively slash the solar feed-in tariff," Grimes wrote in AuSES' blog.

In response, AuSES and its supporters are holding a "Solar's Last Chance Rally" this week to call attention to the NSW's FIT freeze and payment reductions. According to AuSES, these actions could result in extensive job losses in the solar sector and monetary losses for residential PV system owners.