Tag Archives: Australian Solar Energy Society

Australian Solar Energy Society and Renewable Energy Costs

Renewable Energy Costs Decreasing – Interesting Times Ahead

The Australian Solar Energy Society [AuSES] executive and Board members are fully aware that 2012 and 2013 will be a chaotic time of change for the world community as far as our economic relationship with energy goes.

Fair Price for Solar Energy

John Grimes, CEO of AuSES at the National Conference Dinner last December made the point that a fair price for solar is the main objective for the industry in the short term, but governments are basically running behind reality.

The price of fossil fuel is set to rise dramatically in 2013 as many peak oil economists are predicting and this will herald a new era for the world. Renewable energy costs are becoming very competitive, with the result that our energy supplies will undergo constant change from now on.

Renewable Energy Costs Changing the World

Due to comparatively low renewable energy costs in mainstream energy supply, it  is set to continue expanding dramatically over the next few decades and continue on way past the end of this century.

Renewable  energy costs are now  so competitive, as Ray Wills of  SEA has pointed out, that within two years (and arguably right now), depending on what figures are used, we will see that the world has already changed for all time. However, some government bureaucrats, academics and many analysts may still be unaware of  how renewable energy costs have decreased. Therefore it is imperative that state of the art knowledge to passed through to these decision makers.

New World Economic System

The old world economic system has been faltering for a while now but many prominent politicians and financial institutions seem hell-bent to restore ‘business as usual’ as soon as possible.

This of course it is impossible and the real winners in the near future will be those who realize that renewable energy costs have changed for the better and start to embrace a new world economic system that replaces many of the failed constructs developed in the 20th century.

It will not be easy. Communication is the key and the saviour will be the internet.

The way people do business has already changed due to the dissemination of information over the internet. Gone already are the large adverts for automobiles. They are all on the web. Real estate has also gone this way, as has a great deal of consumer product merchandizing.

The transition from offline to online advertising can be expensive and therefore solar-e has initiated the Get Solar Campaign.

Ishaan Khanna – Incoming President AuSES Western Australia

 

renewable energy costs

Ishaan Khanna

In Western Australia, a sign of change is the appointment of Ishaan Khanna as the new WA President of this AuSES branch. He represents a new younger professional intake into the organization.

Ishaan Khanna works as a Senior Engineer within the Smart Grid Development Branch at Western Power Corporation, a transmission and distribution utility, in Perth, Western Australia.

He graduated from the University of Pune, India with a Bachelor of Engineering degree and completed a Masters Degree in Engineering from the University of Auckland, New Zealand.  

His employment experience includes working as a networks engineer for HCL Infinet, a large networking services company in India and as a planning engineer for Unison Networks Limited, a New Zealand electricity utility.

 He also worked with a global engineering consulting firm, AECOM, as a Power Systems Engineer, serving transmission and distribution utility clients worldwide.

Ishaan’s recent experience has been in areas of demand side management applications utilizing Smart Grid and Home Area Networks (HAN), hybrid stand-alone power systems and studying the impact of distributed generation on electricity distribution network. His previous experience has been in areas of project management, asset management, system modeling/simulation, reliability and network planning.

Transitioning to Renewable Energy with Smart Grids

Without smart grids the smooth transition to a higher percentage of renewable energy in the electrical system will be very difficult indeed. Therefore a man like Ishaan is the type of key person needed for this smooth transition to a cleaner energy economy and the utilization of more solar energy in our communities and electricity grids as renewable energy costs fall.

Renewable Energy Costs and The International Solar Energy Society

Over the last 50 years the International Solar Energy Society, now represented in Australia by AuSES, has been at the cutting edge of progress. It embraces not only a generation change within its organization but also staying at the cutting edge of solar matters.

From our perspective, at www.solar-e.com nothing has changed – it has simply speeded up. But in many ways history of the society has been left behind as a building block of the present has been created on these solid foundations of ethics and expertise.

 A new exciting and period of change is already with us.  Those who do not like it are holding back process. Thanks to the decline in renewable energy costs a new era has already begun and the old world is being quickly left behind.

We just need key legislators and champions of industry to realize it and get on board. The train is leaving the station!

See other related articles on this site which may interest you:  energy consumption growth   peak oil solutions and carbon tax

 

Australian Solar Energy Society New Collaboration

The re-birthing of the Australian Solar Energy Society (‘AuSES’) in Western Australia has taken one step closer to achieving posterity. Prof. Ray Wills, CEO of  the  Sustainable  Energy Association of Australia (‘SEA’) joined the society as an individual member and formally joined our interim committee in Western Australia. We are now looking forward to creating a mutually benefitting vision for our two organizations.

Venture Capital – First Research Your Market

We recently held a meeting  at SEA headquarters in Northbridge which was made available for a technical talk by Mr Andrew Hall, CEO of Bright Generation. Andrew talked about the role of venture capital in innovation and product development. His recommended key consideration for innovators, when taking a product to the market place was in the early stages was to base the capital investment on solid market research and test marketing.

Pull not Push

This made sense to the audience as a prudent procedure, before the big dollars are sought. Andrew explained that  this process ensured that the market entry was “pull” driven rather than “push” driven,  making it more likely for support by large investors. Then rapid expansion could safely occur.  The quicker the ‘valley of death’ on the graphed innovation curve is breached,  the smaller the risk and less capital is  needed for ultimate success.

I think his advice of  looking at investment as a two stage process starting with trial manufacturing, adaptation and assessing market responses with real products made a great deal of sense to me.

It is easy to see why Andrew is successful in the renewable energy field and we are fortunate to have him on our advisory committee in WA.

SEA Will Foster The AuSES  Solar Mentors Programme

The great news for all Western Australian AuSES members is that,  as a sponsor, The Sustainable Energy Association,  through Ray Wills,  will assist in the process of achieving the goals set for AuSES in WA. They will provide sponsorship for the Society on a trial basis and will assist with the growing of our individual memberships in this state.

The key plank for their support is the fostering of the solar mentors scheme and developing stronger links between students and young professionals, with experienced industry people and leading academics.

This planned cross-pollination of ideas between industry leaders and university people is bound to deliver healthy outcomes for the solar and renewable energy industries as well as individuals, who are looking at creating specialist careers for themselves.

Dr Bill Parker, and myself,  along with the advisory committee,  unanimously agreed to this path for Western Australia’s AuSES, at our first committee meeting.

Collaboration With SEA Events

This  year we will start to plan collaboration with SEA events to introduce key experts who have had peer reviewed papers published.  This will create more opportunities and exposure for our emerging  scientists,  professionals and innovators.

I believe that the focus should spread comfortably to each of the sites and I am sure that SEA will be most valuable in assisting this worthwhile process.

I envisage that within a year or two all states will benefit from the approach. We can recall the halcyon days when the CSIRO sponsored our society and  for 20 years put Australia well  and truly on the world map when it came to cutting edge technology in solar and  renewable  energy  systems.  Many of these technologies are still viable in this 21st century.

The next meeting is planned at  Curtin University  in June, the  date and venue to be announced (around the winter solstice).

How You Can Help

Here are a few ideas: For all past,  potential and existing members the key to our momentum and success will be two fold:

–          Joining AuSES or continuing your membership for many years, as well as introducing new members to AuSES

–          Encouraging as many student members as possible to join to take advantage of our mentor scheme, as brilliantly constructed by Dr. Mary Dale.

–          Attend our meetings and networking events and bring younger guests !

Looking forward to our next meeting and ‘solar-beers’ networking event. Let’s keep the forward movement  going. The next two generations are to be the beneficiaries.

Garry Baverstock AM                                                                  President AuSES in WA

31st March 2011

AuSES Conference Best Papers: Solar Energy Environmental Benefits Best Papers

We have prepared list of solar-e.com’s own selection of ranked candidates for the Solar Energy Environmental Benefits best papers presented at the ‘Solar 2010’ Conference: Policies and Strategies (including the Economics of solar energy, diversity of derived forms of solar energy, electricity grids and data collection)

The analysis and understanding the of more obscure fields of solar energy related technology and policy developments is obviously another critical step forward to applying more solar energy in our economy. this section will hopefully expand as more papers are delivered in the future.

AuSES Committee – Best Papers at AuSES Solar 2010 as judged by the AuSES panel

Student Prizes – Wal Read Memorial Prizes
Post Graduates Prizes
BILBAO, Jose “PV-Thermal Water Systems as a Retrofit for Near Zero Energy Homes”
Winner $1500 AUD
BAMBROOK, Shelley “Experimental PVT Air System for Dwellings”
Highly Commended $1000 AUD
LHENDUP, Tshewang “Simulation of a Ground-coupled Heat Pump Combined with Solar Collectors”
Commended $250 AUD
ELLISTON, Ben “Grid parity: A potential misleading concept?”
Commended $250 AUD

Undergraduates Prizes
BRAZIER, Thomas “Dependence of installed cost of a 1.5 kW rooftop PV system on module efficiency”
Joint Winner $1,000 AUD
BOEREMA, Nicholas “Economics of constraints on wind farms – SA”
Joint Winner $1,000 AUD
O’BRIEN, Paul “Exergetic analysis of a steam-flashing thermal storage system”
Joint Winner $1,000 AU

Solar Energy Environmental Benefits: Solar-e.com Director Garry Baverstock’s personal selection of the Best Papers

At the conference the papers were presented under a number of category headings such as Built Environment, Wind Power, Photovoltaics, Environmental Benefits, Solar Thermal and Solar Energy Economics. Following is our selection of the worthwhile papers and a ranking based on relevance to world situation on Climate Change, the impact on the increased use of solar energy and the quality of the research as presented in the paper.
The Solar Energy Environmental Benefits best papers, in our opinion, have been listed below. This is our opinion, but we are interested in what the solar experts think and any comments are welcome. If we have overlooked a paper or you disagree with our assessment please feel free to offer your opinion. If bona fide it will be published.

A comment by solar-e.com is included after each listing.

Image Trees in Forest

1.A Novel  System of Combined Power Generation and Hot water Desalination Using Renewable Energy

Fulaqi, Anhitijit Date, Aliakbar Akbarzadeh
Comment: Desalination is already becoming a necessity and this is renewable energy must be used to make water supply economically viable.

2. Efficiency Improvement Using Solar Desiccant Drying for Selected Solar Seeds

Kame Khouzam
Comment:Drying of seeds in developing countries is an important use of solar energy to increase yields and food production

3. Sustainable Non Condensable Gas Removal from Geothermal Waters

Anna Khaghani1, Abhijit Date, Rene Wolke, Aliakbar Akbarzadeh
Comment: Geothermal will be a large industry eventually and we must control the environmental side effects pollution

4.Efficiency Improvement Using Solar Desiccant Drying For Selected Seeds

Kame Khouzam
Comment:Agricultural applications of solar energy is a potentially large contribution to Climate Change and a betterment of developing countries.

5.  Hybrid Solar Photovoltaic and Water & Waste water Treatment System

M.Vivar, L Kumaresan, V Muugesan, M Lluch, S Iniyan, K Palanivelu, I Skryabin
Comment: Combining waste heat from photvoltaics with waste water treatment will lower fossil fuel use in water conservation as global populations balloon in the next 40 years.

6. Solar Thermal drying of Canarium Indictum Nuts

T Curtis, R Corkish, RJ Fuller
Comment:The availability of better nutrition and food preserving is critical in the developing world.

DO YOU WISH TO BUY ANY OF THESE PAPERS?

A message from AuSES
People who were not delegates at Solar 2010 (or AuSES members) who would like to access this resource they can apply for access for an annual fee of $140 (ex GST). Please go to AuSES website.

Solar-e.com invites you to leave comments on our ranking of Solar Energy Economics Best Papers at the end of this article.

Experts who disagree with our rating and choices we invite you to make comment and if enough substance is shown we will reserve the right to change the ranking at anytime or keep the ranking the same.

Solar-e.com related links:

http://solar-e.com/knowledge/2009/11/30/green-economics
http://solar-e.com/knowledge/2009/11/24/ethical-investment
http://solar-e.com/knowledge/2009/11/30/employment-opportunities
http://solar-e.com/knowledge/2009/11/30/wave-power
http://www.solartec.iinet.net.au/solare/innovation/strategiesindevelopingproducts.htm

AuSES Conference Best Papers: Photovoltaics Best Papers

We have prepared list of solar-e.com’s own selection of ranked candidates for the Photovoltaics best papers presented at the ‘Solar 2010’ Conference: Policies and Strategies (including the Economics of solar energy, diversity of derived forms of solar energy, electricity grids and data collection)

The analysis and understanding the of more obscure fields of solar energy related technology and policy developments is obviously another critical step forward to applying more solar energy in our economy. this section will hopefully expand as more papers are delivered in the future.

AuSES Committee – Best Papers at AuSES Solar 2010 as judged by the AuSES panel

Student Prizes – Wal Read Memorial Prizes
Post Graduates Prizes
BILBAO, Jose “PV-Thermal Water Systems as a Retrofit for Near Zero Energy Homes”
Winner $1500 AUD
BAMBROOK, Shelley “Experimental PVT Air System for Dwellings”
Highly Commended $1000 AUD
LHENDUP, Tshewang “Simulation of a Ground-coupled Heat Pump Combined with Solar Collectors”
Commended $250 AUD
ELLISTON, Ben “Grid parity: A potential misleading concept?”
Commended $250 AUD

Undergraduates Prizes
BRAZIER, Thomas “Dependence of installed cost of a 1.5 kW rooftop PV system on module efficiency”
Joint Winner $1,000 AUD
BOEREMA, Nicholas “Economics of constraints on wind farms – SA”
Joint Winner $1,000 AUD
O’BRIEN, Paul “Exergetic analysis of a steam-flashing thermal storage system”
Joint Winner $1,000 AU

Photovoltaics: Solar-e.com Director Garry Baverstock’s personal selection of the Best Papers

At the conference the papers were presented under a number of category headings such as Built Environment, Wind Power, Photovoltaics, Environmental Benefits, Solar Thermal and Solar Energy Economics. Following is our selection of the worthwhile papers and a ranking based on relevance to world situation on Climate Change, the impact on the increased use of solar energy and the quality of the research as presented in the paper.
The Photovoltaics best papers, in our opinion, have been listed below. This is our opinion, but we are interested in what the solar experts think and any comments are welcome. If we have overlooked a paper or you disagree with our assessment please feel free to offer your opinion. If bona fide it will be published.

A comment by solar-e.com is included after each selection.


1. Investigation of single layers of silicon quantum dots in SiO2 matrix for energy selective contacts in hot carriers solar cells

P.Aliberti, B.P. Veettil, Ruoyu Li, S.K. Shrestha, B. Zhang, A. Hsieh M.A. Green, G.J. Conibeer
Comment: High Quality scientific PV research

2. High Efficiency Flexible Mono-Crystalline Silcon Modules

EA Thomsen, V Everett, A Blakers, M Brauers, E Davies, J Muric-Nesic, C Samundsett, T Ratcliffe, H Zhao, I Skryabin
Comment: This is significant research in the race between polycrystalline and mono-crystalline cells.  Of course the winner will all about area available for collection and the cost of installed PV /sq m.

3. Large Increases in Bulk Lifetime of Commercial Grade CZ Silicon Wafers Through Hydrogenation

Brett Hallam, Ned Western, Stuart Wenham
Comment: High quality research with large potential benefits to PV industry

4.Improved Implied Voc for Commercial Grade Wafers by Rear Surface Passivation in Conjunction with Rear Laser Doping Technique

X. Bai1, A. Sugianto1, S. R. Wenham1 and B. J. Hallam
Comment: High Quality PV research.  Improvement of the efficiency of PV is the main area that will increase the viable use of PV in the built environment and the various agricultural applications

5.Tandem Photoelectrochemical Cell for Direct Water Splitting

Haixiang Zhang 1, Shujuan Huang1, Gavin Conibeer 1
Comment: This PV production of hydrogen could be a potential industry in the secod half of the 21st century or even earlier

6.Third Generation Photovoltaics

Gavin Conibeer
Comment: Good visions for future improvements of PV.

DO YOU WISH TO BUY ANY OF THESE PAPERS?

A message from AuSES
People who were not delegates at Solar 2010 (or AuSES members) who would like to access this resource they can apply for access for an annual fee of $140 (ex GST). Please go to AuSES website.

Solar-e.com invites you to leave comments on our ranking of Solar Energy Economics Best Papers at the end of this article.

Experts who disagree with our rating and choices we invite you to make comment and if enough substance is shown we will reserve the right to change the ranking at anytime or keep the ranking the same.

Solar-e.com related links:

http://solar-e.com/knowledge/2009/11/30/green-economics
http://solar-e.com/knowledge/2009/11/24/ethical-investment
http://solar-e.com/knowledge/2009/11/30/employment-opportunities
http://solar-e.com/knowledge/2009/11/30/wave-power
http://www.solartec.iinet.net.au/solare/innovation/strategiesindevelopingproducts.htm