A wind power forum on Thursday June 23, starting at 7PM at the Holy Cross
Primary School, 158 Hamilton Rd, New Gisborne (just near the train station),
will present a panel of speakers including:
. 'micro' wind power
. Barry Mann, from the Woodend Integrated Sustainable Energy group (WISE)
who aim to build a community-owned wind farm near Woodend
. Tobias Geiger, from WestWind Energy who develop large scale wind farms
. Merryn Redenbach, from Doctors for the Environment Australia, on the
health impacts of our energy generation sources
. Michael Power, from the Environment Defenders' Office, on planning law
and wind farms

At present, coal accounts for more than 85% of our electricity production
here in Victoria. This will need to change profoundly as we move to a low
carbon emissions future.

Wind power is particularly abundant in the Macedon Ranges region, and nearby
Hepburn Wind have just completed their community-owned windfarm at Leonard's
Hill.

Could this area help to repower the state, and if so, what benefits could it
bring to the community?

We hope this panel and discussion can facilitate the community discussion on
this important issue.

Free event - all welcome.

For further information, Ben Courtice. Ben.courtice@foe.org.au

Organised by Friends of the Earth
http://www.melbourne.foe.org.au/
http://yes2renewables.org/

Stand with me this Sunday

Dear Friend,

I am calling on all friends and supporters to take a stand and send a strong message that the community says YES to a price on pollution.

Join with thousands of other Australians to support a price on pollution as the first critical step in the transition to a clean energy economy.

WHEN: Sunday June 5. Meet at 11 am at the State Library

The summit is the main national gathering of grassroots climate campaigns and activists. It will be an opportunity to mix with climate activists and friends from around the country, to learn activist skills and get new ideas for campaigning in 2011.

We have panels on the latest climate science, on the carbon price debate, on relations with the union movement, and community sustainability initiatives. There are planning forums for people involved in campaigning for renewable energy, fighting to stop the coal companies, and building links with other sectors like Landcare groups, Transition Towns, and the Lock the Gate alliance that is bringing farmers into the fray to stop coal and gas exploration on their land.

All the details of the event are available on our website: www.climatesummit.org.au.  The full program is now available for download, and you can also register online.

On Wednesday 1st December, the Australian Government announced further changes to the Renewable Energy Target (RET) and in particular, the Solar Credits scheme, that will directly affect householders and businesses looking to invest in small scale renewable energy technologies such as small solar, wind and micro-hydro.

The Solar Credits scheme provides an increased number of RECs to people investing in small scale electricity generation technologies. Since June 2009, the scheme has allowed purchasers of small systems to create five times the amount of Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) for small systems up to 1.5 kW in capacity.

The five times ‘multiplier’ was projected to begin to decrease from mid 2012, in line with projected reductions in the cost of technology. Given the significant cost reductions, particularly in solar photovoltaic technology over the past 12 months (i.e. approximately 50%), the Government has decided to bring forward the reduction of the multiplier to ‘four’ a year earlier – i.e. beginning on 1 July 2011.

The Alternative Technology Association is comfortable with the Government’s decision to bring forward the reduction in the multiplier, particularly in light of strong technology cost reductions in PV and the continuation of feed-in tariffs in most states offering an additional incentive to invest in small scale renewable energy.

For more information on this policy announcement, please email Damien at ATA at damien@ata.org.au or go to the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency’s website at: www.climatechange.gov.au/en/government/initiatives/renewable-target.aspx

Rally to Replace ALL of Hazelwood

Saturday 6 November, 2010 @1pm

State Library, Cnr of Swanston and Latrobe St, Melbourne

Hundreds to protest at Hazelwood power station

on global day of climate action

On 10/10/10, as part of a global day of action in 180 countries, hundreds of people will attend a

peaceful community protest at Hazelwood, Australia's dirtiest coal-fired power station, calling for the

plant to be replaced with renewable energy.

“This polluting old dinosaur spews an average of 17 million tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere every

year, and the community has had enough,” said Shaun Murray (phone 0402 337 077)

spokesperson for the Switch Off Hazelwood Collective.

“Premier Brumby has said his Government might replace one-quarter of Hazelwood by 2014, but

vague, partial promises are no substitute for actual commitment – if you want jobs, if you care about

the future, then it’s time to switch off Hazelwood and switch on renewable energy,” said protest

organiser Carey Priest, (0423 554 398)

“We are pushing for an urgent shift away from coal, and a just transition for coal workers through the

development of renewable energy and energy efficiency manufacturing facilities in Gippsland,” said

Mr Murray.

Today, 20/9/10, the protest organisers delivered a letter to the new owners of Hazelwood, French company

GDF Suez calling on them to urgently decommission the power plant which has lost its ‘social license’

to operate.

Come and help us Switch off Hazelwood - Switch on Renewable Energy

Hundreds of protesters each using large home-made reflectors will focus the

light of clean energy on a ten meter ‘power tower’ to create Victoria’s “first” solar-thermal power plant

outside the gates of Hazelwood power station.

When: Sunday 10th October 2010

Where: Hazelwood Power Station, Brodribb Rd, 10km from Morwell.

Who: Organised by the Switch Off Hazelwood Collective, supported by Friends of the Earth,

Greenpeace, Beyond Zero Emissions, the Climate Emergency Network, and many other climate

action groups.

10/10/10 Global Work Party

The 10/10/10 Global Work Party is being coordinated by the international climate campaign 350.org.

Photos and video from thousands of simultaneous events across the planet will be available for the

media at 350.org/media.

Riddells Creek Sustainability is organizing a contingent to the peaceful protest.

For more info, contact Lyn 0418559640.

Enhanced Renewable Energy Target (RET)
On Thursday 24th June, the Australian Parliament passed significant changes to the Renewable Energy Target (RET) legislation, many of which are extremely positive for households who want to invest in small scale generation and energy efficiency technologies.
In August 2009, the Federal Government secured one of its 2007 election promises-to expand the RET to ensure that 20% of Australia’s electrical energy came from renewables in the year 2020.

Whilst the expansion of the RET was a positive move, a number of key design features that a number of community and industry organisations had been advocating for were overlooked by the government.

The most significant of these was the fact that strong incentives for small scale systems such as solar photovoltaic (PV) systems and solar hot water units, were leading to an oversupply of Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) in the market, crashing their price, and significantly hampering the ability of large scale projects to develop.

The existence of fixed annual targets within the RET, and the existence of the ‘Solar Credits’ multiplier for small solar, small wind and micro-hydro systems, meant that not only were investors in small scale technologies being prevented from achieving anything additional beyond the government’s mandated targets, but that they were actually reducing the amount of new renewable energy installed by four times the size of their system – clearly not their intention!

After significant lobbying and media pressure over the past six months, the Federal Government finally agreed to amending the design of their expanded RET scheme.

The solution offered by the government through the new ‘enhanced’ RET will see the small and large scale renewable energy markets split into two totally separate trading markets – so that activity and investment in one will not compromise the other.

From 1 January 2011, there will be a Small Renewable Energy Scheme (SRES) and a Large Renewable Energy Target (LRET).

The LRET will continue to operate in much the same way as the existing RET – but with eligibility restricted to large scale renewables such as wind farms, bio-gas plants, wave, geo-thermal and large scale solar projects. The LRET will have annual targets that make up approximately 90% of the existing RET.

The SRES will make up the remaining shortfall, and will likely in the short term go higher than the existing RET targets, meaning that the new scheme will likely deliver slightly more renewable energy across Australia.

Most importantly to investors in small scale technologies, the SRES will be uncapped – that is, there will be no fixed annual targets for small scale technologies. All RECs from small systems such as solar PV, small wind, solar hot water, heat pumps and micro-hydro systems will be purchased each year by electricity retailers.

The lack of a cap or annual targets for the SRES means that two fundamental problems of investing in small scale technologies have now been solved:

Firstly, investors in small scale technologies can be additional to the targets mandated by the government; and
Secondly, investors in small scale technologies will not be reducing the amount of new renewable energy installed.
The SRES will also include a fixed price for RECs of $40, providing greater financial certainty to investors in small scale technologies.
Finally, the ‘enhanced’ RET will also see the Solar Credits multiplier extend to investors in remote off-grid systems – up to 20 kW in size. This is a positive step after the scrapping of the remote off-grid subsidy (the Remote Renewable Power Generation Program) in September 2009.