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Coastal Planning Western Australia

Reading the draft State Coastal Planning Western Australia policy document it appears that the new policy for coastal planning in part seems to be based on some ‘convenient truths’ that support current government positions on coastal development.

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Limits on Building Heights

The first anomaly in the new draft policy document for coastal planning Western Australia, compared with the old document is the conditions covering “the maximum heights adjacent to coastal boundaries of 5-storey maximum. This limit to be less where community support for lower height is evident.’

This limit has disappeared from the new document, leaving the question of height completely open to interpretation.

Ambiguity Leads to Misinterpretation

The correct interpretation simply did not happen with Cottesloe Beach LPS3 proposed planning scheme. This omission to references to height limits appears to conveniently suit the current government’s stance.

Height Limits for Coastal Planning Western Australia

If credibility is to be achieved with this document height limits based on objective criteria must be clearly defined in scientific terms. The final writing of the Coastal Planning Western Australia policy document represents a unique chance to protect our coastal environments for generations and reflect great credit on the Barnett Government.

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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 20^th 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

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

Get Solar Campaign

What is the Get Solar Campaign?

The Get Solar Campaign will be a collaborative initiative to provide a consistent commercial focus for all the solar energy optimisation industry groups, key manufacturers and companies involved in solar energy products.

Solar energy is now cheap enough but we need government to establish a fair price for selling energy back to the grid. We need a level playing field based the true cost of carbon pollution.

Collective action is obviously already happening via great organizations such as the Sustainable Energy Association of Australia the PV Associations, Sustainable Industries Association and many others such as community group ‘Sustainable Energy Now.’ But more intense focus is required to get tangible results in the marketplace.

Our company Wise Earth Pty. Ltd., the owner of the solar-e.com website has registered the Get Solar Campaign and is offering free directory listings on the website for solar-related industries and services around Australia, with the plan to promote the directory globally in the next twelve months.

Background of solar-e.com

For 11 years this website has chipped away at promoting the use of solar energy in all its forms. It has always been there to support any solar energy related endeavour that can break down the barriers to the implementation of solar energy technologies. The website exists to promote new ideas and technological advances that may make solar energy in it various manifestations more economically viable.

Starting in 2000 our solar energy facts website flew in the face of the ‘dot-com’ bubble mainly because we were not using other people’s money like most did at the time. What helped was it had a solid idealistic philosophy behind it that kept us going. When the internet frenzy at that time was at its craziest, it was a tough decision to stick to the idea that websites should exist to positively affect the way people think about the world and their environment.

The co-founders of the website [myself with colleague Dr Bill Parker] already knew that solar energy was urgently needed. The point was how could it be introduced as quickly as possible?

What is the aim of solar-e.com?

Over the last 12 years a great amount of time and capital resources have been employed to give this portal a global focus. The intent was to attract people from all walks of life to interact with the authors of articles and disseminate ideas and information. The Get Solar Campaign is our latest initiative.

Effective Government Initiatives

Since the early days of the website we have seen how effective government action can be in developing the solar industry – this was particularly evident when the feed-in tariff and appropriate rebates were introduced in Australia. Lately we have seen how devastating it was to new businesses when the initiatives are subsequently reversed or reduced. We want The Get Solar Campaign to help drive positive change.

The Challenge to the Solar Energy Industry

Irrespective of government policy, the challenge to the solar industry remains in attracting more buyers for solar hot water systems and PV systems. The reality is that advertising solar energy in an ad-hoc and independent manner, in competition with the streamlined campaigns of fossil-fuel-driven technologies, is really doing ‘hard yards’ when it comes to creating public acceptance.

Advertising campaigns for new technologies are expensive and have dismal results when trying to compete with established competitor technologies which are already well-entrenched in the market place.

We need a well thought out programme of ‘attraction marketing.’ We need to create new markets for solar energy technology. By joining the Get Solar Campaign, industry participants will amalgamate their promotion and information efforts with a focus for the best outcome for the entire get solar industry.

We will use a longer-term strategy rather than simply burning money on ad-hocadvertising.

Collective Action Needed

I believe we need specialized collective action on marketing for the selling all types of solar systems and promoting get solar to the general population. The Australian Solar Energy Society CEO, John Grimes, and his colleagues, were very effective in 2010/2011 at affecting government policies and soliciting public support.

In so doing they have been able to continually bring many of the solar energy industry movers and shakers together in well-coordinated national actions. But individual companies also need to help themselves. By acting in a collaborative manner through the Get Solar Campaign we believe positive results will be more definite and longer-lasting.

The last few years have been a very exciting and dynamic period for the Australian Solar Energy Society and the get solar industry generally. Because of the approach being taken, this year may prove to be another year of dramatic change for the solar industry, especially when supported by the efforts of the Get Solar Campaign.

The various associations have been concentrating on standards, codes of practice and training – these are all credibility builders with authorities.

The big driver to change will be the higher efficiency and falling prices of technologies making them commercially competitive so the general population are encouraged to get solar as their renewable energy choice.

The Future With solar-e.com

Believing that joint industry promotion and attraction marketing techniques are the way forward to create new opportunities for the solar energy industries, the solar-e.com website will be put into action for these initiatives. Our growing network of associated and affiliated professional colleagues is definitely making a difference.

Technology development and improved interaction with key industry players is our target promotion for 2012.

The first phase for the Get Solar campaign will be working with the solar hot water heaters and PV industries in Western Australia. Thereafter the Get Solar Campaign will take the solar energy promotion activities national. The third phase will be global.

The Way Forward for the Solar Energy Industry

In recent years, with the introduction of renewable energy systems, it was difficult for industry to find clear focus.

A new ‘high ground’ but commercially focused approach by working industry groupings in tandem with the Society and Industry Associations is needed to offset the relatively high costs of individual ‘market creation’ or market expansion initiatives.

As with the ‘Collaboration of Australian Solar Hot water’ (CASH) set up in 1998, the Get Solar Campaign will take up the challenge involve companies already active in this pioneering form of solar energy technology and get them together once again.

We used to lead the world in Australia. It is time for a re-birth.

Refer to the CASH initiative in 1998.

As a corporate group we can better sell the notion of applying this technology and ensure that the majority of homes have solar energy systems installed.

Industry and Community organizations as a matter of course tend be based on issues of the day and broad-brush policy submissions. To complement this type of representation there is definite scope for direct corporate business building within close collaborative networks. It has worked before and needs to again.

As part of this solar-e.com directory of solar energy companies, we will be noting which entities are members of the Australian Solar Energy Society as well as other key organizations. We want to promote the associations to the public as offering a visible ‘quality seal of approval’ as purchase decisions are made.

Get Solar Campaign is on its Way

Industry or community comments are welcomed on-line.

“Team work is the key to success with a venture like this. We are therefore interested to field expressions of interest to help Australian business to ensure that the public go and GET SOLAR” (Garry Baverstock, 2012)

Garry Baverstock AM is an architect and one of the principals of Ecotect-Architects, director of Wise Earth Pty Ltd that owns and managers a number of solar oriented businesses initiatives including www.solar-e.com

and the Get Solar Campaign.

Greenhouse Gas | The Danger of Air Conditioners

Greenhouse Gas HFCs Produced by Air Conditioners

Air-conditioners while keeping us cool, release the potent Hydrofluorocarbons (‘HFCs’) greenhouse gas into the environment. Unfortunately HFC as a refrigerant replaced the ozone-damaging Chlorofluorocarbon (‘CFC’) greenhouse gas in the mid 1990s. At that time governments around the world acted stop the growth of the emerging holes in the ozone layer, the biggest hole being the hole over Antarctica. CFCs were not only damaging to the ozone layer, they were a potent greenhouse gas. Now we have to worry about HFCs.

Greenhouse Gas Producers

photo credit :Flick’r (c) by FLO

Unbridled Growth of Air-Conditioner Use

Flying in the face of Climate Change action and the quest to reduce greenhouse gas and carbon pollution in the environment, legislators are making it too easy for the average person to adopt air-conditioning.

Due to mass production in China air-conditioners are very cheap. In the last 30 years there has been an almost unhealthy alliance between air-conditioning manufacturers and governments throughout the western and developing worlds to promote the use of air conditioners.

The air-conditioning industry itself has mounted enormously successful advertising campaigns to convince people that their homes are somehow incomplete without an air-conditioner.

Even in Australia the energy efficiency measures in the Building Code of Australia and the rating tool ‘AccuRate’ assume that:

there is a heating and cooling device in the home
the efficiency of the structure is determined mainly by discomfort hours of the interior
how little the space heating/cooling equipment is used.

Achieving Natural Comfort Inside the Home

Any architect with experience of designing homes in temperate climates knows we simply do not need air conditioning when well-optimized passive solar principles are applied to the home design and the householder knows what to do to achieve natural comfort.

My wife and I are by no means economic battlers. Our home, the Housing Industry of Australia “GreenSmart Building of the Year” in 2005 in Western Australia, does not have air conditioning at all and only a small solid fuel fireplace that was used only on very cold winter nights. See pictures and details of our solar passive home.

In 2006 our fireplace was not used at all.

Indoor temperatures stay comfortably between 18 degC (64.4F) and 28 degC (82.4F) at least 99% of the year.

When the temperature is 35 degC (95F) outside, we remain a comfortable 26 deg C (78.8F) in our living areas during the day and when the outside temperature goes up to +40 deg C (+104F) we still keep a bearable 28 deg C (82.4F).

Why are we, and many of my architectural and engineering colleagues, so passionate about having people in temperate climates experience the benefits of natural comfort by applying passive solar homes design principles and avoid air conditioning?

It is because we know what can be achieved by clever design and construction of a home and using simple centuries-old management practices. Also we are aware how damaging wholesale air conditioning is on air pollution!

In the 1970s many of the world’s building science experts demonstrated very well that homes in temperate climates did not need air conditioning for cooling in summer. Even in sub-tropical and hot desert areas it can be greatly reduced.

However the ‘dumbing down’ of regulations to suit the ignorance of the average person and the builders supplying homes to them, as well as the large home-appliance stores making large profits from convincing people that they needed cheap air conditioners, really prevented any common sense and self-discipline from prevailing.

Of course bureaucrats and government authorities simply took the easy way out and avoided any backlash from the public.

Greenhouse Gas | 400,000 tons Released

In teaching the “MSc In Environmental Architecture” course since 2006, I emphasize this aspect in the hope that a new generation of scientifically-trained architects will bring some common sense to building regulations in the future. It simply has to happen, preferably earlier rather than later.

The Premier of Western Australia, Mr Colin Barnett, was unfairly attacked by many members of the public in 2010 for having the courage to suggest that in a temperate climate like Perth, Western Australia, there is no need for air conditioning. He stated he did not have air conditioning in his own house. Unfortunately the public has been brained-washed into believing they need to create comfort by flicking an electrical switch.

The consequence of taking this undisciplined approach is that 400,000 tons of greenhouse gas is now being released into the atmosphere each year and is growing by 10% annually.

In most affluent suburbs in Western Australia the peak load on power demand has grown at 10% each year. There is a double whammy of leaking HFC greenhouse gas from air-conditioners and the need for additional coal fired power stations to supply the electricity for their use.

Minimize Air-Conditioning

Clearly a Plan B is needed. Intelligent people can avoid this “status symbol.” Nobody is suggesting that air conditioning is not a modern technological miracle of the 20th century. Over the last 20 years it has become twice as efficient as when it was first introduced.

By alleviating uncomfortable working conditions in the hot and tropical areas of the world, the use of air-conditioning has increased productivity and added economic prosperity to much of Asia.

In modern office environments and hotels in temperate climates the density of people and the heat loading from lights and appliances such as computers, makes it necessary to have some air conditioning. However, much can be done to reduce energy dependence and the leaking of HFC greenhouse gas into the atmosphere. To suggest that we all need air conditioning in the residential sector in temperate climates is nonsense. Obviously powerful lobby groups have created this illusion.

One would think that the engineering profession and academia would be leading the way in minimizing the use of air conditioning. Simple action like opening windows at night and closing them during the day, using natural heavy weight materials inside for thermal inertia, will do the job all but for 5 days a year in Perth.

Reduce Greenhouse Gas Reduce Energy Dependence

The reality is climate change and something needs to be done and fast!
I believe that we cannot allow laziness to undo much of the great work in reducing energy dependence in the built environment.

Refer to David Fogarty’s articles for Planet Ark on the effects of carbon pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.

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