Page 9 - AsiaElec Week 35

AsiaElec
NEWS IN BRIEF
AsiaElec
GRID
Australia’s old powerlines
are holding back the
renewable energy boom
Australian wind and solar farms are putting downward pressure on energy prices, and there are hundreds of new renewable facilities set to come online. But that green energy is stretching the country’s outdated network of transmission lines.
Australia’s high-capacity transmission lines were designed to service centralised electricity generation from coal- red power stations.
But renewable projects are being built in parts of regional Australia where wind and solar produce the most energy.
In many cases, these are the areas where the transmission network is weakest, with ageing power lines that were never designed to transport electricity from large-scale renewable generators.
Karadoc Solar Farm in Victoria’s far north- west, owned by BayWa r.e., has 300,000 solar panels that produce enough energy to power around 40,000 homes. It plugged into the grid last year.
GAS-FIRED GENERATION
Japan’s Hokuriku Electric
reportedly seeking LNG
cargo for November
Japan’s Hokuriku Electric is seeking an LNG cargo for delivery in November, two industry sources told Reuters on August 27.
e cargo would be delivered in the second half of November and according to one of the sources, o ers are due this week. According to the source, Hokuriku Electric started importing LNG in late 2018 but is not a regular buyer of the fuel.
NUCLEAR
Nuclear power generation up 12% in Asia
Nuclear power generation grew most rapidly in Asia, where generation increased 12%, up 56.3 TWh to 533.0 TWh, now more than one- h of global generation. Worldwide nuclear generation increased for the sixth successive year, reaching 2,563 TWh in 2018.
Nuclear power catered to more than 10% of global electricity demand according to data compiled by World Nuclear Association, an international organisation that represents the global nuclear industry.
“Nuclear power reactor performance is high; world’s nuclear reactors achieved an average capacity utilisation factor of 80%, much higher than many other forms of electricity generation,” the Association said in a statement.
According to Agneta Rising, its director general, at the end of 2018 capacity of world’s 449 operable reactors was 397 GWe, up 4 GWe from the previous year.
Nine new reactors were connected to the grid, with a combined capacity of 10.4 GWe while seven reactors were closed down in 2018, with a combined capacity of 5.4 GWe. Of these, four are Japanese reactors that had not generated since 2011, and a h, Chinshan 1, which had not generated since 2015, so these closures had minimal impact on overall electricity generation in 2018.
Four reactors in Japan, with a combined capacity of 5.6 GWe, were given approval to restart.
e number of reactors under construction at the end of 2018 was 55, with construction starts on ve reactors, compared to the nine that have been connected to the grid following completion of construction.
“Currently over two billion tonnes of
CO2 is avoided by nuclear power each year, by helping to reduce our global dependence on coal. More than 50 reactors under construction today will avoid emission of an additional 450 million tonnes of CO2 each year by 2025. By that date nuclear reactors will avoid emissions equivalent to the annual CO2 emissions from all sectors of Japan, Germany and Australia, combined,” the statement mentioned.
In 2019 ve reactors will reach 50 years of operation, a milestone that is being achieved for the rst time. Many reactors in operation today are planning to operate for 60-80 years.
RENEWABLES
Australia’s emissions rise on gas boom
Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions have risen to the highest annual rate since the 2012- 13 nancial year, driven higher by surging
gas production that has made the country the world’s biggest exporter of the fossil fuel.
Greenhouse gas gures for the March quarter of 2019, released by the Morrison government on Friday, show emissions rose 0.6% on the previous 12 months to 538.9 million tonnes of carbon dioxide-equivalent.
Emissions related to LNG exports jumped 18.8%, eclipsing a drop from the electricity sector as renewable energy’s 28% leap curbed coal- and gas- red power output. Carbon pollution from electricity generation eased 2.1% from a year earlier.
Transport also continued to grow as a source of greenhouse gases, rising 1.3% as diesel use rose.
e government focused on a seasonal drop in emissions of 0.4% compared with the nal quarter of 2018.
It also sought to highlight that annual emissions remain 14% below the peak recorded in the nal year of the Howard government, and that on a per capita basis, emissions are about 40% less than in 1990.
Greenhouse gas emissions accumulate in the atmosphere, trapping more heat and driving climate change.
Australia committed under the Paris climate agreement to cut emissions to about 26% below 2005 levels.
Current policies, though, would see almost half of the ambition for the 2021-30 decade met by the use of so-called “Kyoto carry-over credits” that most nations with them have declared they won’t use to meet the Paris goal.
Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction Angus Taylor said that in the last three quarters, emissions had twice decreased on a seasonally adjusted basis.
“We expect to exceed our Kyoto 2020 target by 367 million tonnes [of CO2-e] and
Week 35 03 •September•2019
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