Ausra - Ausra Opens First U.S. Solar Thermal Power Factory

Ausra, the developer of utility-scale solar thermal power headquartered in Palo Alto, CA, today officially opened the reflector production line of its first North American manufacturing and distribution center in Las Vegas. The 130,000-square-foot, highly automated manufacturing and distribution center will supply the reflectors, absorber tubes, and other key components of the company's solar thermal power plants to the rapidly growing Southwestern solar power industry.

Dominion Post - Powering on with an eye to the future

Meridian Energy's new chief executive, Tim Lusk, runs an apparently green giant power business, from one of the most eco-friendly offices in Wellington.

Wanganui Chronicle - Wind farm planned for Moawhango

Meridian Energy is seeking permission to build a 52-turbine wind farm near Moawhango in the central North Island. The project, dubbed Central Wind, will be sited on five private properties on land governed by the Rangitikei and Ruapehu district councils. The farm would have a combined generating capacity of 120-130 megawatts  enough to power up to 50,000 average homes. Construction is likely to take 18-24 months.

Stuff.co.nz - Air NZ rides out fuel storm

Air NZ's bean counters are running scenarios of jet fuel at US$200 a barrel, asking at what point you park aircraft on the ground. ... Air NZ is trying to conserve fuel by flying its planes slower, using less flaps on landing to ease drag and taxiing on two engines instead of four.

Larvatus Prodeo - How to phase in emissions trading

The general view - and the one put in Garnaut’s discussion papers - is that we should generally try and cover as much of our total emissions under the scheme, as quickly as we can. But two of the Australian plogosphere’s favourite econobloggers - Joshua Gans and John Quiggin - have made a slightly contrary case in a submission to Garnaut (which you can download from here).

A section of their report called “The Need For Learning” makes the fair sensible point that we need to learn as much as possible about how emissions trading will work, as soon as possible. So they argue that the scheme should be introduced quickly. However, they argue that the learning issue actually suggests that we initially limit the scope of the emissions trading scheme to the emissions that are easiest to measure and trade - and, as a bonus, cleaning them up will have other nice side effects. The two they identify are electricity generation and transport emissions.

Larvatus Prodeo - Rudd set to implement popular emissions trading scheme

Crikey - Hamilton: Garnaut report is Rudd's greatest test

The release of the Garnaut report tomorrow provides the Rudd Government with an opportunity to stop campaigning and start governing. The auguries are mixed. For two weeks Prime Minister Rudd allowed himself to be sucked in to the vortex of petrol price populism, until he and his fellow ministers began to fight back against the unscrupulousness of the Opposition.

Rudd began testing his lines in Parliament, working out how to persuade the public to return to thinking about the future. It worked, putting Nelson and Turnbull on the back foot. They were forced to reaffirm that they are not climate sceptics and accept the science of global warming. That this had to happen only proves how antediluvian the climate debate is in this country compared to, say, Britain where the Tory leader David Cameron has positioned the conservatives as greener than Labour.

The Australian - BHP to plough $10bn into fertilisers

BHP Billiton chief executive Marius Kloppers has unveiled long-term plans to spend up to $US10 billion ($10.4 billion) moving into fertilisers in an attempt to benefit from growing global food demand amid limited farming land. Mr Kloppers, speaking in London last week, said BHP believed agricultural commodities were set to experience the same growth in prices as metals have and that the miner planned to capitalise on this by becoming a major player in Canadian potash, used to make fertiliser.

Herald Sun - Energy plan off target

DEVELOPERS of novel energy technologies yesterday had the wind taken out of their sails when the Federal Government released a discussion paper on its proposed Mandatory Renewable Energy Target that appears to plot a tentative course for renewables. The Government wants to encourage an electricity sector that generates 20 per cent of the nation's power needs from zero emission sources such as wind, solar, wave and geothermal energy by 2020.

By drip-feeding targets, as indicated in the paper's bar charts, the Government will be able to control the pace at which new zero-emission energy generation comes on stream. The apparent targets idle until 2015 before accelerating from 2016 to 2020, some time after which they will be dismantled.

SMH - Iemma turning Sydney into joke

COMMUTERS have long given up on the NSW Government over its transport record. Now an international transport leader says the Government's botched handling of the Tcard has left the state with a "very bad reputation". Sydney's disastrous six-year foray into integrated transport ticketing, which has deteriorated into a $200 million legal stoush between the Government and the Tcard contractor, ERG, has earned the city worldwide notoriety, according to the head of the International Association of Public Transport.

Peak Energy - Iemma The Annoying

SMH - Sydney's radioactive neighbourhood cover-up claim

The son of a Sydney couple who died from cancers says the NSW Health Department tried to cover up the results of radioactivity tests on their neighbourhood. Greg McGrath today told a NSW inquiry into the site that he had seen Department of Health letters saying results of radioactive tests on the property where his family lived should be kept from the public.

The parents of Mr McGrath and his sister Katie died from radiation-related cancers in the 1970s while living in Nelson Parade in the Sydney North Shore suburb of Hunters Hill - the former site of a uranium smelter. They were in their 30s when they died within nine months of each other.

SMH - Moving north not such a hot idea

SHIFTING irrigation agriculture from the parched Murray-Darling Basin to Australia's wet tropical north would be a "risky business", the co-author of a new CSIRO climate change report warned yesterday. Hotter temperatures in the tropical warm-season wet zone would leave crops and livestock almost constantly heat stressed, said Mark Howden from the CSIRO's Climate Adaptation Flagship.

Adelaide University - Geothermal energy support heats up

The University of Adelaide has welcomed today's announcement by the State Government offering further support to fast-track research and development of geothermal technology. The State Government has today announced a further $250,000 towards geothermal energy research. This follows $250,000 provided last year to help develop an international research facility into geothermal (also known as "hot rock") energy within the University, working with Geoscience Australia, the CSIRO, and the university research members of the Australian Geothermal Energy Group.

The University has this week signed an agreement with the State Government to help accelerate R&D of geothermal resources in South Australia. "Today's announcement is another welcome step forward in ensuring that our expertise in geothermal research is recognised throughout Australia and internationally, with great potential benefits for industry and the community," says Professor Richard Russell, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research Operations).

The Australian - Bio-plastic interest grows on oil fears

OIL prices reaching nearly $US140 a barrel are transforming the economics of the global plastics industry as producers start pouring billions of dollars into plant-based alternatives. Some of the world's largest chemical companies, including DuPont, Dow Chemical, Cargill and Braskem, are now accelerating their production of bio-plastics made from crops including sugarcane, corn, maize and wood.

ABC (Radio Australia) - Calls for increased Asian geothermal investment

Analysts are calling on countries in Asia to increase investment in geothermal power, to counter high energy prices which continue to stifle economic development. Geothermal energy is extracted from energy generated by intense heat beneath the earth's surface. A recent MIT report, found that the US alone has enough geothermal energy to supply the world's current needs for the next 30,000 years.

Reuters - Geothermal-rich SE Asia struggles to tap earth's power

Faced with looming energy crises in their developing economies, power-hungry Indonesia and the Philippines are looking deep into the earth for a solution. Both are in the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, an area peppered with volcanoes and home to the world's biggest reservoir of geothermal power.

CNN - Ormat to build New Zealand geothermal plant

Ormat Technologies Inc. said Tuesday that Contact Energy Ltd. is paying it $42 million to build a geothermal plant in the center of New Zealand's North Island.

Peak Energy - The Empire Strikes Back: Killing Solar Power In The US

Peak Energy - BLM Moratorium Lifted

Peak Energy - A Tale Of Two Car Fleets

Peak Energy - CNG Vehicles In The US

Energy Bulletin - EB founder Adam Grubb quoted in Australian Parliament House debate

ABC - Rising seas threaten west Antarctic

There's a 'big gorilla hiding the closet' whose collapse could have a dramatic effect on sea levels, according to Australian researchers. Dr Bradley Opdyke, a paleoceanographer from the Australia National University (ANU) believes the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) could partially collapse within 20 years, resulting in a dramatic jump in sea levels.

Dominion Post - The legacy of Nandor

Nine years after his colourful entrance to Parliament, Nandor Tanczos today farewells his colleagues. Martin Kay talks to the MP who, if nothing else, proved you should never judge a book by its cover. He has dreadlocks down to his ankles, regularly uses cannabis and cut his political teeth in the world of environmental activism and cruise missile protest camps.

His maiden speech to Parliament began with greetings in the name of the Creator, the Most High Jah Ras Tafari, he was stomped on by Melbourne cops during an anti-globalisation protest a few months later, and he is probably the only New Zealand MP investigated by police for drugs.

But beyond the turban and the wispy Bob Marley-style beard, the hemp suits and the skateboard, he has proved to be more earnest and bookish than the radical rabble-rouser many stereotyped him as. More bespectacled than wild-eyed, pensive rather than raving, Nandor Tanczos has turned out to be . . . well, a bit nerdy, really.

Nine years after he came into Parliament on the Greens' list, New Zealand's first Rastafarian MP will farewell his colleagues today and head to the trees to ponder where to next. Even those who most despised and feared his nonconformity - he came to Parliament strongly advocating cannabis law reform and direct-action protests - would have to concede he leaves behind a mild, even sensible, legacy.

NZ Herald - Nandor Shatters The Shackles Of Time

NZ Greens - Nandor Says Farewell (via Energy Bulletin