Likes Alter energy

The ABC has an article pondering a peak in Chinese steel consumption and the impact on Australian iron ore miners - Peak steel could leave Australian iron ore miners in the lurch.

Theres a disturbing new phrase being uttered by bears in the resources game - "peak steel". And its a very different phenomenon to the "peak oil" theory, where supply dries up and energy prices soar.

Peak steel is all about too much supply, not enough demand and tumbling prices. While not conclusive proof, the recent fall in iron ore prices is showing there is a significant rebalancing of supply and demand going on. Since the start of the year spot prices are down more than 20 per cent. ...

In a recent report, the analyst team from brokers CLSA noted that "peak steel demand would be seen this decade rather than next." The CLSA research cited factors such as "the slowing pace of urbanisation and demographic trends which are going sharply into reverse."

Increasingly Chinese developers are reducing their land banks and building smaller apartments, with floor-space construction falling 27 per cent in the first three months this year. Overall, CLSA forecasts a 37 per cent decline in private property floor-space sales between 2013 and 2020.

CLSA says steel consumption in the property sector is likely to peak this year, and a similar scenario is developing in infrastructure. "We also forecast infrastructure steel consumption to peak this year, with steel demand from road and rail construction to decline," the analysts noted.

Giles Parkinson at the Climate Spectator has an article on Queensland based flow battery company RedFlow - Australian Cleantech: RedFlow.

Large-scale energy storage is one of those technologies that everyone reckons is a great idea, and almost essential for intermittent renewables, but then wonders if it will ever work. Or, more to the point, if it can work at a price that is readily affordable.

Over the next few weeks, Australian battery storage developer RedFlow will be out to demonstrate that its technology is both affordable and useful. It will be installing its large-scale zinc bromine flow batteries at the University of Queensland’s St Lucia campus in Brisbane, plugging into what will be the country’s largest (1.2MW) and most powerful solar photovoltaic generation system.

Its RedFlow 200 unit – using 48 zinc-bromine battery modules, which can deliver up to 400kwh of energy – will plug into a 390 kW section of the PV array during the daytime, and feed it back into the local network at the times when it is most needed. The PV array is situated atop car parking facilities, and will sit side-by-side with an identical array that will not have storage.

RedFlow CEO Phil Hutchings says it will be a world-first demonstration with solar PV at this scale, and will demonstrate how storage can guarantee supply during periodic power drops created by passing clouds, and then feed power back into the local network at evening peaks.

UQ researchers will also analyse the results to learn the impacts of large-scale energy storage on the local electricity network, its value in meeting peak demand and how to control power flow.

Hutchings says the RedFlow 200, which sells for around $600,000, is likely to have larger markets overseas, particularly in places like Hawaii which have to ship in fuel oil, have huge energy costs and are looking at different renewable and energy storage technologies.

But Hutchings says the units also offer a cost effective solution in Australia, particularly in rural areas where they offer cheaper solutions to local network upgrades needed by the surge in electronic gadgetry and appliances in homes.

“You can take smaller storage units (about the size of a large chest freezer) put them in locations at end of line so they feed back into network at peak times,” he says. “It means you can levellise the load without having to invest millions in network upgrades.”

But Hutchings says that while there is a clear economic case to avoid network upgrades, the company is hopeful that it can eventually bring down costs far enough to make it attractive to households. Those cost reductions, however, are only likely to emerge in large-scale production.

Hutchings says energy storage is a growth industry, driven by the increases in peak demand as retailers sell more and more energy hungry appliances, the introduction of smart grids, and the proliferation of solar panels. He sees it growing to a multi-billion dollar market over the next decade, although this will largely depend on costs.

The ABCs "7:30 Report" program has an update on the state of the Australian geothermal power industry - Geothermal industry pushes for more power.

MIKE SEXTON, REPORTER: Every year thousands of punters head to Birdsville in Outback Queensland for the annual races. Perhaps few would be aware though their tinnies are being kept on ice in part thanks to electricity generated from scolding hot water coming from deep beneath the desert floor.

CHRIS SMITH, ERGON ENERGY: The water comes up from the Artesian Basin at 98 degrees Celsius. The water then passes through a gas field heat exchanger which heats the gas and pressurises it and then it goes through a turbine and produces electricity.

MIKE SEXTON: The engineerings relatively simple and the outcome is emission-free power 24 hours per day that doesnt rely on the wind blowing or the sun shining.

CHRIS SMITH: The plant at Birdsville was custom-made when it was done, so its done quite some time ago. But technologys changed now and theres - this sort of plant is readily available and is being used throughout the world.

MIKE SEXTON: This is just one form of whats known as geothermal energy where the heat stored in subterranean rock formations is harnessed to generate electricity. Although the Birdsville plant is tiny, the geothermal potential in Australia is huge.

SUSAN JEANES, AUST. GEOTHERMAL ENERGY ASSN: The resource is vast. If we mined just one per cent of the national - the nations geothermal heat, in the top five kilometres of the crust we could make 26,000 times Australias annual energy supply. So theres no limitation on the resource.

MIKE SEXTON: Given the need for clean baseload power and the size of the resource, its no surprise that more than 50 geothermal licences have been issued in Australia. One of the more advanced is Petratherm, which has drilled shafts into hot rocks at Paralana in outback South Australia. The next step is to pump water down which converts to steam which is then used to drive turbines.

TERRY KALLIS, CEO, PETRATHERM: We estimate at Paralana alone we could produce 13,000 megawatts of power. Now thats about four times the power requirement of South Australia.

MIKE SEXTON: Excitement about the potential initially attracted investors prepared to take a risk on a new industry. But drilling wells hundreds of metres into granite in remote locations is a difficult and expensive business, and after years of promise, the industry has delivered only modest results. That, coupled with the GFC, has seen investors turning their backs on geothermal companies.