Geothermie Unterhaching:
The Geothermal Pioneer in the Bavarian Molasse

Wolfgang Geisinger
CEO, Geothermie Unterhaching

SEN Guest Presentation
Monday 2nd April, 2012 6:15pm for a 6:45 start
(Please note slightly later start time than usual)
City West Lotteries House: 2 Delhi St, West Perth
(next to City West train station)

The Unterhaching Geothermal Project is setting new standards in the exploitation of this environmentally friendly source of energy where up to 150 litres of hot thermal water can be extracted from a depth of over 3,000 metres every second. Geothermal energy is used simultaneously for district heating and the production of electricity in Unterhaching a community located south of Munich that has been using geothermal resources in a communal heating network since 2007. This new district heating scheme has now reached a connection load comparable to 5,000 households (as at: April 2012) and is still being expanded.

Apart from the utilisation of geothermal energy in order to supply the commune with long-distance heating, the innovative Kalina plant constitutes the core of the Geothermie Unterhaching. The very first geothermal power station in South Germany commenced operation here early in 2009. It is the biggest and most technologically sophisticated plant  producing up to 21,500 MWh of power each year which is fed into the public grid as renewable energy. The innovative facility demonstrates the economic advantages offered by a combined use of geothermal resources for supplying electricity and heating. Local district heating networks are a key element in this scheme in order to use geothermal and other renewable energy sources in a consumer-oriented manner. The geothermal project in Unterhaching is a trail-blazer – both for the Munich region, where interest in geothermal energy is picking up as a result of our pioneering work, and beyond.

Wolfgang Geisinger is the CEO of Geothermie Unterhaching and joined the company in 2008. Following on from a career as commercial and service officer at Siemens AG for more than 25 years, his current focus is on running the Unterhaching geothermal project at the highest energy production levels. He is also the CEO of a recently founded cooperative of citizens of Unterhaching that aims to address the remaining power demand of the city by building up smaller systems using other types of renewable energy technology.

Mt Barker Community Wind Farm

Andrew Woodroffe
SkyFarming Pty Ltd

SEN Guest Presentation
Monday 12th March, 2012 6pm for a 6:30 start
City West Lotteries House: 2 Delhi St, West Perth
(next to City West train station)

The Mt Barker Community Wind Farm consists of three 800kW E53 Enercon wind turbines on 73m high towers. It is located on a private sheep farm 4 km north of the town and cost about $8 million in total. The project was conceived, developed and project managed by SkyFarming Pty Ltd who are also project managing the Denmark Community Wind Farm development.

Andrew will talk about how the Mt Barker Wind Farm got off the ground, including the project development, how the site was selected, the construction and the economics of the project. He will also share his thoughts and observations on developing community wind farms in WA.

Andrew Woodroffe has a Degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Sydney University and a Postgraduate Diploma in Science and Technology Policy from Murdoch. Prior to SkyFarming, he worked as a wind energy engineer for Stanwell, at the time, one of Australia’s leading wind farm developers. Andrew has also completed the DEWI (Deutsches Windenergie-Institut GmbH) seminar, Wind Farm Projects.

Geothermal Projects and Scale Considerations:
Project Examples and Opportunities for WA

Sean Webb
Western Australian Geothermal Centre of Excellence

SEN Guest Presentation
Monday 13th February, 2012 6pm for a 6:30 start
City West Lotteries House: 2 Delhi St, West Perth
(next to City West train station)

Perth, and most other Australian cities, have a number of large Direct Heat Use (DHU) installations providing geothermal air conditioning or heating to large buildings, complexes and aquatic centres.  Some good examples of these, which have been operating for a number of years, are Perth’s Challenge Stadium (operates a number of Olympic sized swimming pools) and Geoscience Australia’s building in Symonston, near Canberra which has space for 700 people and operates a large Ground Source Heat Pump system (GSHP) comprising of 350 100m deep bore holes. These projects most often involve drilling bore holes/wells somewhere between tens of meters in depth and as far as 1 kilometre below ground. The costs of drilling and below ground piping/ well casings can often make up the majority of the capital cost of these installations. Typically, these larger and deeper projects cost A$100,000s and up to A$2 million and extract heat from groundwater within the 40-50°C heat range.

Scaling up geothermal projects by going deeper and hotter adds an order of magnitude to the project implementation costs, due mostly to the much larger drilling rigs needed to penetrate to depth (2-3+ kilometres) and with adequate bottom hole well diameter to produce effective flow rates.

A report commissioned by Australia’s Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism compared Australian electricity generation technology costs across a number of fossil, renewable, and nuclear technologies. It found that Australian deep geothermal exploration technology sectors are costed at the lowest end of the AUD/MWh scale of low emission technologies, including wind and solar. Global installed capacity in geothermal electricity generation is presently in excess of 10 GigaWatts (GWe) but Australia only generates less that 100 KiloWatts (KWe) of net capacity. So, how can Australia plan forward, follow a path to these lower costs of generation figures and meet the ever increasing need for low emissions energy generation through establishing viable geothermal projects at scale?

Electricity generation from Hot Sedimentary Aquifers in a non-volcanic environment (like Australia) is viable and has been implemented effectively in projects outside Australia. Utilising the heat left over after electricity generation is also viable for district heating, cooling, desalination and a number of other cascaded energy uses.

The presentation will explore opportunities for WA and takes note of successful international projects that offer valuable learnings for our benefit.

Sean Webb is the Business Manager and a board member of the Western Australian Geothermal Centre of Excellence.  His career has progressed in business development and operational management roles through industries such as Aircraft Leasing & Operations, Finance and now Research & Development. Through these roles Sean has gained over 16 years of experience. Besides his commercial experience, Sean holds a BBS(Hons) degree, is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and is a prize winning MBA graduate from UWA. He is also Vice-Chair of the Sustainable Energy Association, the Industry Chamber for sustainable energy in Western Australia and on the organising committee for the West Australian Geothermal Energy Symposium which will be held on April 2 & 3 in West Perth.

Oil Mallee Biomass for Energy and Carbon in the WA Wheat Belt

Ben Rose
Environmental Consultant

SEN Guest Presentation
Monday 5th December, 2011 6pm for a 6:30 start
City West Lotteries House: 2 Delhi St, West Perth
(next to City West train station)

The potential of biomass as a future renewable energy source for Australia has been underestimated. It already provides 5% of our energy needs, mainly through wood burning heaters and combined heat and power stations using bagasse waste from sugar mills; significant plantation waste resources have yet to be utilised.

With the introduction of a carbon price, growing biomass solely as an energy source will soon become viable. Woody coppicing species such as oil mallees are ideal for biomass production and suited to Australia's dry land agricultural regions. Just ten percent of this area planted to woody crops could produce at least 4% of our electricity, plus biochar and other fuel products. CO2 reductions equivalent to 25% of agricultural emissions could also be achieved. WA has great potential for this industry as well as the greatest need for perennial crops to arrest the spread of salinity and soil erosion.

There are several biomass to energy processes; all involve pyrolysis, which is 'cooking' of the biomass rather than burning it. Syngas, bio-oils and char are produced in various proportions depending on the process used. Syngas can be burned in gas turbines or diesel engines to produce electricity on site and also other products such as solid fuel pellets and eucalyptus oils.

Perhaps the most exciting prospect is producing methane from the syngas and injecting it into existing gas pipelines, where it can be distributed for  'tri-generation' - combined heat and power - in cities and industries.

Ben Rose is a contributing author of ‘The Biochar Revolution’ and currently works as a carbon sequestration assessor for Carbon Neutral. He has worked in natural resource management in WA, including agroforestry and salinity management, for 14 years and has also created his own carbon footprint calculator, which is available at here.

Assessing the Potential of Electric Vehicles and Photovoltaics in a Smart-Grid Environment in Brazil

Ricardo Rüther
Associate Professor,
Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina in Brazil

SEN Guest Presentation
Monday 7th November, 2011 6pm for a 6:30 start
City West Lotteries House: 2 Delhi St, West Perth
(next to City West train station)

The widespread use of plug-in electric vehicles (EV) in urban environments will lead to considerably large new electricity demands, which will have to be met by new, and ideally distributed, generation plants. Especially in large and sunny countries like Brazil (and Australia), solar photovoltaic (PV) conversion can meet these new electricity requirements, offering at the same time clean and renewable energy to alleviate the environmental impact of the transportation sector, and making the most of the distributed nature of the solar radiation resource in a distributed generation (DG) and smart-grid scenario. The seminar will present the latest developments in the photovoltaic market and the potential contribution this technology can present as a distributed power source in Brazil.

Ricardo Rüther is an Associate Professor at the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina in Brazil, and currently also a Visiting Academic at The School of Electrical, Electronic & Computer Engineering, The University of Western Australia. A/Prof. Rüther holds a M.Sc. degree in Metallurgical Engineering and Materials Science from Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil (1991), and a Ph.D. from The University of Western Australia (1995). He was a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems in Germany (1996), and has been a tenured academic at Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina in Brazil since 2000. His main interests are in the area of photovoltaic solar energy conversion, and more recently, smart-grids and electric vehicles.

Renewable Energy Educational Workshop

Tim Barling
Executive Director, Sustainable Energy Now, Inc

Angus King
Vice-Chair, Sustainable Energy Now, Inc

SEN Conservation Week 2011 Event
Monday 17th October, 2011 6pm for a 6:30 start
City West Lotteries House: 2 Delhi St, West Perth
(next to City West train station)

The presentation can be viewed here.

Australia has the best mix of renewable energy resources in the world and at a level vastly greater than required to meet the country's current and future power demands. This free workshop will run in a fun and interactive format outlining the possibilities of sustainable energy sources. It will explore why we should move to renewable energy, the benefits and barriers, resources and technologies available and policies and planning required for change. The workshop will include with a brief introduction to Sustainable Energy Now and the work that that the association carries out. To conclude attendees will be given a demonstration of the latest version of the SEN Renewable Energy Conceptual Computer Simulation and an exclusive chance to review it at home and provide us with feedback before being released to the general public by being published on our website. The current version is available here. The information presented will be in a readily available format that is easy to access and understand.

For those of you new to SEN, this is an opportunity to hear our key messages and engage with fellow SEN members. Others may wish to come along to renew your enthusiasm, continue conversations or get involved in some of our projects. This workshop will also act as preliminary training for those that wish to be involved in giving presentations on renewable energy and the work of SEN to schools and community groups.

Sustainable Energy Now, Inc. (SEN) is a community association formed in 2007 with the aim to promote practical, affordable strategies for the adoption of renewable energy toward a sustainable global future. SEN has a membership of over 200 and supporters of over 1000 ranging from energy professionals, engineers, economists, doctors and academics to politicians, retirees and students. Our endeavours are to: Research; Promote; Advocate and Simulate the renewable energy potential of WA.

Tim Barling took up the role of Executive Director after previously serving on the SEN board as Secretary for two years. He is also on the board of the Conservation Council of WA, the state's peak environmental group, of which SEN is a member. Tim has actively followed the climate change debate and renewable energy based solutions since the 1980's and is currently studying postgraduate Energy Studies at Murdoch University. He has a broad range of experience ranging from research at Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew in the UK to work as an animal carer on farms and in veterinary clinics. Having had a lifelong interest in the natural world, he has also worked as a ranger and been a member of a number of boards and committees. Tim has previously undertaken studies relating to medical science, the marine environment and sustainability.

Angus King is into his second year as Vice-Chair and is the SEN Tech Team leader. He holds Honours and Business Masters degrees from the University of WA. Angus has over thirty years experience in information technology, predominantly in software development. Over the last fifteen years he has developed a passion for renewable energy technologies leading to tertiary studies in the field at Murdoch University and to being one of the first people to install a grid-connected PV system in WA.

Clean Energy Future: How carbon pricing will flow through the economy and stimulate change

Marc Allen
Principal Consultant, Energetics

Zaneta Mascarenhas
Consultant, Energetics

SEN Guest Presentation
Monday 10th October, 2011 6pm for a 6:30 start
City West Lotteries House: 2 Delhi St, West Perth
(next to City West train station)

Carbon pricing has been one of the most contentious issues in recent times in Australia. The government is on the precipice of transforming our energy economy to become less emissions intensive. The government's Clean Energy Future Package will achieve this through:

• Introducing a carbon price and using money raised to assist households, support jobs and tackle climate change;
• Promoting renewable energy;
• Encouraging energy efficiency;
• Creating opportunities on the land to cut pollution.

This presentation will explain how a carbon price will impact WA businesses and flow through the resources and energy industries.

 

Energetics is a specialist management consultancy that has worked extensively in the WA resource and energy sectors for 25 years assisting them to understand how energy and carbon affect their businesses and developing strategies to prepare them for changes ahead.

Marc Allen provides advice on energy efficiency and carbon abatement for WA resource companies. He is a chemical engineer who has over 10 years post graduate experience in a number of industries. This experience has been in both operational and engineering/consulting roles.

Zaneta Mascarenhas has been involved in energy efficiency, greenhouse reporting and carbon abatement projects for WA resource companies. Zaneta has a Process Engineering degree from Curtin University and became interested in a clean energy future after working for a traditional resource consultancy, and realising there were smarter ways to plan for a greener energy future. She is also the WA President of The Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers, Australia – the engineers & scientists peak representative body.

Using Psychology to Reduce Energy Use

Dr Carmen Lawrence
Winthrop Professor, University of Western Australia

SEN Guest Presentation preceded by short AGM
Monday 5th September, 2011 6pm for a 6:30 start
City West Lotteries House: 2 Delhi St, West Perth
(next to City West train station)

An inescapable fact about our future – and growing - energy needs is that they can only be met by increasing supply and/or decreasing demand.  The problems of climate change, air pollution and the expense of building new power generation mean that an exclusive focus on increasing supply, especially from fossil fuel sources, is inadvisable. At a national level, the reduction of household and commercial electricity use has been identified as an important policy goal. The recent report of the Prime Minister’s Task Group on Energy Efficiency described energy efficiency as “Australia’s untapped energy resource”. In addition, there are many who argue that policies aimed at reducing consumer demand can play a significant role in managing national energy needs at very little or no extra cost. While this assumption may underestimate the very real difficulties in achieving such behaviour change, there is now good evidence that it is possible to achieve significant reductions in energy use by applying what we know about human motivation and information processing.

Profile: After training as a research psychologist at the University of Western Australia and lecturing in a number of Australian universities, Dr Lawrence entered politics in 1986, serving at both State and Federal levels for 21 years. She was at various times W.A Minister for Education and Aboriginal affairs and was the first woman Premier and Treasurer of a State government. She shifted to Federal politics in 1994 when she was elected as the Member for Fremantle and was appointed Minister for Health and Human Services and Minister assisting the Prime Minister on the Status of Women. She has held various portfolios in Opposition, including Indigenous Affairs, Environment, Industry and Innovation and was elected national President of the Labor Party in 2004. She retired from politics in 2007. She is now a Professorial Fellow at the University of Western Australia where she is working to establish a centre to research the forces driving significant social change in key areas of contemporary challenge as well as exploring our reactions to that change. The centre will also seek to expose for public discussion the processes most likely to achieve social change where that is a desired objective.

Large Scale Renewables in an Urban Environment
The Story of the Fremantle Wind Farm Project

Jamie Ally
Chief Executive Officer, HAC Australia

SEN Guest Presentation
Monday 8th August, 2011 6pm for a 6:30 start
City West Lotteries House: 2 Delhi St, West Perth
(next to City West train station)

The proposed wind power project at Fremantle Port consists of 8 wind turbines placed around Rous Head. The total generation capacity of the project is 6.4 MW. The Port of Fremantle is uniquely suited to a wind power project as the port is an active industrial area with existing structures of comparable height (cranes) and an ambient noise profile which already exceeds that of a wind farm. The locations proposed for the turbines are exposed to strong unobstructed winds from the South West. In addition the project is situated on the ‘front-lawn’ of the State, presenting great iconic and promotional value. Detailed energy production models have been created based on over eight years of high-quality wind measurements recorded at the site. Development Approvals were granted by the City of Fremantle and the WA Planning Commission.

The project is being developed by the Fremantle Wind Farm Consortium, a group of local investors and engineers. The Consortium’s financial models show that the project is commercially viable, subject to the cost of land, network access, and private financing. The project presents an opportunity to promote sustainability, attract tourism and lead Australia in the implementation of renewable energy and distributed generation within the built environment.

Profile: Jamie is the CEO of HAC Australia, a front-end developer of energy and carbon projects, and a leading provider of engineering and business services in the energy efficiency, energy cost management, and carbon abatement space. Prior to co-founding HAC, he was a key leader of the team that designed, commissioned, and operated Perth’s hydrogen fuel cell bus trial, and many other similar projects in Europe and California. With a background in Mechatronics and Systems Engineering, Jamie is one of the few engineers in Australia with experience in all stages of development and commercialisation of low-carbon technologies.

Large Scale Solar PV Installations in WA

James Rhee
Managing Director, Swan Energy

SEN Guest Presentation
Monday 4th July, 2011 6pm for a 6:30 start
City West Lotteries House: 2 Delhi St, West Perth
(next to City West train station)

James will brief us on large scale solar power station opportunities in WA like that completed in December last year for the Galaxy lithium mine at their Mt Cattlin site in Ravensthorpe, the first mining site in Australia to have adopted a renewable energy approach. A field of 14 Dual Axis Solar Trackers are producing around 600kWh per day and expected to generate over 200MWh annually, reducing demand on the mine's diesel generators. James will also provide us with some insight into his views on large scale solar, its potential in the Australian market including large scale roof top PV installations for schools and local government and and the economics of commercial solar systems.

More information about the renewable energy goals of the Galaxy lithium mine can be found on this ABC News article.

Profile: James Rhee is the Managing Director of Swan Energy Pty Ltd. He is Clean Energy Council accredited and approved solar system designer and installer including Remote Area Power Systems (RAPS). James is highly regarded in the WA renewable energy field as a design expert including solar and wind power stations as well as hybrid remote power system.

His electrical engineering and IT background has helped him stand out within the industry and his multicultural background has aided him to introduce technological advancements of other countries into Australia's renewable energy field. James has been selected a Clean Tech Western Region nominee in the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year program as well as a finalist of Clean Energy Ambassador Award by Sustainable Energy Association of Australia.

The Collgar Wind Farm Project

Alistair Craib
CEO, Collgar Wind Farm

SEN Guest Presentation
Monday 13th June, 2011 6pm for a 6:30 start
City West Lotteries House: 2 Delhi St, West Perth
(next to City West train station)

Alistair will update us on the progress of the Collgar Wind Farm Project which, when completed, will be the largest wind farm in WA and the largest single stage wind farm development in the southern hemisphere to date. Located near Merredin, Collgar will consist of 111 turbines, cost $750 million dollars and deliver 792,000 GWh of renewable energy per year. The project is due for completion in December, well ahead of schedule. Alistair will also discuss wind turbine technology and give us his perspective on the future of the energy market in WA as it relates to wind and other renewables.

Profile: Alistair Craib is the Chief Executive Officer of Collgar Wind Farm Pty Ltd. Prior to this, Alistair was a senior investment executive of UBS Infrastructure Asset Management based in London and Australia. Alistair has significant experience in the energy and infrastructure sectors and has been involved in assessing a number of renewable energy transactions globally.

Direct Use Geothermal in Western Australia

Jenny Archibald
Managing Director, GT Power

SEN Guest Presentation
Monday 2nd May, 2011 6pm for a 6:30 start
City West Lotteries House: 2 Delhi St, West Perth
(next to City West train station)

How we use energy in the future is becoming increasingly important. This will be driven as much by higher costs of electricity generation as the impact greenhouse emissions may have on our climate. While sources of carbon free energy, such as deeper geothermal energy, will play a significant role in the energy mix of the future, many now see energy efficiencies playing an even bigger role.

Geothermal energy has been used for hundreds of years in a variety of ways – such as heating of spas and pools, drying, heating and cooling systems and electric generation. Direct use of deeper geothermal heat from Perth’s hot sedimentary aquifers can drive processes such as heating and cooling for large scale industrial and commercial use as well as applications where heat is required, such as in chemical processes, desalination and use of hot water.

Smaller scale direct use can be employed through installations of ground source heat pumps where ambient ground temperature is used to supply a source of heat or can act as a heat sink. This technology is particularly well suited to domestic through to small/medium scale commercial and industrial applications. Reductions in energy can be up to 40% for cooling and between 60% - 80% for heating and generation of hot water – and has the potential to deliver substantial offset to peak electricity demand.

Profile: Jenny Archibald, Managing Director of GT Power, has more than 20 years experience ranging across palaeontology, petroleum exploration and business management in the resource sector, is currently Treasurer of the Australian Geothermal Energy Association and Chair of its Direct Use Committee. She has also held roles of Mayor of Fremantle and Chair of the Rottnest Island Authority.

Wind/Diesel Hybrid Systems

Craig Carter
Senior Planning Engineer, Verve Energy

SEN Guest Presentation
Monday 14th February, 2011 6pm for a 6:30 start
Lotteries House: 2 Delhi St, West Perth
Free event, refreshments provided

Remote power systems almost always rely on diesel fuel to create electricity. With increases in diesel fuel price and there being a greater awareness of the environmental impact of burning fossil fuels, hybrid wind/diesel systems in remote towns and communities are becoming more commonplace. Whilst introducing relatively small amounts of wind energy into a conventional diesel power system is straightforward, maximising wind energy penetration presents a number of unique challenges. These challenges include system frequency and voltage instability, reverse power, step load limitations and supply reliability issues.

Technologies now available allow significantly increased wind energy usage in smaller diesel based electricity systems. Coupled with commercial and environmental incentives this has allowed more installations to take place, in turn leading to a higher use of the local wind resource and significantly reduced diesel fuel consumption. The presentation will look at the issues involved with maximising wind energy penetration in remote power systems, the technologies used to overcome these issues, with some Western Australian examples of where these technologies have been successfully utilised.

Bio: Craig Carter, Senior Planning Engineer for Verve energy, has professional expertise in conceptual project design and smart control of wind/diesel, wind/diesel/storage, and wind/grid systems. Craig has an interest in renewable energy policy, energy management and energy efficiency and promotes the use of renewable energy by electricity utilities, through the development of innovative and economic proposals.