November 2022 - Chefs, doctors and real estate developers calling to rid kitchens of gas cooking

 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-22/doctors-climate-scientists-chefs-push-for-end-to-gas-in-kitchens/101678140

For decades, "natural gas" has sold itself to families as the fastest, most-efficient way to cook. But now there's a battle for your kitchen stove, and a push to get you to embrace electric for your health and for the planet.

A coalition of chefs, doctors, climate scientists and real estate developers have joined forces to push back against the gas industry's marketing, with the aim of removing gas from kitchens worldwide.

Campaigners say in addition to heating the climate, gas stoves contribute to asthma and other health conditions.

And that coalition thinks that if they can rid kitchens of gas, they'll rid homes of the fossil fuel altogether.

The Global Cooksafe Coalition is being launched in Sydney today and announcing partnerships with developers Lendlease and GPT, who have agreed to stop putting any gas in new buildings by 2030 and to retrofit existing buildings by 2040.

"Our view is that the future is all electric, whether it's electric vehicles, whether it's cooking, whether it's space heating," said Davina Rooney, chief executive of the Green Building Council, and one of the founders of the Global Cooksafe Coalition.

According to a 2018 paper published in the Medical Journal of Australia, 12 per cent of the burden of childhood asthma in Australia is due to indoor gas stoves.

And a 2013 paper combining the results of 41 other studies found children living in a home with a gas stove had a 42 per cent increased risk of having recent asthma symptoms.

There is also evidence that the pollutants released by gas stoves can affect the brain and heart, and increase susceptibility to allergens, said Kate Charlesworth, a public health physician and member of the Climate Council.

Sept 2022: More batteries installed in Broome

 Two batteries are installed at the corner of Port Drive and Cable Beach Road. After testing they could come online as early as late December 2022. Households in Broome will be able to send excess solar panel energy to the battery storage which is then generated back at night bringing power prices down for consumers. Two more batteries will be installed at Broome North. The batteries will be also used to stabilize the Horizon Power grid.

“GRID FORMING BATTERY” Energy Storage System (BESS) used in a grid connected application.  Specifications of each battery are:

Power 400 KVA

Current 556 A

Energy 279 KWh 240/415 V

Mass 8.600 kg

Dimensions (LxWxH) 3.3 mx 2.2 m x 2.4 m

Manufactured by Rolls-Royce Solutions Berlin GmbH - Made in Germany.

Aug 5th 2021 - The largest ever battery in the Kimberley was installed at the Broome Boulevard. Broome Boulevard Solar Car Park 1363 kW DC Power and 1000 kW Battery

 

18th July 2022 - Theia Energy pull plans for one of the Kimberley's largest proposed onshore oil and gas projects.

 The future of one of the Kimberley's largest proposed onshore oil and gas projects remains unclear, after its backers pulled their plans from the state's environmental watchdog last week.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2022-01-22/new-kimberley-fracking-proposal-under-review/100774542?fbclid=IwAR1uVdrm20bVCnC5SxT56-sNH_4RV6oBjdFd5nB5foBUX2w5RN2NFfou0Js

Theia Energy asked the Environmental Protection Authority to assess its proposal to drill and frack two exploratory wells 155km south east of Broome in February, with the proposal attracting 2000 public submissions.

But the company requested to terminate its assessment application last week.

Theia's proposal has sparked significant speculation since it first surface publicly, with a 2018 investor presentation suggesting up to 57 billion barrels of oil could be recovered via hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking", with the company also negotiating with the area's Karajarri traditional owners.

But environmental groups had vowed to oppose the project, saying the risks posed to groundwater and the environment, as well as increasing carbon emissions from oil and gas extraction, were unacceptable.

26th April 2022 - Oil giant Shell feels heat over giant $21 billion Prelude floating LNG plant

 

When Dutch-Anglo oil giant Shell decided to build a massive floating gas factory known as Prelude in 2011, it was billed as the dawn of a new era for the industry. 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-26/oil-giant-shell-heat-over-floating-prelude-gas-plant/100950968

Key points:

• The Prelude project has been beset by cost and time blowouts, as well as technical problems
• A lobbyist and former engineer says safety issues are the biggest concern
• There are claims Prelude may never pay royalties for the gas it processes off Australia's north-west coast

Australia was midway through a once-in-a-lifetime $300 billion splurge that would make the country the world's biggest producer of super-chilled, shipped gas.

Floating gas plants were supposed to be the logical evolution, vacuuming up gas wherever they went and making fortunes for shareholders and taxpayers.

But barely a decade later, Prelude has been racked by cost and time blowouts, technical problems, and warnings from the regulator that the project came dangerously close to a catastrophic failure.

What's more, critics say the facility may never pay a cent in royalties, is unlikely to deliver a molecule of gas to the domestic market, and has sent most of the construction jobs offshore.

It is all a far cry from the rhetoric of last decade, when Shell's then-Australian chairwoman Ann Pickard said Prelude would be "full of Australians" and "generate a tonne of tax revenues".

How did the reality diverge so widely from the rhetoric, and what does the future hold for Shell's grand plans?

Feb 17th 2022 Origin Energy to shut Australia's largest coal-fired power plant, Eraring Power Station, by 2025

 

Origin Energy to shut Australia's largest coal-fired power plant, Eraring Power Station, by 2025

Origin Energy is seeking approval to shut Australia's largest coal-fired power plant seven years early, with the Eraring facility in the NSW Hunter region now set to close by August 2025.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-17/origin-to-shut-eraring-power-station-early/100838474

Jan 22nd 2022 - Environmentalists vow to fight latest Kimberley fracking proposal to unearth Australia's largest oil reserve

 https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2022-01-22/new-kimberley-fracking-proposal-under-review/100774542

Key points:

• Theia Energy's fracking proposal was published by the EPA for public comment this week (Jan 2022)

• The Kimberley project could unearth Australia's largest oil supply

• Environmentalists have called for the project to be rejected and for a ban on fracking

An energy economist says the world will be watching as an Australian company's proposal to frack onshore oil in the Kimberley is considered by Western Australia's environmental watchdog.

The WA Environmental Protection Agency released Theia Energy's application for seven days of public comment this week (January 2022), which outlines plans to drill and frack two exploratory wells 155 kilometres south-east of Broome.

It is the second application for fracking in the region since a moratorium on the practice was lifted in 2018, with a proposal from Texan-based Black Mountain Energy currently under assessment by the EPA.

Curtin University researcher Roberto F Aguilera said if proven to be viable, Theia Energy's proposal had the potential to develop into Australia's largest oil project.

"It could theoretically be a huge project when you consider the resource of nearly six billion barrels of oil and compare that with the proven oil reserves in Australia that are around two and a half billion," he said.

"This type of project could really help to satisfy Australia's demand for oil and to significantly reduce our import dependence on other nations.

"But of course, it's one thing to have abundant resources; it's another thing to be able to access them."

Unlocking Australia's largest oil supply

There has been a lot of speculation about the potential for Theia Energy's Great Sandy Desert project, located in the in the north west's Canning Basin — which has some of the largest reserves of onshore oil and gas in the country.

A project fact sheet produced by the Perth-based company and dated 2018 suggested that of the tens of billions of barrels of oil estimated to be locked in the shale rock on their petroleum lease, six billion barrels were recoverable.

The oil find is described as "unconventional", meaning it is locked in dense rock that will need hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to allow the oil to flow to the surface.

The company, which has been contacted for comment, also previously published a conceptual graphic showing a network of wells, pipelines and a new port on the Kimberley coast to support the project if it was to successfully scale up.

Economic and social challenges ahead

Dr Aguilera, who is also a petroleum consultant, said the idea had promise but there were many financial, logistical, and social licensing challenges ahead for this fledgling industry.

"That includes upstream infrastructure to be able to produce the resource, but also the midstream installations like pipelines to be able to deliver it to a market," he said.

"Not to mention other factors like environmental and public acceptance, which are also very important in determining a company's social licence to operate.

"Without that licence development becomes very difficult, as we've seen in many parts of the world."

Dr Aguilera said building infrastructure like pipelines was particularly costly but with oil prices holding strong at nearly $90 per barrel, this could tip the balance in favour of the project.

"I would think that other companies will indeed be watching and if it's shown that WA provides an attractive and stable regulatory regime, then of course we could expect additional investment from other companies," he said.

Environmentalists remain opposed

While Theia Energy was able to negotiate an Indigenous Land Use Agreement with Karajarri traditional owners in late 2020, the project has continued to draw criticism from environmental groups.

Environs Kimberley director Martin Pritchard called for the state government to reject the proposal, which is near the environmentally sensitive Edgar Ranges and Fitzroy River catchment. 

"Our major concern is that while this proposal is one well, what this company is planning to do is hundreds, if not thousands of wells across this area of the Kimberley," he said.

"Coming with that are concerns around pollution of the groundwater, surface water and the land clearing that would go with it but also the carbon emissions that would come with both extracting oil and gas and burning the oil and gas for energy.

"We're really concerned that this could be a major industrialisation of the southern Kimberley and we're calling on the WA state government, in particular Premier Mark McGowan, to make sure this doesn't happen."

Following the conclusion of the WA Independent Scientific Panel Inquiry into Hydraulic Fracture Stimulation, it was found the practice posed a low risk to human health and the environment.

However, fracking is still banned across 98 per cent of the state, with exploration permits limited to existing petroleum leases in the Kimberley, adjacent to the Dampier Peninsula area, an area north-east of Carnarvon, and an area between Geraldton and Gingin.

Theia Energy's only well is the Theia-1 exploration well in the Great Sandy Desert, drilled in 2015 by Finder Exploration which was split in 2018 into Finder Energy and Theia Energy.(Supplied: WA Department of Mines and Petroleum)

Carbon emissions a concern

According to a report by consultancy firm Climate Analytics, carbon emissions from fracking the Canning Basin would be double Australia's commitment under the Paris Agreement.

The research was headed up by veteran climate scientist Bill Hare, who said there was a clear contradiction between emissions reduction policies and simultaneous support for new fossil fuel projects.

Dr Hare said there was a global shift away from fossil fuels in favour of renewable energy, as many countries around the world strive towards net-zero targets by 2050.

The future of fracking unconventional oil and gas has come into question as the world transitions to a carbon-neutral future.(ABC News: Dan Fitzgerald)

"The International Energy Agency has made clear that if we're going to limit global warming to one and a half degrees globally, we can't afford to develop new oil or gas reserves and use them," he said.

"It's clear that the markets globally are changing; everyone can see that, and a lot of investors and financial firms are moving away from investing in gas and oil, as they have from coal.

"And I believe, as countries move to increase their commitments and actions under the Paris Agreement, that this will only intensify.

"It's a historically important moment now on climate change ... and I think there's a risk that the Western Australian government is going to end up on the wrong side of history on this."

The public have until January 24 to submit input on Theia Energy's exploration well stimulation program.

A spokesperson for the EPA said submissions and potential impacts would be considered and then the environmental regulator would decide whether to assess the proposal.

They said any future proposals or significant increases to the proposal referred would need to be referred separately under s38 of the Environmental Protection Act 1986.