Compulsory spending on maintenance, repair and replacement by Australian homeowners of their solar plants may become mandatory to ensure stability of the national power grid-Compulsory acquisition of properties may be the only other option to ensure the supply of a public good, regardless of who produces it

by Ganesh Sahathevan




The ABC has reported:
Australia needs dozens more renewable energy projects to offset the loss of more than 60 per cent of Australian coal power plants that will close over the next two decades, the energy market operator has forecast.
Rooftop solar is set to play a role, with nearly a quarter of all energy consumption to come from residential and business solar panels by 2040.


What has not been addressed are the costs of maintaining, repairing, and replacing the solar panels and other related parts. If "nearly a quarter of all energy consumption" is to be supplied by residential and business solar panels by 2040, the ability of those panels to keep converting solar to electrical energy becomes a matter of public concern.

Consequently new laws will be required to ensure that solar plant owners ensure that heir plants keep producing at an optimal level. The costs of doing so falls on them, and it will no longer be a private matter whether and when they incur those costs. They may have to be compelled to do so by new legislation. Where plants are not properly maintained compulsory acquisition may become necessary. 
While there is debate as to whether electricity is a public or private good the reality of the matter is that no Australian government can ever survive if it does not ensure that most if not all of its population are provided with easy, cheap access to a reliable source of electricity.

END 

Australia needs to triple renewable energy plants by 2040 to replace coal power plants set to closeBY STATE POLITICAL REPORTER RICHARD WILLINGHAMUPDATED ABOUT 8 HOURS AGO

PHOTO 

More renewables are needed to replace conventional generators because of their lower capacity factors.

PIXABAY: MARIAGODFRIDA

Australia needs dozens more renewable energy projects to offset the loss of more than 60 per cent of Australian coal power plants that will close over the next two decades, the energy market operator has forecast.

Key points:

• The AEMO roadmap says rooftop solar will account for nearly a quarter of all energy consumption by 2040
• It lists priority projects for investment including a new undersea power link between Victoria and Tasmania
• The number of energy plants will need to more than triple, the forecast says 

A major upgrade of the electricity transmission wires will also be needed to get the new energy generated to homes and businesses, the Australian Market Energy Operator (AEMO) said.

Rooftop solar is set to play a role, with nearly a quarter of all energy consumption to come from residential and business solar panels by 2040.

Microgrids and neighbourhood power sharing

Microgrids and smart energy systems are predicted to be the next big thing in electricity supply — allowing us to produce our own energy and share it with neighbours.

To offset the decline of coal there would need to be a more-than-tripling of renewable energy plants that are already established or will be installed in the next two years, the forecast said.

In a "roadmap" for the next 20 years, AEMO said renewable energy with dispatchable power would be the lowest cost for consumers.

"To maximise economic benefits, as traditional generators retire, Australia must invest in a modern energy system with significant consumer-led distributed energy resources — such as rooftop solar — and utility-scale variable renewable energy, supported by sufficient dispatchable resources and well-targeted augmentations to the electricity network," AEMO chief executive Audrey Zibelman said.

To get new renewable energy generation from power plants to consumers, AEMO said the current transmission network needed to be upgraded.

PHOTO Over the next 20 years, 60 per cent of Australia's coal-fired plants will close down.

AAP: JULIAN SMITH

The draft report highlights several "priority" projects for investment including:

• A new undersea power link between Victoria and Tasmania
• A new transmission line from Robertstown in South Australia to Wagga Wagga in NSW
• A new connection from Western Victoria where wind plants are being built, to southern NSW and the Snowy 2.0 pumped hydro
• Upgrades of the existing interconnection between Queensland to NSW and Victoria to NSW
• Improvements to the transmission system in Victoria to allow renewable energy to get to homes

The operator forecasts the future National Energy Market will be "a diverse renewable, gas-powered and distributed generation, supported by energy storage and network solutions".

What to do in a blackout

We've put together a checklist so that next time you're in a blackout, you're prepared.

The report said 15 gigawatts (GW) or 63 per cent of Australia's coal-fired generation is likely to retire by 2040.

This will have to be replaced by at least 30 GW of new grid-scale renewables above what is already committed.

"More renewables are required to replace conventional generators because of their naturally lower capacity factor,'' said the report.

Renewable energy development zones are earmarked across the five states.

And to support the transition away from a coal-based market, there needs to be up to 21 GW of dispatchable resources through pumped hydro or battery storage.

Efficient gas plants could be effective, especially if gas prices came down.

Read more about our energy future from our Power Switch series:

• Energy market operator warns 1.3 million households could lose power this summer
• The power company will soon be able to turn down your air conditioner … and everyone will benefit
• It's getting really hot. Is solar the best option to cut costs this season?
• When the lights go out and the fridge stops humming, here's what to do
• As home solar increases, the grid is becoming an antiquated technology. So what will replace it?
• How the runaway success of rooftop solar in WA is a warning for all Australia

Follow this story to get email or text alerts from ABC News when there is a future article following this storyline.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-12/australia-needs-to-triple-renewables-by-2040-to-replace-coal/11790276?pfmredir=sm

Singapore acknowledges the problem of urban heat islands while in NSW, the Berejiklian Government indulges in fantasy

by Ganesh Sahathevan



See first:

NSW Environment Minister Matt Kean says Australia must stop making climate change a matter of religion and instead make it a matter of science as unprecedented bushfires burn across the state.

Mr Kean reiterated that the NSW bushfires were linked to climate change shortly after his coalition colleague Sarah Mitchell said the debate was "philosophical" and days after Emergency Services Minister David Elliott labelled the discussion "unpalatable".

"This should be a debate of science, this should not be a philosophical debate ... the majority of scientific opinion is very clear on this fact," Mr Kean told ABC radio on Wednesday.

"We've got to stop making climate change a matter of religion and we've got to start making it a matter of science and the science says that we need to reduce the impact of global warming by 2C and in order to do that we need to get to net-zero emissions by 2050."

However, with regards the science see:
The fastest way to reduce Sydney's "not normal" temperature is to replace these buildings with trees:Will NSW Minister Matt Kean be brave enough to do it
And now see that Singapore at least is prepared to acknowledge the problem:

A map depicting Singapore’s climate zones provides a research framework for urban heat island studies under the Cooling Singapore project. Replacing natural forests with buildings results in built-up surfaces retaining or producing heat. PHOTO: DR MUHAMMAD OMER MUGHAL, COOLING SINGAPORE PROJECT

SEE ALSO 

Singapore and global warming: Avoiding a heat island at the Botanic Gardens another cheap solution that is being ignored?

Singapore's oil and gas sector is worth USD 80 Billion, but it's actively pursuing "climate change" strategies-Is anyone in its ruthlessly pragmatic administration thinking of the costs, to the industry and other related parts of the Singapore economy?

by Ganesh Sahathevan

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong delivers a speech during the Climate Action Summit at the United Nations headquarters in New York on Sept 23, 2019.PHOTO: PRIME MINISTER'S OFFICE

Singapore's ruthlessly  pragmatic PAP Government has jumped on the climate change bandwagon.
Speaking at the UN PM Lee Hsien Loong declared that Singapore will do its full part to mitigate climate change.Speaking at the 2019 National Day Rally Lee declared that climate change was one of the 

'gravest challenges facing mankind'.

"Doing its full part" will mean curbing the oil and gas sector which in 2019 is estimated to be worth USD 80 Billion (see table below)

The oil industry makes up 5 per cent of Singapore's GDP, with Singapore being one of the top three export refining centres in the world. In 2007 it exported 68.1 million tonnes of oil. The oil industry has led to the promotion of the chemical industry as well as oil and gas equipment manufacturing.^[80] Singapore has 70 per cent of the world market for both jack-up rigs and for the conversion of Floating Production Storage Offloading units. It has 20 per cent of the world market for ship repair, and in 2008 the marine and offshore industry employed almost 70,000 workers.^[81]

The sector provides cash for the financial services industry, so the impact of doing its "full part" would be in excess of what has been described above.

Clearly, the loss of luxury homes in Sentosa Cove at some point in the future is not the only cost that Singaporeans need to be concerned about:

Source: Climate Central

The immediate costs of jumping on the climate change bandwagon are likely to cause greater damage.

END

Singapore - Oil and Gas

This is a best prospect industry sector for this country. Includes a market overview and trade data.

---

Last Published: 6/13/2019

Overview

	2016	2017	2018	2019 (estimated)
Total Market Size	72,149	77,126	81,984	80,000
Local Production	43,938	57,362	51,734	50,000
Exports	52,483	62,954	56,629	55,000
Imports	60,827	82,719	86,879	85,000
Import from U.S.	1,809	2,758	3,834	3,300
Exchange Rate: 1USD	1.38	1.38	1.35	1.35

$US millions (total market size = (total local production + imports) - exports)
Data Sources: Singapore Government Trade Statistics

When UK lawyers start looking to Singapore,and completely ignore Australia, Australian lawyers must realise that they are in trouble

by Ganesh Sahathevan

Singapore's Law Minister K.Shanmugam SC has overseen

what The Australian has described as  Singapore’s arbitration boom

In September 2019 , 11 of the nation’s leading barristers launched 

Singapore’s first permanent chambers for Australian barristers.

While playing catch up in the market for conventional legal

services, Australia does not rate at all in the area of lawtech.



The Law Society UK conducted a comparative analysis of public, private and third sector accelerators to lawtech innovation and adoption in the UK and in other jurisdictions. The study is based on data available up to August 2019.

The findings include these:
That the UK is playing a significant role in lawtech on the world stage. The closest competitors are Singapore, Hong Kong and the Netherlands.

The entire report  titled Lawtech: a comparative analysis of legal technology in the UK and in other jurisdictions November 2019 is not long, mainly graphical and definitely   worth reading in full. Australia rates no mention at all. 

This is significant for lawtech is all about reducing the costs of legal services.Put in another way, the UK Law Society study suggests that Australia is on-track to become an inefficient, high cost market for legal services. 

To understand the magnitude of the exclusion readers old enough may recall a time not that long ago when Australia was considered by East and South East Asian jurisdictions as a  default market for legal services, when access to the UK market was either unavailable or uneconomic.

This decline is not hard to understand, when one considers the amount of time and energy spent even in Sydney protecting the old guard  
All this even as Australian barristers are busy trying to make a mark in Singapore, but not it seems with much success. 

END 


SEE ALSO

Australian barristers open chambers in Singapore

https://www.theaustralian.com.au › business › legal-affairs

Sep 13, 2019 - Leading silk Bret Walker SC has joined 10 of the nation's leading barristers in establishing what they believe is the first permanent chambers for Australian barristers in Singapore.

You've visited this page 3 times. Last visit: 11/12/19

KPMG adds a scandal at the Vatican to its 1MDB issues: Vatican scandal involved Cardinal Pell, who tried to prevent it

by Ganesh Sahathevan



SarawakReport story Don't Ask Us! - KPMG Global's Astonishing Response on 1MDB explains KPMG's capacity to deny anything.

As reported by the National Catholic Register, in its new story 
Tangled Web of Transactions Utilized to Fund Bankrupt Italian Hospital:

A key reason why Vatican officials believed they had no option but to take this route was because the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR), better known as the Vatican Bank, had already refused to issue the loan on the grounds it was too risky and would be in breach of its new practices.
Cardinal Pell concluded this was why Cardinal Calcagno, Cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi, then-president of CFIC, and Giuseppe Profiti, then-president of the Bambino Gesù, insisted on obtaining the loan guarantee from the children’s hospital, along with the fact that they knew that the children’s hospital had extensive funds to draw upon. All three underwrote the loan guarantee from the Bambino Gesù, according to documents examined by the Register.
But before doing so, they tried to win over Cardinal Pell and the Pope by hiring the accountancy giant KPMG to conduct a feasibility study to show how the loan could and would be repaid. But when Cardinal Pell’s office asked that KPMG sign their study, the firm refused to do so. The Register has asked KPMG’s Italian branch, which conducted the study, why the accountant group was unwilling to endorse it, but so far has received no response.
On the strength of the study, Pope Francis and Cardinal Parolin went ahead with the 50 million-euro loan despite opposition from Cardinal Pell and others — something the Vatican source said became a pattern.


KPMG's latest effort adds to its involvement in the 1MDB scandal:

Don't Ask Us! - KPMG Global's Astonishing Response on 1MDB

www.sarawakreport.org › 2015/03 › dont-ask-us-kpmg-globals-astonishin...

Mar 24, 2015 - Sahathevan asked whether KPMG Global had been aware of any of the transactions relating to 1MDB outlined in the expose? He added that:.

Is KPMG International being "EnRoned ... - Sahathevan

gsahathevan.blogspot.com › 2015/03 › is-kpmg-international-being-enroned

Oct 22, 2019 - The chief commissioner, Peter Hall, appeared before NSW parliament to deliver a dire warning about the $673,000 in cuts forecast for next ...

KPMG International denies any connection to 1MDB | The ...

https://www.theedgemarkets.com › article › kpmg-international-denies-any-c...

Mar 27, 2015 - “KPMG International does not have any relationship with — or connection to — 1MDB,” Wethered wrote in an email to Ganesh Sahathevan, ...

KPMG International denies any connection to 1MDB, says report

https://www.theedgemarkets.com › article › kpmg-international-denies-any...

Mar 26, 2015 - KUALA LUMPUR (Mar 26): KPMG International has denied any ... Malaysian investigative financial journalist, Ganesh Sahathevan, who had ...

Formation of the Belt and Road International Lawyers Association can lead to a conflict between legal professional privilege and national security matters-National security must prevail

by Ganesh Sahathevan

On December 8, the "Belt and Road" lawyers alliance was announced in Guangzhou, China. Photo by Li Guangyin


The following Twitter post from China analyst Geoff Wade raises an immediate conflict between the national security interests of countries such as Australia and Singapore who are concerned about
Chinese Communist Party interference in their countries' affairs, and the capacity of lawyers to hide literally anything behind the cloak of legal professional privilege.

The Belt and Road International Lawyers Association (BRILA) provides a channel via which information can be conveyed from China to trusted BRILA member firms with the confidence that the information is protected by legal professional privilege (LPP), which is generally recognized, respected and protected in most common law countries.

LPP is vital to the survival of the legal business and it is likely that any attempt to obtain information by national security agencies will be vigorously denied. Regardless, national security must prevail.

Geoff Wade

@geoff_p_wade

The Belt and Road International Lawyers Association established. Wang Junfeng王俊峰, global chairman of King & Wood Mallesons, head of All-China Lawyers Association and CPPCC member, appointed as inaugural chairman https://news.sina.com.cn/c/2019-12-08/doc-iihnzahi6148689.shtml…

8:59 PM · Dec 9, 2019·Twitter Web Client

END