ISSN: 0729-6436
Access to sunlight Not always that simple Storage options A look at what is around Solar 2013 Conference & Expo Speakers and events Energy Rating Systems Are we achieving the objectives?
03/13
issue 1
The Official Journal of the Australian Solar COUNCIL
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Contents SOLAR PROGRESS is published by CommStrat for the Australian Solar Council (ASC). Solar Progress subscriptions: contact Anna Washington Executive Assistant, ASC anna@solar.org.au or call 0409 802 707
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Editor Dr Bill Parker Phone: 0403 583 676 editor@solar.org.au Contributors: Steve Blume, Mark Byrne, Greg Combet, Peter Fries, Craig Froome, Paul Meredith, Nigel Morris, Peter Pentland, Priyadarsini Rajagopalan, Rob Selbie, Jenny Sharwood and Wayne Smith. Contributing editor Nicola Card National Sales Manager Brian Rault Phone: 03 8534 5014 brian.rault@commstrat.com.au Design & production Annette Epifanidis CommStrat Melbourne Level 8, 574 St Kilda Rd Melbourne 3004 Phone: 03 8534 5000 Australian Solar COUNCIL CEO John Grimes PO Box 148, Frenchs Forest NSW 1640 www.solar.org.au ABN 32 006 824 148 CommStrat ABN 31 008 434 802 www.commstrat.com.au Solar Progress was first published in 1980. The magazine aims to provide readers with an in–depth review of technologies, policies and progress towards a society which sources energy from the sun rather than fossil fuels. Except where specifically stated, the opinions and material published in this magazine are not necessarily those of the publisher or AuSES Ltd Trading as Australian Solar Council. While every effort is made to check the authenticity and accuracy of articles, neither ASC nor the editors are responsible for any inaccuracy. Solar Progress is published quarterly. www.solar.org.au
Front cover: This source of energy will run out – eventually. In about one billion years, water on Earth will not exist as the Sun will have heated up such that terrestrial life will have gone. Time enough to deploy all the solar technologies we have to hand. Image courtesy NASA
33 36
Solar Council
Solar One pioneer Peter Fries
30
The vision of one UNSW student
33
STELR in schools
36
Review of solar landscape by ASC CEO and Solar Progress Editor
2
Solar 2013 Conference & Expo
20
The Golden Jubilee Conference
26
Industry developments
Hall of Fame recognises solar power pioneers
28
Wayne Smith takes a look at The RET Review
18
State Branch activity
46
Minister Greg Combet and clean energy
24
Corporate members
48
Solar advances Craig Froome on storage Solomon Islands’ solar program
8 47
News and views Local and global solar developments
4
Nigel Morris compares solar to Icarus
32
Following the Sun book review
35
Fossil Fools, says Peter Fries
38
Special features Solar access versus shade, by Mark Byrne 12
Products and services
A closer look at Energy Rating systems
14
AussieWide Solar, GSES, Regen Power,
Steve Blume on solar funding channels
22
SMA, Solar Clips and SolPac
42
SolarProgress | 1
Bill Parker Editor
John Grimes Chief Executive, Australian Solar Council
The year 2013 is set to be critical for solar in Australia. Coming off another big year for domestic solar – just on 1GW of solar PV was installed in Australia in 2012 – there are some big challenges and opportunities ahead. Here is just one of them: Solar PV’s Policy Blind Spot There is a gaping policy blind spot when it comes to commercial and industrial scale solar PV in Australia. Unique in the world, Australia’s policy makers have targeted domestic solar but have ignored the benefits of powering our businesses and factories with solar PV. It is a fundamental mistake, and needs to be fixed. Unlike domestic customers whose peak electricity usage is in the early evening (during the setting of the sun), commercial uses demand power exactly when the sun is up – during the working day. When it comes to delaying or eliminating the need for expensive grid infrastructure upgrades, and taking load off the grid during the day, distributed commercial and industrial solar PV is the real ‘low hanging fruit’. At a time when our leaders are scratching around for ways to cut power bills, this one policy area can make serious inroads into cutting the $120+ billion electricity infrastructure investment now underway. The rest of the world targets this sector for good reason, and we should too. At the moment the policy argument at the federal level is focused on cutting imagined future costs by reducing federal government support for installations over 10kW (down from the current 100kW). The focus is all on the cost side, instead of quantifying the potential savings, and where the business case stacks supporting businesses to invest in their own on-site power generation and booking a saving for all power users. We need to become more sophisticated when it comes to solar policy, and we need to get our political leaders engaged in the substantive issues, and away for the mindset that solar PV subsidies are a basic way to curry favour with the electorate by ‘feeding the chooks’, and nothing more.
John Grimes 2 | ISSUE 1 • 2013
We live in extraordinary times. The Bureau of Meteorology has released data for January from weather stations around the country: (http://www. bom.gov.au/climate/current/special-statements.shtml) with a number of reports and many superlatives across the pages. The report showing high temperatures is extraordinary, with locations where very high temperatures are normal but many where they are not, and some daytime maximums approaching 50°C . (As I write this in suburban Perth, my max/min thermometer is showing 45°C in the shade.) The extraordinary rainfall data is contained in another BOM report. It is not appropriate to relate one weather event (or a month’s pattern) to climate change, but summing the extreme events by their difference from the norm in any one year by extreme, it is valid to test for correlations between that summing and climate change. NASA is more direct: “NASA scientists say 2012 was the ninth warmest of any year since 1880, continuing a long-term trend of rising global temperatures. With the exception of 1998, the nine warmest years in the 132-year record have occurred since 2000, with 2010 and 2005 ranking as the hottest years on record.” Is the science of climate change now a lesser issue than bureaucratic and governmental complacency or worse, the clever marginalisation of science? We can do fracking but wind turbines cause actual disease symptoms? If you were at Swinburne University early last December you would have concluded that solar science is alive and well. Here were the investigators relating their work to the Solar 2012 attendees. All of it in one way or another contributing to global warming mitigation, whether at the laboratory bench or in the business world. We now look forward to Solar 2013 in May. Politics will play a front and centre role during the next seven months, and crucial to the solar industry, its R&D support, and the basic research that goes on, is recognition of the importance and viability of solar technologies. As 2013 rolls on the high temperatures of January will be forgotten, as might global warming (which might even be bumped off the election agenda). However, nothing will diminish, or stop the role solar energy plays in moving towards a society that consumes less fossil fuelled energy.
Bill Parker
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News and views
Big ticket research collaborations Solar thermal to Next generation UNSW takes power ahead solar cell technology charge Creating solar technology that supplies supply cheap, zero emission, secure energy for Australia and the world ... that is the mission of CSIRO and six Australian universities who are joining forces with US based NREL, Sandia National Laboratories and Arizona State University. To be known as the Australian Solar Thermal Research Initiative, the $87 million, eight year collaboration which is being led by CSIRO was made possible with ASI and ARENA’s $35 million contribution, and cements Australia’s leading role in global solar research. ASTRI outcomes could well transform the energy industry in Australia by slashing the cost of solar thermal power in producing electricity, heat and fuels. Guiding the research will be Dr Manuel Blanco who recently joined CSIRO as Director of ASTRI. The world-renowned solar scientist boasts almost three decades of academic, research and development managerial experience and helped pave the way for Spain’s first commercial solar thermal system. In an upbeat statement Blanco said “We will reduce the cost of solar thermal to just 12 cents a kilowatt hour by 2020 and provide zero-emission energy to people when they need it. It’s a technological leap but we will do it. We are working with the best in the world.”
Belectric’s solar downunder
The Australian subsidiary of German-based Belectric has been granted approval for its first solar plant in Australia, a 5MW solar power plant in Mildura, Victoria. Belectric said this was "The first step toward implementing further solar projects in Australia” and that the company has already signed an agreement with Clean Technology Partners for subsequent projects. 4 | ISSUE 1 • 2013
Still on big picture developments, an historic $35 million Australia–US partnership presents new opportunities for boosting solar cell performance and cost reduction, and aims to foster rapid development of PV technology. To be known as the USAustralia Institute for Advanced Photovoltaics – USAIAP – this is one of the largest solar research investments in Australia’s history and will be led by UNSW. The new Institute combines the expertise of several US Research Centres and universities, Australian universities, the CSIRO, three state governments, Suntech Australia, BT Imaging, Trina Solar Energy and BlueScope Steel. UNSW Scientia Professor Martin Green said “The Institute will establish Australia as the photovoltaic research and educational hub of the Asia-Pacific region. It combines our expertise with America’s world-class facilities and creates a tangible pipeline to ‘over the horizon’ photovoltaic technology. “The Institute will also be fundamental to the training of the next generation of photovoltaic research scientists and engineers.”
UNSW is involved in five other significant solar research projects and will take the lead in two: a $5.3 million initiative to develop Tools for design and scale-up of solar thermochemical reactors; and a $6.7 million project to produce low cost, high efficiency copper-zinc-tin-sulphide (CZTS) on silicon multi-junction solar cells. High level aspirations and top level brain power – a potent mix. Future issues of Solar Progress will focus on solar achievements that pave the way for a clean, green future.
Sunny outlook More than $14 million has been pledged to a suite of solar projects for the CSIRO-led US-Australia solar energy collaboration, the most significant of which is the creation of a $7.6 million solar forecasting system. (Read all about this progressive step in the next issue of Solar Progress.)
PV streets ahead … Can you picture yourself driving on roads constructed from glass, PV and re-cycled landfill and compost? Such is the brainchild of Solar Roadways entrepreneurs Scott and June Brusaw, whose “intelligent” asphalt free roads, pavements and driveways are designed to generate power. Scott Brusaw makes use of many technologies to develop glass that “is tough as steel”, does not shatter, is fire proof, anti-glare and provides traction. By his estimates one kilometre of his solar roadway would generate enough power for about 265 homes and significantly reduce greenhouse gases. His prototype 12 x 12 foot panels include three white and three yellow LEDs which send signals to microprocessors to generate ‘text’
traffic warnings for road users, eliminating the need for traditional road signs. LEDs could also be used to ‘paint’ road lines from beneath and light up roads during night time, and with the addition of a heating element would have the capacity to melt snow and ice. The multi-faceted Solar Roadways model also factors in recharging of all-electric vehicles to help sever dependency on oil. As Brusaw states “We cannot keep building petroleum based asphalt roads, it’s antiquated.”
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News and views
Europe soars ahead in solar
Fall in love with Solar –
says Greg Evans of Perfect Match
Valentine’s Day saw a public show of solar affection by former Perfect Match host and marriage celebrant Greg Evans, who performed a novel commitment ceremony by marrying “cheated on” electricity users to an Energy Matters solar panel. The media stunt was staged to highlight the massive price hikes to energy bills over the past five years. “It’s time to save money, use our abundant Australian sunshine and find a sustainable energy solution without being held to ransom … I’m a bit of an expert when it comes to relationships and I think we’re being had,” said the man who is the latest celebrity to catch the solar love bug.
Westpac’s
$8 billion, five-year Sustainability Strategy In a move designed to address “society’s most pressing issues”, Westpac is targeting three areas for lendings: Demographic and cultural change; Identifying new avenues of wealth creation, and Economic solutions for environmental challenges The bank is pledging $2 billion to lending for social and affordable housing and $6 billion in lending to the clean technology and environmental services sector. Saying that the environment and the economy are “often seen at odds”, Westpac’s focus will be on providing innovative solutions to enable customers to “manage environmental outcomes” and presenting specific support for the CleanTech and environmental services sector.
Bunbury correction
In our last issue (10/12) it was incorrectly stated that Bunbury Sports Facility’s evacuated tubes absorb both solar energy and UV; however the only energy that can be used is in the short wave IR between 0.5 and 5.5 microns. The evacuated tubes were also said to be up to 80% more efficient whereas they are up to 95% efficient compared to flat plate collectors, with a 70% maximum efficiency most commonly achieved.
6 | ISSUE 1 • 2013
Overdeveloped,
overshadowed
As the trend to develop high-rise, high-density living around urban transport hubs continues, so does the battle for space and sunlight. In Victoria, where more homes are being blocked in by multi-storey developments, new laws could be developed to protect homes fitted with solar panels from being overshadowed; a move that would reduce ad-hoc decisions by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal. “There [needs] to be consistent and clear guidance on a statewide basis to create greater certainty about what might be regarded as acceptable impacts," said a VCAT member. "This would be of great benefit to affected landowners, proponents of new developments and decision-makers." Victorian Planning Provisions state that new buildings should be positioned and designed to ensure energy efficiency of existing dwellings on adjoining lots is not unreasonably reduced, but in one unhappy case taken to VCAT the loss of solar power was estimated at between 50 to 70% which was decreed “unreasonable”. The Clean Energy Council hailed the tribunal decision “significant” and said it was imperative for developers to consider shadowing in projects.
Italy has leapfrogged Germany to become the most solar-powered industrialised nation in the world, supplying 5.6% of the country’s electricity demand in 2012. Italian solar power, which is almost entirely PV, produced a total of 18.3 TWh of energy last year, up a massive 72% on 2011 output and pushing solar capacity in Italy to 17GW from around 470,000 rooftop PV systems. The 2012 figures give rise to optimistic forecasts of 7% solar production during 2013. Meanwhile Spain’s share of solar rose to 4%, a quarter of which stemmed from its large-scale solar thermal power stations supplying power 24/7. Housing one third of the world's solar panels, Germany clocks up a 4.8% share of solar in the electricity supply. Data reveals countries outside Europe added more than 13 GW of solar capacity last year, compared with less than 8 GW in 2011, the strong suits being China, the US and Japan. For its not insignificant part, Australia added about 1 GW of solar PV last year, lifting the country's capacity about 70% to 2.4 GW. Demand this year is anticipated between 840 MW to 1 GW.
Embark on a plan In three years’ time the top of Sydney Convention Centre will undergo a transformation with the installation of a 400 kW rooftop community solar farm. Due for completion in 2016, the Sydney Community Solar collaboration between Embark and Lend Lease will enable local residents to invest in the solar project, and is described as “a highly visible example of medium scale solar PV”. Embark is a NFP organisation that helps communities create and participate in renewable energy projects, emphasising they can benefit from new clean energy without relying on subsidies.
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Solar Advances
Storage options for grid connected PV It is often said that storage is the limiting factor in the wider deployment of photovoltaics and other forms of intermittent generation. Given this intermittency, and the prominent role of solar and wind supply in the future renewables roadmap, will Australia’s 20% Renewable Energy Target be achieved by 2020? What are our options? In this article, Craig Froome and Paul Meredith review storage for grid connected PV.
The energy storage industry within Australia is still fairly immature with only a small number of distributors and even a smaller number of manufacturers and R&D effort. Many of the larger international companies have shown little interest due to the current size of the market within Australia. Numerous countries are establishing ambitious renewable energy portfolio targets similar to Australia’s Renewable Energy Target (RET), requiring a portfolio target of 20% by 2020. With the most viable renewable technologies being intermittent in nature, reaching a target in excess of 15% may not be possible without storage. Given the relative lack of relevant storage activity in Australia, this may be a particular problem for us. The distribution network providers, seeing and understanding the grid issues with intermittent (and particularly distributed) generation are now showing substantial interest in storage. This, coupled with both the Renewable Energy Target and state based feed-in tariffs for PV, is increasing deployment. The questions now arising are centred around how to best use the energy generated with the time of generation not necessarily matching network demand. Significant penetration of solar and other renewable energy sources into the national grid will highlight a number of operational concerns over maintaining system power balance. With the proliferation of large scale solar penetration into the grid, electricity networks will become two-way power flow systems. Sudden changes in weather conditions
8 | ISSUE 1 • 2013
can cause big power fluctuations within several seconds. Because the conventional generation has to be uncommitted to allow usage of solar and other energy sources, the sudden power deficit may not be easy to compensate quickly. This is predicted to result in power system instability and poor power quality problems having an impact on operating reserve, imbalance in energy, and voltage and frequency regulation of the grid. Therefore, these technical issues need to be addressed within the existing distribution network systems.
Available Electrical Storage Technologies It is possible for energy storage to be used to improve system responsiveness, reliability and flexibility or for load levelling and peak shaving. It is these issues which are of greatest interest to the distribution companies. Whilst there are various storage options, those technologies that can be best utilised by solar energy rather than renewable energy systems as a whole are of greatest current interest because of the rapid growth of PV penetration. The obvious need for storage in applications such as PV is not the only motivation for its widespread deployment. Many other consumption and peak-related issues would almost certainly also benefit from having a local reactive storage resource. For example, recent research indicates that there is a 40% probability of a summer peak load reduction if commercial customers would be able to deploy appropriate storage. Also highlighted in this research were alternative uses of stored energy including: i) local load management; ii) utility load management and; iii) emergency critical load management. Ultimately, the choice of storage technology will be guided by: 1. Energy efficiency 2. Environmental impact 3. Location dependence 4. Lifetime 5. Economics, and 6. Space and weight requirements Looking initially at battery storage options, both lead-acid and nickelcadmium batteries are made from toxic substances, so if considering from a life-cycle viewpoint, these would cause some degree of concern with disposal and recycling. Sodium and lithium-based batteries are suitable for large-scale projects, but it is critical to consider the ability of the technology to “scale-up” based on the demand needs of where
Nickel-Cadmium Sodium based
Lithium based
RedFlow Ecoult NGK Insulators GE MES DEA SAFT Li-Tec BYD Company EnerSys OxisEnergy
B. Flow Batteries Zinc-Bromide
Vanadium Redox Organic Acid Other
RedFlow ZBB Corporation Premium Power Prudent Energy Plurion Enstorage Inc. Extreme Power Deeya Power
C. Supercapacitors SAFT Li-Tec BYD Company EnerSys OxisEnergy Three types of storage technologies with a partial list of suppliers (bold indicates Australian presence)
10,000 1,000
Long Duration Fly Wheels
Li-ion
Ni-Cd
Better for Energy Management Applications
Lead-Acid
Supplier
High Power Fly Wheels
100
Technology
High Power E.C. Capacitors
Lead-Acid Batteries NaS Battery
Zinc-Air Bat.
Rechargeable Long Duration E.C. Capacitors
Flow Batteries CAES
Pumped Hydro Metal-Air Batteries
Better for UPS & Power Quality Application 10
Option A. Batteries
CAPITAL COST PER UNIT ENERGY – $/kWh – OUTPUT Cost / Capacity / Efficiency
the storage is being deployed. The economics and lifetime of competing technologies has been highlighted as an area for future research, with deployment of flow batteries currently considered the preferred option. Deployment of storage technology on the UQ 1.22MW PV array at the Brisbane St Lucia campus is an interesting case study highlighting these considerations. In the first instance flywheel technologies and super capacitors were not considered because of their limited ability to store energy (periods up to one hour).
The better options for the UQ project appeared to be lithium-ion (Li-ion), sodium sulphur (NaS) and zebra (Na-NiCl2) batteries. However, manufacturing capacity and the ability to scale-up to utility level is questionable locally. Flow-battery designs utilising different chemistries include polysulphide bromide (PSB), zinc bromide (ZnBr), cerium zinc (CeZn) and vanadium redox (VRB). The major disadvantage of flow battery systems is the additional capital and running costs. A number of the above technologies for energy storage have already been deployed internationally, although we believe that current technologies support the use of lead-acid, sodium-sulphur, nickel-metalhydride, zinc bromide, lithium-ion and vanadium redox storage systems. A key consideration for the UQ array application was the fact that both zinc-bromide and lithium based batteries were locally available at a scale to meet the project design requirements. A review of local suppliers, together with consideration of research potential to scale a prototype to utility scale resulted in the zinc bromide battery being selected for the project. For a University the research benefits of testing various systems generally outweighs economic decisions, but the same rules do not apply to large-scale deployment by utilities. Therefore it is important to consider both the life and cost of the competing technologies.
100
300
1,000
3,000
10,000
CAPITAL COST PER UNIT POWER – $/kW
The most recent information prepared by the US Energy Storage Association (2009) based on capital costs in 2002 and the anticipated reduction of those costs as technology matured indicates that both sodium-sulphate and flow batteries will have a similar cost structure. While the lead-acid and sodium based batteries are relatively inexpensive, they only have a life expectancy of 10 years compared to flow batteries which have an expected life of 30 years, resulting in the cost per kilowatt being similar over the life of the battery. Further, the market anticipates that these costs will come down even further as the technology matures. (This could lead to decision makers adopting leastcost technology in the short-term, while waiting for economies of scale in emerging technologies.) Using data from the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), we have modeled the medium growth scenario for battery deployment. Preliminary indications show that the cost of battery storage, which is dependent on the technology choice, is approximately $1 million/MWh, making large-scale deployment in the near future unlikely. The target price for significant deployment in a PV scenario is thought to be of the order of $750,000/MWh (although this has changed through innovation and competition since the original research article was published).
SolarProgress | 9
Solar Advances
An extension of our research with this initial ZnBr deployment will be to review current actual costs of the competing technologies based on a typical installation within Australia, commencing with the University of Queensland flow battery study. However, as noted earlier, this will be limited due to the number of active participants within the Australian market and the diverse range of technology options. As has been suggested, “renewables can do for energy what micro-chip driven computers have done for information� (Hall (2008) Energy Policy 36). However it is unlikely that this will occur without efficient storage options to remove the intermittency of the renewable energy resource that is so freely available and demonstration sites made available so that the network companies can model the implications to both new and existing infrastructure. The current research at The University of Queensland will provide the opportunity to assess the ability of storage to remove much of the criticism directed to intermittent renewable technologies, while also determining how storage can be best used within a distributed energy system.
The University of Queensland deployed a 1.22 MW Photovoltaic (PV) array at the St Lucia Campus in 2011 looking at not only energy generation and reduction of its carbon footprint, but also at building on research and teaching opportunities within the renewable energy sector. The ability to model the advantages of energy storage under a range of scenarios within this array provides a number of opportunities. A RedFlow M90 zinc bromine flow battery system was added to the array in 2012. This article is an abridged version of a paper presented at Solar2010, the 48th AuSES Annual Conference 1-3 December 2010, Canberra, Australia, and is available on-line at www.solar.org.au/solarpedia 10 | ISSUE 1 • 2013
Special Feature
How not to feel
overshadowed
When ABC presenter Geraldine Doogue installed solar panels on her roof while there was a feed-in tariff in NSW, she was expecting credits on her bills of around $150. Instead, she received a credit of only 43 cents. When energy consultant Nigel Morris looked at her panels for an episode of Radio National’s Saturday Extra in August last year, he noticed that her panels were being overshadowed by a neighbour’s skyward extensions. What to do? Move the panels, he suggested. Mark Byrne examines how far we have to go to achieve perpetual solar access.
12 | ISSUE 1 • 2013
Not everyone has the roof space or the money to move PV systems – and they shouldn’t have to. This is where solar access rights come in. They are essentially an extension of long-standing property rights — to peace and quiet, for instance, or to prevent trespass — to guaranteed access to sunlight. Views have not traditionally been protected by legislation or the common law, and generally access to sunshine hasn’t been protected in Australia. State governments have only recently begun introducing legislation to prohibit tall hedges or trees from blocking views or access to sunlight, but even then, the right protected is to sunlight through windows into houses, not onto roofs. It sounds simple — just ensure adequate setback from boundaries, ban overshadowing of roofs, or guarantee a set number of hours of sunlight per day — but as these three options hint, it isn’t. When you get down to designing a standard, it can get complicated. For setbacks to work they depend on the height of buildings and the pitch of roofs also being restricted; and it depends on their orientation too. You can ban overshadowing where one house exists and neighbouring land isn’t yet built on, but this is not the most common situation. The most common proposed guarantee — 6 hours of sunlight between 9 am and 3 pm in mid-winter — does not correspond to the period of maximum household demand. To be comprehensive, controls need to apply to vegetation and signs as well as walls, chimneys and roofs. And so on. As a result, there has been little legislation to protect solar access, and most protections, such as they are in Australian law, have tended to be either in local planning instruments or in codes or standards that lack legal force or
that use words like “consider”, “excessive” and “minimise” that are open to interpretation, with decisions usually favouring those with the money to hire lawyers. The situation is better in some US states, with the Californian Civil Code, for instance, deciding that since promoting renewable energy is good public policy, adequate access to sunlight to operate solar energy systems should be protected and facilitated. More specifically, that state’s Solar Shade Control Act of 1978 provides for a maximum shadow of ten per cent between 10 am and 2 pm by trees on any solar collector on adjacent land. But what about overshadowing by buildings, provision for future solar systems, or the impact of sloping land on shadowing? Other states such as New Mexico and Wyoming have gone further by applying the principles governing water law to declare solar access a property right, but the extent of this right and its impact on the development of neighbouring land are still being worked out in litigation.
A hypothetical solar fence in the ACT The best response in Australia so far has been in the ACT. It adopts the idea of a hypothetical solar fence. This means that no building or tree can be erected or planted on one block of land where the effect will be to cast a shadow on neighbouring land longer than the shadow cast by an imaginary fence of a designated height on the property boundary line between specified hours in mid-winter. It is probably the simplest approach, although it has problems coping with sloping land and high density areas. Recent changes to the ACT’s Territory Plan apply a hypothetical solar fence 1.8 metres high to southern property boundaries. Because the sun is only 32 degrees above the horizon at midday in midwinter in Canberra, any new building to the north of this 1.8 metre fence must sit under the 32 degree envelope. For
properties facing north-east or north-west, this increases up to 42 degrees. The hypothetical solar fence is 3.5 metres high for side boundaries, where the envelope increases to 45 degrees.
Turn around The apathy of other Australian governments will need to change if we are to encourage more people to reduce their use of fossil fuelled electricity and to become responsible for their own power supply. We also need to think beyond discrete solar panels to a future with more building-integrated solar power — not only using PV panels as roofing tiles but also PV-integrated windows and paints. This will create greater flexibility in where and how we can generate power from our own houses and offices, but most of these emerging technologies have lower efficiency factors than good old flat panel PVs, so access rights will still be required.
Make a difference If you want to help this process along, make a submission to the NSW planning white paper in February and March – see www.planning.
Typical building envelope. Side or rear boundary. Northern boundary of an adjoining or residential block. X° can be 32° - 42°of an adjoining or residential block. X° can be 32° - 42° nsw.gov.au for details. The TEC will be asking for a high-level state policy covering renewable energy in general (so wind farms, for instance, are not subject to much stricter controls than coal mines or coal seam gas wells) and a statutory right to solar access in particular. We will probably advocate adopting the ACT model in NSW as well.
About the author Mark Byrne is Energy Market Advocate at the Total Environment Centre and is a former urban planner. This article draws on Adrian Bradbrook’s paper Solar access law: 30 years on Environmental Planning Law Journal (2010, (27), 5), and the NSW EDO’s briefing note to the TEC on solar access. Adrian Bradbrook also authored Solar Energy and the Law, The Law Book Company, 1984.
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