AGM coming up and renewable costs going down !
Posted on 25 November 2011 by e-news
MASG NEWS
MASG ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
This Wednesday November 30th from 7pm @ Ray Bradfield Rooms.
The AGM will be followed by a Special Weather Report! and Supper.
Jarra Hicks will be talking community wind at the MASG AGM
Jarra Hicks, our new community wind worker will report on the prevailing winds of change in wind farms and share her extensive knowledge of community engagement and community owned wind farms.
Join us for a great evening!
Please RSVP for catering to 5470 6978 by Monday, 28th November.
Sustainable Building Tradies’ Expo a great success!
A buzz of chatter and energy permeated through the Castlemaine Football and Netball club recently at the MASG expo, featuring a smorgasborg of local businesses and tradies
EcoMaster, one of the exhibitors from the Sustainable Building Expo, showcasing the double glazing and draught-stopping products they service.
showcasing their energy efficient products, services and information. If you missed it you can still, as always, go to the MASG website listing. And if you’ve found a product or service you think we should add to the website please contact us via the comfy homes weblink.
The winners of the fabulous door prizes were Bill , Anabel, Neil & Margaret , Yvonne, Susan &
Julie.
Community Wind – out and about!
Mount Alexander Community Wind has an official logo and has been out and about in shire holding stalls to raise awareness and support for the project.
Join Frank on our community wind power stall
Get in quick to be one of the first 100 Mount Alexander Community Wind members!.Community Wind memberships are going fast!
We are asking people interested the project to become members, so we can build a strong ground swell of support. Membership is $20 full/ $10 concession/ $100 business. Membership money raised will be crucial in helping to fund early stages of project development and in showing the Baillieu government that our community supports wind power!
Become a member by dropping into the MASG office or online
Volunteers needed: the Mount Alexander Community Wind project is looking for help with data entry, community outreach and running stalls.
Please contact Jarra if you are interested in helping: 5470 6978, 0401 952 805 communitywind@masg.org.au
The Hub Plot Jottings
Recent field trip to permaculture property.
11 of us travelled by train and bike to the property of Dr Greg at Woodend. Greg’s enthusiasm to share his knowledge was fantastic. His integration of chooks with the orchard was great to see in action. We all marvelled at the innovation and scale of some of the projects he’d undertaken there, including the largest worm farm we’d ever
Dr. Greg talks to the masses at his Woodend property
seen!
Work at the Hub Plot at present is seed and seedling planting. Extending our irrigation system for the summer. Planning how to protect from the summer heat.
We meet on Mondays from 9 a.m and always have a cuppa at 11 a.m. Feel free to drop in and join in or for further information email Peter at bundara@netcon.net.au or phone Heather on 0409 327791.
Want to see Baseload Solar Plants built in Australia?
The expert review panel on the design of the new renewable energy funding body– the Clean Energy Finance Corporation – has made a request for submissions on how this new body can help overcome barriers to the development of renewable energy in Australia.
Now many of us know that submissions can take a lot of time. You want to get the wording right, the correct facts, all the policy details correct… you struggle to get it in on time, and then wonder how much impact you made.
Yet if you don’t make a submission you worry that the big polluters will swamp the process and be the only voices heard on the issue. What we end up with is people who are keen to see a good outcome putting way too much of their precious time into these processes, or worse, not making a submission at all!
Baseload solar thermal plants like this are being built in Spain and the USA but NOT here!
To overcome that the 100 % mob have made this Big Picture submission to get the message across in a clear and simple way.
Do your submission here.
Read more about the Spanish baseload solar thermal plant at the end of the newsletter and if you want to see what a submission looks like download Dean’s submission here (335kb)DB solar thermal submission
LOCAL AND REGIONAL NEWS AND EVENTS
Congratulations to Growing Abundance for the Local Food Guide
A large crowd of people on Thursday lunchtime eagerly watched the “Naked Chef v Iron Chef ” cook-off as part of the launch of the local food guide produced by the Growing Abundance Project.
The three guest chefs, Jo from the Taste of the Orient, Georgie from the Elphinstone Hotel and Alex from the Good Table faced down the 30 minute challenge to produce two dishes made from the fresh LOCAL only ingredients.
The competition was fast & furious with the 6 judges eventually handing over the “naked chef” prize to Alex from the Good Table.
Well done to all the Growing Abundance team. The Local Food Guide outlining local food producers , their produce and where it can be found is available at :Harry & Georges 170 Barker St, Castlemaine, Green Goes The Grocer, 29a Templeton St, Castlemaine, Castlemaine Fruit Supplies 73 Mostyn St Castlemaine, Maldon 50km Local, 63 Main St Maldon & The Little Red Apple, 8795 Midland Highway, Barkers Creek
Adventurer of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch to visit Castlemaine
As advertised last newsletter Tim Silverwood will be in Castlemaine in the Ray Bradfields room December 6th at 7 pm. Tim will be talking about ocean pollution, plastics in our environment and his role as an Ambassador of Clean up Australia at a 45 minute talk and short movie.
Read more about Tim and his work here…. www.take3.org.au
If you must buy a Christmas present….consider this buy a Solar installations in Timor Leste
Since 2001, the Alternative Technology Association has installed solar lighting and power systems in over 1000 homes, community centres, schools, hospitals and training centres in remote villages in Timor Leste. Read more about the solar work in Timor here.
Solar panels: a perfect christmas present!
To support ATA’s work in East Timor give the gift of light this Christmas! Buy a solar panel for an East Timorese family for $50 or a whole solar system for $250.
CERES green Energy Day
Saturday 3 December 2011 CERES and RMIT are presenting a day dedicated to showcasing the latest renewable energy projects. More information in the CERES website.
During the day there will be tours of CERES’s EcoHouse,an electric bike conversion display & displays on hydrogen powered truck, PVC Cells and the Electric Car.
NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Explainer: Australia’s carbon price mechanism in six dot points
This simple site explains how the Australia’s carbon price mechanism works in six key points.
Pop-up restaurant uses only solar energy for cooking
Solar kitchen restuarant in sunny.....Findland !
Lapin Kulta Solar Kitchen Restaurant is a pop-up restaurant which recently toured Europe, cooking food using only the energy of the sun. This restaurant uses solar cookers….in Finland. Read more here.
Three Wind power good news stories
1. Wind Electricity To Be Fully Competitive With Natural Gas by 2016
The best wind farms in the world are already competitive with coal, gas and nuclear plants. But over the next five years, continued performance improvements and cost reductions will bring the average onshore wind plant in line with cheap natural gas, even without a price on carbon, according analysis from Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
2.Wind Could Become Brazil’s Second Power Generation Source in 2015
Brazil intends to boost installed wind power generation capacity to 11.5 GW by 2020 from a mere 1.5 GW. Partly driven by government support and partly driven by innovation that has seen building a wind power plant in Brazil become 70 percent cheaper with wind power generation prices falling to around 100 reais (US$55) per MWh.
3. What do Lego, German Banks and USA Mobile phone makers have in common?….they have all signed Up for New WindMade Label !
Lego wind turbine now made by Wind Power
Several major companies—including some of the world’s most familiar commercial names—have procured or pledged to procure at least 25 percent of their electricity consumption from wind energy.
The companies, which include Motorola Mobility, Deutsche Bank, and Bloomberg, are pioneering the use of the world’s first wind power consumer label. The New York City event was hosted by WindMade and the UN Global Compact.
Some of the WindMade corporate pioneers and founders are:
Motorola Mobility ; Deutsche Bank ;Better Place ;Widex & LEGO Group.
And a solar good news story….Baseload Solar Power station opens for 24 solar power
The world’s first power plant capable of generating solar energy 24 hours a day without interruption was formally inaugurated in Spain this month by Torresol Energy near Seville, in Andalusia was reported in the New York Times this week.
It is the world’s first commercial plant to use molten salt, rather than oil, to transfer heat generated from concentrated sunlight. The use of salt allows the plant to operate at temperatures of more than 550 degrees Celsius (1,022 Fahrenheit).
Storing the hot salt also allows electricity generation to continue for as long as 15 hours, even when there is no sunshine — a significant advance in solar generating capability.
If you want to see these big baseload solar plants built in Australia make a submission to the Clean Energy Finance Corporation here.
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