The largest wind farm in the Southern Hemisphere will be built in Australia at Macarthur near Hamilton, 260km west of Melbourne, Victoria.

Largest wind farm in the

Southern Hemisphere

to be built in Australia

The largest wind farm in the Southern Hemisphere will be built in Australia at Macarthur near Hamilton, 260km west of Melbourne, Victoria. Comprising 140 Vestas V112-3.0 MW wind turbine generators, the 420 MW Macarthur Wind Farm will have the capacity to power more than 220,000 average Victorian homes and abate more than 1.7 million tons of greenhouse gases every year – the equivalent of taking more than 420,000 cars off the road each year.

Power companies AGL and Meridian will each fund 50 percent of the capital construction costs, while AGL will acquire all of the wind farm’s energy output and renewable energy certificates. Recent enhancements to the Australian Government’s 2020 Renewable Energy Target (RET) scheme will require around 9,500 MW of new renewable energy generation capacity to be built this decade. The Macarthur Wind Farm is expected to be fully operational in 2013 at a time when it will be needed to meet the legislated demand for Renewable Energy Certificates under the RET scheme.

At the formal launch of the project the Premier of Victoria, John Brumby, said, “This $1 billion project will help cut emissions, create new jobs and provide clean energy for Victorians. Attracting a renewable project of this scale to Victoria is yet another example of how Victoria is leading the way towards a clean energy future.”

The Macarthur site is one of the first to utilize Vestas’ new 3.0 MW V112 turbines which AGL CEO and Managing Director, Michael Fraser says has allowed the project to increase the capacity of the wind farm while reducing the number of towers from 174 to 140.

The V112-3.0 MW turbines are designed for low and medium wind sites and, according to Vestas, deliver high productivity due to their large swept area, higher rotor efficiency and better serviceability and reliability. With a rotor diameter of 112m (367ft), swept area of 9,852m2, cut-in wind speed of 3 m/s and cut-out wind speed of 25m/s, they should be well suited to the Macarthur site that has an average wind speed of 7.6m/s.

The first turbines are expected on site during Q3 2011, with the whole project expected to be completed by the first half of 2013.

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha

High-profile group

to champion broadband

Clancy Yeates

April 27, 2011

THE Gillard government is planning to enlist a clutch of high-profile Australians, including the conservationist Tim Flannery and the retired High Court judge Michael Kirby, to publicise the $36 billion national broadband network.

The 12 people, called ”NBN champions” and with diverse backgrounds – from business, science, academia and environmentalism – have been approached in an attempt to highlight the broad potential of the network.

Also included on the shortlist are: a co-founder of the environmental group Planet Ark, Jon Dee; the executive director of development at the CSIRO, James Bradfield Moody; the managing director of the Australian Telecommunications Users Group, Rosemary Sinclair; and the technology expert and ”Gadget Guy” Peter Blasina.

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The NBN champions come amid a broader push to explain the potential of the network being developed within the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy.

”The department is seeking to partner with prominent Australians who are experts in their field to help households and businesses to better understand how they can benefit from high-speed broadband,” a spokeswoman for the Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, said.

”Because of their expertise, our proposed partners are ideally placed to explain how high-speed broadband can help in areas such as health, education, business and innovation.” Participation was voluntary, she said.

Details of the campaign are expected next month, when the government is set to unveil a strategy for turning Australia into a ”world-leading” digital economy by 2020, when the network is due to be nearly complete.

Under the national digital economy strategy, the government has pledged to introduce policies that will help households and businesses make the most of the network, as well as providing a ”road map of what an NBN-enabled world will look like”.

It is unclear if the government is planning to launch an advertising campaign as part of the strategy; in the lead-up to last year’s federal election a $16 million ad campaign attracted controversy. The opposition criticised the move at the time, saying it breached guidelines because the broadband network had not been legislated for, but the campaign was allowed by the Department of Finance.

ASIC gives banks green light

to relax loan rules

ASIC has ruled that retirees have a right to downsize and sell. Picture: Liam Kidston.

THE corporate regulator has ended months of confusion for banks, ordering them to relax the purse strings and resume lending to middle-aged and older Australians.

Since responsible lending guidelines were introduced in January, banks and non-bank lenders have been rejecting credit applications from middle-aged people who lack a substantial retirement nest egg.

The Australian Securities and Investment Commission has now clarified its guidelines and confirmed retirees have a right to downsize and sell.

In a revised guidance note ASIC told lenders they must ask more questions to determine whether a middle-aged applicant will be able to repay a 25-year owner-occupier mortgage loan when they are due to retire in 10 years, for example.

ASIC commissioner Peter Boxall said some lenders were “adopting an unnecessarily restrictive approach to meeting the responsible lending requirements.”

“We are concerned by reports of older borrowers whose employment will reduce, or cease, before the end of the loan term, being refused loans,” he said.

“The new responsible lending requirements in the National Credit Act are an important protection for consumers, but they should not be an inflexible barrier to credit for any segment of the population, and should not prevent consumers obtaining credit that they can reasonably afford.”

Some people in their forties and fifties have had 25-year mortgage applications rejected because they will retire before the loan term is finished.

Re/MAX Real Estate agent Geoff Baldwin said it was a discriminatory practice.

“Responsible lending requirements have led to banks and lenders discriminating against older applicants,” he said.

Lisa Montgomery, chief executive of non-bank mortgage lender RESI Home Loans, told BusinessDaily that mortgage insurers were rejecting loan applications from people in their fifties who lack substantial superannuation savings.

“Our mortgage insurer rejected an application we took for an 80 per cent LVR loan from a 59-year-old woman with $20,000 in super,” she said.

“In that situation the borrower just couldn’t demonstrate an exit strategy from the loan via investments, super, continued income or the sale of other assets.”

The 59-year-old mortgage applicant would “definitely” have been approved for a loan, Ms Montgomery said, had the application been received before the new responsible lending guidelines began in January.

Ms Montgomery said she supported the new responsible lending guidelines and said nobody wanted to hear stories about pensioners facing repossession because they couldn’t repay a mortgage.

Geoff Baldwin said the new guidelines meant borrowers, and even refinancers, who were over 40 years old could be prevented from buying a large family home and downsizing upon retirement.

Dominant mortgage insurance company Genworth Financial told BusinessDaily that all credit decisions were the responsibility of the lenders.

But lenders say that the two big mortgage insurers have shied away from approving insurance for loans to older people with little or no superannuation or other assets.

Mortgage insurance is usually required for any mortgage with a loan to valuation ratio over 80 per cent.

“Let’s be clear about this . . . thanks to compulsory superannuation, most people have a balance they can point to. This affects a minority of people who do not have a lot of money in super or any other investments.”

The average balance for those within 10 years of retirement is about $142,000 according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Association of Super Funds.

But many people have little or no super, including half of all women between 45 and 59 years old who have less than $8000, according to the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling.

Greg Kirk, senior executive leader for Deposit Taking, Credit and Insurance at ASIC said the law has not changed in relation to older borrowers and lenders are still required to make sure that the borrower will be able to repay the loan without substantial hardship.

“We have issued this clarification to the lending guidelines in response to what Lisa Montgomery and others have been reported to have said recently,” he said.

“If there is a reasonable plan to sell and downsize, for example, and the lender has verified that there is likely to be enough equity to pay off the loan, then that loan would be likely to be suitable.

“While at first view it would seem that the loan would be unsuitable under responsible lending, that initial assessment is rebuttable.

“The lender has to ask questions and make reasonable inquires to satisfy themselves about the borrowers’ financial plan and their circumstances and take reasonable steps to verify that.

“That is what responsible lending is all about.”

The law may not have changed but ASIC’s revised guidelines now directly address the main concern of older borrowers. “It seems we have gained some real ground here,” real estate agent Geoff Baldwin says.

The 59-year-old woman who was recently rejected for a mortgage by RESI may like to reapply.

Anzac spirit is everywhere

Lest we forget

Henry Sapiecha

Photos taken & published by Henry Sapiecha

Ozone reduces fungal spoilage

of fruits and vegetables

We’ve all done it – thrown out fruit or vegetables because they went rotten. Fungal contamination is the most common cause of spoilage of fresh produce, with an estimated 30 percent of harvested fruit and veggies falling victim to it. Countermeasures currently including synthetic fungicides and pre-package sanitation treatments involving the use of chlorine or bromine. Now a team of scientists from Britain’s Newcastle University have discovered that much more effective and human-friendly results can be obtained by treating produce with ozone.

Led by microbiologist Dr. Ian Singleton and plant biologist Prof. Jerry Barnes, the Newcastle researchers experimented with storing fresh fruit such as strawberries, tomatoes, grapes and plums in an environment that contained low levels of gaseous ozone. Not only was the production of fungal spores substantially reduced, but lesions on already-infected fruit became less visible. After eight days in the environment, the produce showed almost 95 percent less spoilage than would otherwise have occurred – depending on the specific fruit and pre-existing levels of infection.

It was also found that tomatoes exposed to ozone became more fungus-resistant, even once they were removed from the ozone gas. Exposed tomatoes were 60 percent less likely to develop fungal lesions, potentially boosting their shelf life by two to five days. While the scientists can’t explain exactly what forces are at work behind the reaction, they suggest that some sort of memory- or vaccination-like effect is likely taking place. They are now looking into the specific amounts of ozone and lengths of exposure that work best for individual types of fruit and vegetables, as too much ozone can also cause spoilage.

“There are public concerns over pesticide residues on fresh produce” said Singleton. “Ozone is a viable alternative to pesticides as it is safe to use and effective against a wide spectrum of micro-organisms. Importantly, it leaves no detectable residues in contrast to traditional methods of preserving fresh produce.”

In the case of the tomatoes, the amounts of ozone involved were said to be similar to those which the fruit would be exposed to outside on a sunny day.

The research was recently presented at the Society for General Microbiology’s Spring Conference in Harrogate, England

Scientists develop

dairy version of human milk

Cows on a dairy farm near Kiama on the NSW South Coast. Photo: Louie Douvis

SCIENTISTS in China have created genetically modified cows that produce ”human” milk.

They successfully introduced human genes into 200 cows to produce milk with the same properties as human breast milk.

Human milk contains high quantities of nutrients that can help boost the immune system of babies.

The scientists behind the research believe that milk from herds of genetically modified cows can provide an alternative to human breast milk and formula milk for babies, which is often criticised as being an inferior substitute.

They said genetically modified dairy products from herds of similar cows could be sold in supermarkets and the research has the backing of a big biotechnology company.

British scientists said it had the potential to be of huge benefit, but the work is likely to inflame opposition to genetically modified foods.

Critics of the technology and animal welfare groups reacted angrily to the research, questioning the safety of milk from genetically modified animals and its effect on the cattle’s health.

Professor Ning Li, the scientist who led the research and the director of the State Key Laboratory for AgroBiotechnology at the China Agricultural University, insisted that the genetically modified milk would be as safe to drink as milk from ordinary cows.

”The milk tastes stronger than normal milk,” he said. ”Within 10 years, people will be able to pick up these products at the supermarket.”

The rules on research into genetically modified food are more relaxed in China than in Europe and its scientists are leading the way in the field.

The researchers used cloning technology to introduce human genes into the DNA of cows before the genetically modified embryos were implanted.

Writing in the journal Public Library of Science One, the researchers said they were able to create cows that produced milk containing a human protein called lysozyme, which is found in large quantities in human breast milk and helps to protect infants from bacterial infections.

The director of GeneWatch UK, Helen Wallace, said: ”We have major concerns about this research. There are welfare issues with genetically modified animals as you get high numbers of stillbirths.

”There is a question about whether milk from these cows is going to be safe for humans.”

A spokesman for the RSPCA said the organisation was ”extremely concerned”.

Telegraph, London

Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha