NEW ZEALAND ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT DIGEST   October 3, 2004             


ALTERNATIVE ENERGY

€    Inventor taps into a new energy source currents
The Sydney Morning Herald 27/09/2004. A self-taught inventor has signed a contract with Country Energy, one of the country’s biggest power grids, to test a new source of clean and renewable electricity that will harness ocean currents and has the potential to drastically reduce electricity costs on islands. Mick Perry, 42, a former auto-electrician and tuna fisherman, is the driving force behind the $3 million underwater generator, the Aquanator, which will be moored in the mouth of the Clarence River at Maclean in northern NSW. Currents of about 2.5 knots will rotate aquafoils on the generator, which is 57 metres across and nine metres high, producing one megawatt of electricity - enough to power 660 households daily. More… http://smh.com.au/articles/2004/09/26/1096137100758.html

€    Australian firm eyes niche market with mini LNG plant
Reuters 30/09/2004. Soaring global demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG) is spawning more and more mega-sized projects, but an Australian company is pitching a mini version to service markets it says are too small for the big suppliers. “Our strategy is to supply customers who are suffering high energy prices, who don’t have access to natural gas and are too small for the Woodsides of this world to get their head around,” said Maurice Brand, founder and managing director of Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd. The Perth-based firm, listed on the Australian stock exchange two weeks ago, is looking to use stranded gas reserves – gas discoveries for which there is no market – to build projects of up to 1000 tonnes per day capacity at a cost excluding gas field development of up to $150 million. More…
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3049170a6026,00.html

€    Toyota doubles Prius hybrid cars for US market
NZPA 01/10/2004. Toyota Motor Corp said today it will double the number of Prius hybrid-electric cars that it sends to the US market to 100,000 units annually next year, making it the Japanese automaker’s third best-selling sedan. Rising US gasoline prices have boosted demand for the Japan-made Prius sedan, which can get up to 23km per litre. Buyers in some parts of the United States wait up to six months for their cars to arrive. The futuristic-looking sedan, which has a sticker price of $US20,875 ($NZ31,550), has evolved from being a technological novelty to a mainstream car. More… http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3051317a7693,00.html

ENERGY INDUSTRY

€    Carve-up on cards in NGC stake sale
   The New Zealand Herald 04/10/2004. A carve-up is one of the possibilities on the cards for billion-dollar listed gas company NGC. Indicative bids are due on Wednesday for the 66 per cent stake in the company held by AGL of Australia. Finance industry sources say the bidders will include at least one consortium - and possibly more - whose members would split the business up. One bidder grouping is believed to include the state-owned Genesis Power and Australian infrastructure investor Duet. NGC’s businesses include gas trading, gas transmission and distribution, gas and LPG processing, LPG trading, and metering.
More… http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/businessstorydisplay.cfm?storyID=3597082&thesection=business&thesubsection=energy&thesecondsubsection=fossilfuels&thetickercode=NGC 

€    Pressure goes on Prime bid
The Dominion Post 04/10/2004. New Plymouth District Council is threatening to pull out of the sale of its Powerco stake unless it gets a promised cash deal just as Australia’s Prime Infrastructure is about to launch its takeover bid. Prime’s $2.15-a-share bid opens today and closes on November 2. If the council and two community trusts selling their combined 53.65% stake to Prime are legally able to withdraw, Prime’s takeover bid would collapse. Prime chief executive Chris Chapman said yesterday that the council and trusts were obliged to accept its takeover offer. “I’m not going to engage in that discussion because I don’t believe it will get to that,” he said.
More… http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3052983a13,00.html

€    Transpower calls for Auckland Powerline ideas
NZPA 29/09/2004. National grid operator Transpower is calling for anyone with ideas that could delay the need for new powerlines in Auckland to come forward. Transpower was planning up to $1.5 billion of new investment. Before it could be approved, it needed to assure the Electricity Commission there was not a better way of doing the job. It has publicly asked for possible “non-transmission” alternatives for meeting the rapidly increasing demand in Auckland and Northland. This could include new power stations or ways of reducing peak demand. Instead of big power stations and long transmission lines, there was an increasing trend towards smaller generators, built closer to where the electricity was actually needed. More… http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3048142a13,00.html

€    Origin Purchases Stake In Contact
Reuters 01/10/2004. Australia’s Origin Energy has completed its NZ$1.14 billion purchase of a majority stake in New Zealand power company Contact Energy, the Wellington-based firm said.  Origin, Australia’s number two energy retailer, had acquired 51.22% of Contact’s shares from US-based Edison International and given notice that its takeover offer was now unconditional, Contact said in a statement.
More … http://xtramsn.co.nz/business/0,,5113-3740393,00.html

OIL INDUSTRY

€    NZ’s oil flow on a ‘knife edge’
The Dominion Post 02/10/2004. New Zealand’s oil supplies are on a perpetual knife edge, relying on “daily miracles” just to get by, a top former industry manager says. With Kiwi motorists and companies facing continued soaring oil prices, former New Zealand Refinery Company commercial manager Robin Gunston says our supplies are always in “crisis”. In the past the shortage had become so bad it had caused jet fuel shortages and areas to run dry of diesel and petrol. “We’ve never had a reserve. We’re always operating in a crisis,” he said. “We have barely enough to meet the daily operational needs of the country. We’re just shuffling it around.”
More … http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3051760a10,00.html

GLOBAL WARMING

€    Ozone hole smaller than last year
NZPA 01/10/2004. The ozone hole over Antarctica is about
20% smaller than at the same time last year, but could still pose some risks for New Zealanders this summer, government scientists say. National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa) scientist Stephen Wood said today measurements taken at Scott Base, Antarctica, were consistent with NASA satellite data suggesting the hole had shrunk back 20% from record levels recorded in 2003. “There is slightly more ozone this year than the average for recent years,” Dr Wood said in a statement.
More… http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3051468a7693,00.html

POLLUTION

€    Pollution a priority for Transit
The Dominion Post 01/10/2004. Traffic pollution is to become a much bigger concern for Transit New Zealand, chief executive Rick van Barneveld says. Emissions and noise from vehicles would play a bigger part in Transit’s planning for new road projects and maintenance of existing roads, he told yesterday’s meeting of the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council’s land transport committee. “The Government is dead serious on this,” Mr van Barneveld said.
More… http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3050463a7693,00.html

€    Polluting plant’s consents extended
Waikato Times 02/10/2004. A Tuakau rendering plant has been singled out as one of the worst polluters in the Waikato. Simon O’Rourke reports. A Tuakau rendering plant polluting the Waikato River and air has had resource consents extended. This is despite an Environment Waikato acknowledgement that since 1996 the factory has made minimal effort to assess odour problems, while appealing for a relaxation of standards relating to its waste water treatment. The plant discharges water into the Waikato River. Rendering plants process meat and bone, slaughterhouse waste and supermarket reject material, to produce items such as pet food and soap.
More…http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3051819a7693,00.html  

CONSERVATION

€    DOC has birds wired for sound
The Daily News 01/10/2004. Tui and wood pigeons are being head-hunted by Department of Conservation bird researchers in a bid to learn more about the species. Over the past two months, Nik Joice and Kirsty Moran have fitted five tui and six kereru (wood pigeons) with radio transmitters as part of a three-year study of their movements, preferred food and nesting habits. They aim to catch 20 birds from each native species. In the last year, the pair have been monitoring tui and kereru within a 30km radius of New Plymouth.
More... http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3051272a7693,00.html

€    Minister pleased with lahar warning system
NZPA  30/09/2004. More than 50 years on from the tragedy at Tangiwai, a lahar early warning system is finally in place and operational on Mt Ruapehu. The multi-million dollar system which includes volcanic flood sensors and automatic gates, was tested for the first time yesterday during a multi-agency civil defence response exercise. Conservation Minister Chris Carter, in the Ruapehu district to observe the exercise, said the results of the system test were “very positive”. He said lahars from Ruapehu had been an ongoing hazard for more than a century but now people living in the district had early warning of and protection from emergencies on one of the most active lahar paths in the world.
More… http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3049205a7693,00.html

€    Marae courses for DOC staff cost $650,000
The Dominion Post 04/10/2004. Thousands of Conservation Department workers have been on week-long marae-based courses at a cost of $650,000 over five years. National Party conservation spokesman Simon Power questioned yesterday the value of the courses, which he said were not assessed and took staff away from key work such as protecting threatened species. The department is defending the programme. A spokesman said it was highly rated by staff and provided “valuable” insights into Maori perspectives on issues such as pest control.
More… http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3053133a8153,00.html

WASTE DISPOSAL

€    Marae waste disposal seen as potential model in health study
NZPA 01/10/2004. New research aims to find Maori solutions to contamination of water and soil caused by failing sewerage and wastewater disposal systems in rural New Zealand. Waste disposal on rural marae – often through septic tank systems – will be studied in the course of developing model solutions for environmental health issues. The three-year Health Research Council-funded project will involve a partnership between Environmental Science and Research and Hauroa Hokianga. Project leader Dr Jeff Foote told the latest ESR Briefing newsletter that failing sewerage treatment in rural New Zealand was a likely cause of some public health problems in rural Maori communities.
More…http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3051478a8153,00.html

BIOSECURITY

€    Election promises trouble for NZ apples
The New Zealand Herald 01/10/2004. An Australian Government election promise that will further delay New Zealand apple imports across the Tasman has outraged local growers. Pipfruit New Zealand chairman Phil Alison yesterday described the promise as “unbelievably frustrating”. He said growers had lobbied long and hard for an 83-year ban on New Zealand apples - because of the fireblight disease - to be reconsidered by the Australian Government.  
More… http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/businessstorydisplay.cfm?storyID=3596342&thesection=business&thesubsection=trade&thesecondsubsection=exports&thetickercode=

€    Biotech’s harsh lesson: focus on the ‘do-able’
The Sunday Star-Times 03/10/2004. Players in New Zealand’s fledgling biotechnology industry - a key pillar of the government’s economic development strategy - have learned a harsh lesson. Peter Lee, the out-going head of Genesis Research unit AgriGenesis, recalls a focus group of American experts examining whether his business had a future. The verdict was not good. “We were told we were just far too diverse, biting off far too much for a small company to be credible. In other words, we needed to focus,” says Lee. To do so, AgriGenesis had to cut more than 29 job losses, including several senior scientists, halve the size of the company and slash its projects from eight to three.
More…http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3052869a13,00.html 



<< back