Mixed Greens: Bluglass shares surge again on LED results

Shares in Australian LED technology developer BluGlass have jumped sharply again, after reaching yet another milestone on the development of what it says is a “world first” reduction in impurities in its gallium nitrade films – and the means to produce LEDs and solar cells at a much more efficient rate and deliver higher performance. The company said its “low temperature” thin film technology, which is known as “Remote Plasma Chemical Vapour Deposition (RPCVD) and was developed after 15 years of research at Macquarie University, has been independently verified.

The company’s stock surged more than 50 per cent on Thursday and Friday, meaning it has now trebled in price since its first announcement in late October. The company is valued at nearly $80 million. The company says it can commercialise the technology for LED manufacture. “This is a pivotal moment for the company,” said CEO Giles Bourne. The company says that LEDs could save enough energy to close 133 large scale fossil fuel or nuclear plants.

Meanwhile …

The Clean Energy Council has re-elected AGL Energy CEO Michael Fraser as chair of the organization and voted on two new board members – Jack Curtis from First Solar, which recently completed the country’s first utility scale solar plant in WA, and Andrea Fontana, from Spanish group FRV, which plans to build Australia second utility scale solar plant in the ACT. Roy Adair, CEO of Hydro Tasmania, was returned as deputy chair and Jeremy Schultz from legal firm Finlaysons was also re-elected as a director. The other directors are Martin Jones from CSR, Ken McAlpine from wind turbine manufacturer Vestas, John Susa from Trina Solar, and Lane Crockett from renewable energy group Pacific Hydro.

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency Ahas allocated $3.6 million to support a biogas project involving agricultural waste and mallee biomass in Western Australia. The money, awarded from the Emerging Renewables Program, will support a $6.7 million project to look at how various types of biomass can be turned into a gas that can then be used to generate electricity. This particular project – involving Curtin University, Cryofin, Verve Energy and the Oil Mallee Association of Australia – will look at small scale applications in remote areas away from the electricity network.

ARENA next week also begins a series of consultations on prospects for its Regional Renewables Program. CEO Ivor Frischknecht said the mining sector was expected to provide the strongest growth in energy demand, and remote areas had the best renewables resources and the highest cost of energy. “We believe this is an area where we can really change the course of how electricity is supplied in Australia,” he said. Community meetings will be held in Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth, Karratha, Darwin and Cairns.

Meanwhile, the Federal government has made an $8.2 million grant from its to Clean Technology Investment Program allow invest in low carbon machinery at a Dongwha Timbers sawmill in Bombala . Dongwha will invest over $16 million into the project which is expected to reduce the mill’s carbon emissions intensity by more than one-third and improve energy efficiency by 60 per cent.

Geodynamics has reported another good flow test from its Habanero 4 well, this time after local “stimulation” or fracturing of the rock. It recorded an average of 38 kg/second for 104 minutes at over 29 MPa (4,200 psi) – which it says highlights the fact that the stimulation has enhanced the well’s productivity by improving the connection between the well and the fracture zone. The better the flow, the easier it is to extract the heat from deep beneath the ground to generate electricity. More tests are planned before a 1MW pilot plant is built early next year.