Australia to have 100% Renewable Energy by 2020

Australia is on a path to rely on 100% on renewable energy sources by 2020. It was based on the research by Melbourne University’s Energy Research Institute through its Evironmental group Beyond Zero Emissions which was presented to the Australian Parliament.

The Zero Carbon Australia Stationary Energy report claims at a price of A$37bn ($32.4bn) a year Australia can totally replace fossil fuel baseload electricity using renewable energy technology that is already available today.

Technically, the strategy aims at a mix of 60% of energy from solar thermal with molten salt storage and 40% from wind power with possibility of advanced solar photovoltaic (PV) to hit grid parity between 2015-20.

Petronas Entering Cameroon

Malaysian national oil company, Petroliam Nasional (Petronas) and Noble Energy have been granted a production sharing contract offshore Douala in Cameroon. Societe Nationale des Hydrocarbures (SNH), the national petroleum company of Cameroon has confirmed that the deal was to develop the Gulk of Guinea with exploration rights worth US$119 millions.

The deal is seen as an extension to Noble-Petronas current involvement in Cameroon's YoYo gas project.

The exploration right is reported to contain oil reserves of between 40 million and 70 million bbl with SNH holding 25% interest in production right. Both Petronas and Noble Energy are given a 25-year exploitation license renewable for ten additional years.