Journal articles on the topic 'Photovoltaic power generation Economic aspects Australia'

We use PVsyst software to simulate and calculate the first year electricity generation of 4 MW distributed photovoltaic power generation project. In order to analyze and select the suitable power plant operation mode, the total generating capacity of photovoltaic power station in 25 years has been estimated by using component attenuation of 25 years. This research reports on the findings shown by PVsyst software that evaluates the economy aspects brought by two kinds of operation modes which are full grid access mode and spontaneous use of residual power grid access mode. The research content has reference value for the construction of roof distributed photovoltaic power station in China.

The paper presents the plan and design of the idea of the microgrid at the Faculty of Technical Sciences in Novi Sad (FTN NS) in the university campus, which is based on the application of several different distributed energy sources. The main distributed energy sources used and planned for the distributed electricity generation in the microgrid “FTN NS” are the photovoltaic power plant with a nominal output of 9.6 kW, a photovoltaic power plant with a nominal output power of 16.3 kW, a wind power plant with a nominal output power of 2 kW, a cogeneration plant for combined heat and power production of the nominal output power of 10 kWe + 17.5 kWt, two electric vehicles of 4 kW and 2.5 kW power, and battery energy storage system with a total capacity of 36 kWh. The paper describes the main technical characteristics, the estimation of electricity generation and the estimation of the amount of non-polluted gaseous greenhouse effect for each distributed source of energy. In order to verify the justification of the application of the proposed microgrid concept, a detailed techno-economic and ecological analysis of the aspects of the application of distributed energy sources in the microgrid “FTN NS” was carried out in the paper.

Abstract The development of photovoltaic power generation is of great significance to the realization of double carbon goals. The construction of photovoltaic power stations in mountain areas can save land resources. In this paper, the construction of a 31.5 MW photovoltaic power station in the mountainous area of Yunnan Province, China is analyzed in detail from the aspects of solar energy resource evaluation, and photovoltaic system design, power generation estimation, as well as economic and environmental benefits. The results show that the average sunshine radiation in this area is 5764.3 MJ/m2, which is suitable for building photovoltaic power stations. 24 units are designed with a total of 86320 photovoltaic modules, and the capacity of each module is 365 Wp. Fixed installation is adopted, and the most suitable inclination angle is 28° (south area) and 15° (north area). Correspondingly, the center distance of the front and rear arrays in the south area and north areas is 6 m and 12 m, respectively. The project is economically feasible and has significant environmental benefits.

Development of Renewable Energy System (RES) in Indonesia is an alternative solution for an increasing of fuel-based energy demand problem. Higher educational institutes may contribute to reducing the energy consumption by implementing green campus policies which include creating a medium-scale solar power installation. The research presents the feasibility analysis of photovoltaic power generation plants development in a university in the southern part of Java Island, Indonesia. In this article, different on/off-grid photovoltaic systems were considered in one of the campuses located in rural area. The technical viability of the proposed solar energy system is analyzed using HOMER software. The economic aspects of the plant are analyzed based on standard parameters, the NPC (Net Present Cost) and IRR (Internal Rate of Return) methods. The simulation studies are carried out to identify technical and cost-effective configuration. Feasibility study of the Photovoltaic energy generation was conducted by revealing their potential contributions and applicabilities. This study gives emphasis to the techno-economic analysis of renovating the energy supply system of a grid-connected large office building through an RES. Finally, results of the research can be used as the preference for the relevant stakeholders and policymakers in developing the grid-connected RES system.

The paper shows a method of optimizing local initiatives in the energy sector, such as energy cooperatives and energy clusters. The aim of optimization is to determine the structure of generation sources and energy storage in order to minimize energy costs. The analysis is carried out for the time horizon of one year, with an hourly increment, taking into account various RES (wind turbines (WT), photovoltaic installations (PV), and biogas power plant (BG)) and loads (residential, commercial, and industrial). Generation sources and loads are characterized by generation/demand profiles in order to take into account their variability. The optimization was carried out taking into account the technical aspects of the operation of distribution systems, such as power flows and losses, voltage levels in nodes, and power exchange with the transmission system, and economic aspects, such as capital and fixed and variable operating costs. The method was calculated by sixteen simulation scenarios using Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP).

ABSTRACT Purpose: To explore financial alternatives to implement PV power generation projects based on the provisions of Normative Resolution n. 482/2012 of the Brazilian Electricity Regulatory Agency (Aneel). This regulation sets forth the general conditions to the access of micro- and minigeneration granted to the electric energy distribution systems through the energy product offset method. Originality/gap/relevance/implications: This paper discusses the need for regulatory changes, greater government participation in the granting of financial and tax incentives so that PV solar power technology in distributed generation can be financially viable for residential consumers. Key methodological aspects: Investment analysis in PV systems used the Net Present Value (NPV) valuation method. The research assessed two scenarios for Grid-Connected PV Systems (GCPVSs), with different solar power usage levels for a residential consumer. Summary of key results: The results point to a low financial viability in the implementation of distributed microgeneration projects, suggesting the need to remove the tax burden and reduce financing costs. Key considerations/conclusions: The study shows the need of flexibilization of the Brazilian regulatory model, with changes that enable the expansion of renewable energy offers, with positive economic outcomes for tariff affordability. Tariff benefits from distributed microgeneration can positively reflect on captive customers, provided that investment risks are reduced.

This paper presents a profit-based self-scheduling framework for generation company participation in energy and ancillary service markets under multi-constrained environment with renewable energy participation. The participation strategies of generation company include various objectives incorporating economic (profit maximization), environmental (emission minimization), and social (maximum load satisfaction) aspects. The total objective under single, dual and multi-constrained approaches is formulated along with appropriate constraints for energy, spinning reserve, and non-spinning reserve offerings in various markets. In addition, the impact of renewable energy participation in energy market on scheduling decisions of generation company in different markets is also examined. The renewable energy independent power producers namely wind energy and solar photovoltaic energy generators are considered in this study. The sensitivity analysis is also carried out to examine the impact of reserve deployment probability on optimal offerings and generation company surplus in energy as well as ancillary service markets. To solve the proposed framework, binary fireworks algorithm is used, considering the binary natured commitment problem of generation company’s thermal units. The simulation results of proposed framework tested using thermal units, wind energy independent power producer, solar photovoltaic independent power producer are presented for base case and various scenarios involving single, dual and multi objectives. The comparison shows the effectiveness of proposed multi-constrained approach in arriving at optimal offering of generation company under economic, environmental and social constraints. Therefore, this integrated approach can prove to be an effective tool for generation company participation in energy and ancillary service market under renewable participation.

<p>This paper provides an overview of the global trends in utility-scale photovoltaic (PV) installed capacity. This paper also presents a comparison of grid-connection requirements of six countries in the continents of Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia for utility-scale PV generators in normal and abnormal grid conditions. Many country-based grid codes and international standards (IEEE 1547) for interconnection of inverter-based renewable energy generators are demanding stricter grid-connection compliance from utility-scale PV generators to ensure power system safety and reliability as its penetration level increases. This paper then discusses the economic and technical impacts, and explores the preparedness of PV generation systems in meeting the grid code requirements.</p>

Due to their emission-free operation and high efficiency, photovoltaic cells (PVCs) have been one of the candidates for next-generation “green” power generators. However, PVCs require prolonged exposure to sunlight to work, resulting in elevated temperatures and worsened performances. To overcome this shortcoming, photovoltaic–thermal collector (PVT) systems are used to cool down PVCs, leaving the waste heat unrecovered. Fortunately, the development of thermoelectric generators (TEGs) provides a way to directly convert temperature gradients into electricity. The PVC–TEG hybrid system not only solves the problem of overheated solar cells but also improves the overall power output. In this review, we first discuss the basic principle of PVCs and TEGs, as well as the principle and basic configuration of the hybrid system. Then, the optimization of the hybrid system, including internal and external aspects, is elaborated. Furthermore, we compare the economic evaluation and power output of PVC and hybrid systems. Finally, a further outlook on the hybrid system is offered.

Energy for future sustainable economic development is considered one crucial issue in Vietnam. This article aims to investigate green scenarios for power generation in Vietnam by 2030. Four scenarios named as business as usual (BAU), low green (LG), high green (HG) and crisis have been proposed for power generation in Vietnam with projection to 2030. Three key factors have been selected for these scenarios, namely: (1) future fuel prices, (2) reduction of load demand caused by the penetration of LED technology and rooftop photovoltaic (PV) systems, and (3) the introduction of power generation from renewable sources. The least costly structure of power generation system has been found. CO2 emission reduction of HG in comparison to the BAU scenario and its effect on generation cost reduction are computed. Results show that BAU is the worst scenario in terms of CO2 emissions because of the higher proportion of power generation from coal and fossil fuels. LG and HG scenarios show their positive impacts both on CO2 emissions and cost reduction. HG is defined as the greenest scenario by its maximum potential on CO2 emission reduction (~146.92Mt CO2) in 2030. Additionally, selling mitigated CO2can make green scenarios more competitive to BAU and Crisis in terms of cost. Two ranges of generation cost (4.3-5.5 and 6.0-7.7US$cent/kWh) have been calculated and released in correspondence with low and high fuel price scenarios in the future. Using LED lamps and increasing the installed capacity of rooftop PVs may help reduce electric load demand. Along with the high contribution of renewable sources will make the HG scenario become more attractive both in environmental and economic aspects when the Crisis scenario comes. Generation costs of all scenarios shall become cheap enough for promoting economic development in Vietnam by 2030.

The operation of electrical systems is becoming more difficult due to the intermittent and seasonal characteristics of wind and solar energy. Such operational challenges can be minimized by the incorporation of energy storage systems, which play an important role in improving the stability and reliability of the grid. The economic viability of hybrid power plants with energy storage systems can be improved if regulations enable the remuneration of the various ancillary services that they can provide. Thus, the aim of this study is to provide a literature review regarding the economic feasibility of hybrid wind and solar photovoltaic generation with energy storage systems and its legal and regulatory aspects. Observing the global tendency, new studies should address the technical and economic feasibility of hybrid wind and solar photovoltaic generation in conjunction with, at least, one kind of energy storage system. In addition, it is very important to take into account the regulatory barriers and propose solutions to remove them. It was observed that although regulatory aspects can influence the economic feasibility of hybrid projects, little is known about this relationship among regulatory frameworks. The findings presented in this article are important not only for Brazil, but also for other countries that do not have regulations in force to support the use of energy storage systems in hybrid systems.

Solar and wind energy systems are attractive hybrid renewable energy systems suitable for various applications and most commonly for power generation. Compared to standalone wind and solar devices, hybrid systems have several advantages, including requiring lesser or no storage devices, being more reliable, damping the daily and seasonal variations and ensuring constant energy flows. This work aims to conduct a feasibility study and a performance analysis of a hybrid wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) power system in selected regions in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). A detailed review on the potential of PV, wind energy and hybrid energy systems in KSA, to reason out the potential areas of study, has identified two sites to be selected to carry out the investigation. A small size power system driven by solar and wind energy has been modeled and simulated for a year period in the selected locations. Various configuration schemes of integrated solar and wind with storage devices for such a small capacity system have been proposed and their respective performances have been evaluated. Techno-economic aspects have been included. The simulation results indicated that the developed model shows a promising future of implementing the renewable energy system in the eastern and southern regions of the Kingdom.&nbsp;

In the context of the ever-growing demand for energy, especially electric energy, from renewable sources, there has been great interest in photovoltaic energy generation. The speed at which the penetration of photovoltaic technology can grow, however, does not simply depend on supply and demand but also on the various policies and schemes adopted by countries around the world. These, in turn, play decisive roles in investment decisions and determine how projects are approached. Investors in photovoltaic (PV) systems need to be aware of the country-specific risk factors for investments and the regulatory environment. The aim of this research was to explore which managerial, economic and technical aspects should be considered in a causal approach when designing PV power plants with over 50 kW of capacity in the Hungarian regulatory environment for the success of the project. The innovative significance of the study is that it presents a validated, practically usable model for the realization of PV power plant projects in Hungary, which provides an in-depth description of the causal steps of their planning and establishment, based on real-life experience. The novel, practical benefit of the research is that it updates and clarifies the steps necessary for the design of PV power plants, since nowadays there are no current scientific works that provide knowledge of a sufficient depth regarding such projects, so these characteristics need to be investigated.

The energy sector in Chile demands a significant increase in renewable energy sources in the near future, and concentrated solar power (CSP) technologies are becoming increasingly competitive as compared to natural gas plants. Motivated by this, this paper presents a comparison between solar technologies such as hybrid plants and natural gas-based thermal technologies, as both technologies share several characteristics that are comparable and beneficial for the power grid. This comparison is made from an economic point of view using the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) metric and in terms of the systemic benefits related to flexibility, which is very much required due to the current decarbonization scenario of Chile’s energy matrix. The results show that the LCOE of the four hybrid plant models studied is lower than the LCOE of the gas plant. A solar hybrid plant configuration composed of a photovoltaic and solar tower plant (STP) with 13 h of storage and without generation restrictions has an LCOE 53 USD/MWh, while the natural gas technology evaluated with an 85% plant factor and a variable fuel cost of 2.0 USD/MMBtu has an LCOE of 86 USD/MWh. Thus, solar hybrid plants under a particular set of conditions are shown to be more cost-effective than their closest competitor for the Chilean grid while still providing significant dispatchability and flexibility.

Abstract The exploitation of renewable energies is a solution to the energy, economic and environmental issues related to the massive use of fossil resources. Thus, investing in renewable technologies is essential to achieve the carbon-neutral scenario within 2050. In this framework, geothermal energy may have a key role. In particular, power plants with a closed binary cycle are suitable for harnessing geothermal resources with low and medium enthalpy levels. They are prone to be integrated with other renewable devices to increase the global power output. Geothermal fluid can be drawn constantly from underground throughout the day and seasons. Conversely, the availability and intensity of solar energy depend on weather conditions and the time of year. In Italy, geothermal energy is currently harvested for continuous electricity generation, while solar energy is mainly used for photovoltaic generation. For small-to-medium size plants, rated between 5 and 20 MWe, the geothermal and thermodynamic solar hybridization may lead to relevant benefits for the economic competitiveness regarding separate photovoltaic or thermodynamic solar systems. This article aims to investigate the economic and environmental aspects of geothermal power plants with a closed binary cycle coupled with a topper cycle fed by linear parabolic solar collectors. The system operation in both design and off-design conditions was analysed, and exergo-economic and exergo-environmental simulations were conducted. The application site was selected near Torre Alfina (Italy). It has a water-dominant reservoir with a pressure of 44 bar, a temperature of 140 °C, and content of non-condensable gases (NCGs) approximately equal to 2% by weight. At the design point, the net power is 8.4 MW and the first and second principle efficiencies are 9.31% and 18.45%, respectively. The exergo-economic and exergo-environmental analyses indicate that the components with the highest economic and environmental impact are the condenser, the field of solar collectors, the evaporator, and the low-pressure turbine. The levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) is equal to 14.19 c€/kWh.

Photovoltaic solar energy systems is a renewable source that has raised great worldwide interest in recent decades. However, in Brazil still, the cost of photovoltaic (PV) systems is still high, and the current public policies are incipient. From 2014 to 2019, an average growth of 203% per year was observed in the installed PV power systems in Brazil. Such performance can also be justified by a greater understanding of externalities, i.e., external positive and negative impacts inherent to the generation of electric energy. The objective is to understand the economic effects of photovoltaic externalities from different perspectives. The following externalities were studied: air pollution; energy quality; construction element; thermal load and real estate valuation, and all of them were analyzed for the Brazilian scenario. The results indicated that the externality of air pollution, which has impacts on health, estimated from the society perspective, could be worth, at least, 4.12% of the price of the energy generated by PV systems. The losses avoided and the voltage profile, energy quality parameters, may account to 12.61% of the electricity price for utilities, and from the consumer perspective, the externality real estate value may be around 79.44% of the price of the electricity generated by photovoltaic systems. The results of this study indicate that the externalities were, for the most part, positive for PV electric energy generating systems. Thus, considering externalities, it is intended to further understand their relationship with the expansion of the distributed generation of electric energy with PV systems in Brazil.

Hybrid photovoltaic installations, defined as on-grid PV system in cooperation with battery energy storage system (BESS), are still rare among the typical investors because the investment cost of the hybrid installation is significantly higher than the one of the on-grid system. However, while considering the broader perspective, such as environmental or technological aspects, the mentioned solution can be competitive with photovoltaic on-grid systems and therefore should be carefully tested in the widest possible context. In this study, the authors compared 3.05 kW of peak power hybrid and on-grid installations operating in temperate climate conditions (Eastern Poland) using economic indicators, such as dynamic generation cost (DGC) and benefit–cost rate (BCR); environmental impact indicators (IMPACT 2002+ and GWP 100a) determined using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA); and technological aspects consideration, including the reliability of examined systems. Creating a ranking of the considered solutions based on the equal weighting factors assigned to the appropriate features allows indicating the technological areas where the competitiveness of hybrid systems justifies the increased investment costs. One such area is business, where the economic criterion, the only negatively assessed one in the standard operation, can be radically changed by the possible financial losses due to interruption of energy supply.

The objective of Poland’s energy policy is to guarantee energy security while enhancing economic competitiveness and energy efficiency, thus minimizing the power sector’s environmental impact and optimizing the use of energy resources in the country. Poland is not the only European country to rely on coal for power generation. Historical factors and large coal deposits act as natural barriers to increasing the share of renewable energy in the Polish power sector. Yet, today, environmental concerns and climate change are prompting many countries to move away from fossil fuels. Renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind energy, are an alternative to traditional energy generated from fossil fuels. However, investors developing solar and wind farms in Poland encounter numerous problems at each stage of the project. These difficulties are associated mainly with the location, technical requirements, infrastructure and formal and legal documents. This study aimed to identify the key factors that influence the development of photovoltaic power stations in Poland, with special emphasis on the choice of location and technical aspects of the investment process. The demand for clean energy and the renewable energy prospects for Poland are discussed based on the example of solar farms. Sixty-seven prospective farm locations were analyzed, and the results of the analysis were used to identify the main barriers and opportunities for renewable energy development in Poland. The option of connecting solar farms to the existing power grid was also examined. This study demonstrates that the development of solar farms in Poland is inhibited mainly by technical barriers, in particular the lack of options for connecting farms to the power grid, as well as the absence of support mechanisms and dedicated legislative solutions, rather than environmental obstacles.

Renewable energy sources and sustainability have been attracting increased focus and development worldwide. Qatar is no exception, as it has ambitious plans to deploy renewable energy sources on a mass scale. Qatar may also investigate initiating and permitting the deployment of rooftop photovoltaic (PV) systems for residential households. Therefore, a research gap has been introduced regarding the system design, grid compatibility, economic viability, and energy consumption produced from household rooftop PV systems. Additionally, the lack of supporting policies and a feed-in tariff creates further research and development topics. Therefore, using collected data regarding household power consumption and rooftop PV generation, the purposes of this research study are as follows: (1) determining the economic aspects and practicality of using energy storage systems for self-consumption values; and (2) evaluating the economic viability of rooftop PV systems under different policies and electricity rate schemes. The insights of the results of this study can serve as a stepping stone for decisions and policymakers regarding the application of rooftop PV systems in Qatar. This study utilizes empirical evidence and an economic model to evaluate rooftop PV systems in Qatar and can also be applicable in the middle east region. A few studies in the region produce complementary results, which further supports our findings; however, what makes this paper unique is the use of different economic tools and real collected data while investigating multiple economic and energy policy scenarios.

Hybrid microgrids are presented as a solution to many electrical energetic problems. These microgrids contain some renewable energy sources such as photovoltaic (PV), wind and biomass, or a hybrid of these sources, in addition to storage systems. Using these microgrids in electric power generation has many advantages such as clean energy, stability in supplying power, reduced grid congestion and a new investment field. Despite all these microgrids advantages, they are not widely used due to some economic aspects. These aspects are represented in the net present cost (NPC) and the levelized cost of energy (LCOE). To handle these economic aspects, the proper microgrids configuration according to the quantity, quality and availability of the sustainable source of energy in installing the microgrid as well as the optimal design of the microgrid components should be investigated. The objective of this paper is to design an economic microgrid system for the Yanbu region of Saudi Arabia. This design aims to select the best microgrid configuration while minimizing both NPC and LCOE considering some technical conditions, including loss of power supply probability and availability index. The optimization algorithm used is Giza Pyramids Construction (GPC). To prove the GPC algorithm’s effectiveness in solving the studied optimization problem, artificial electric field and grey wolf optimizer algorithms are used for comparison purposes. The obtained results demonstrate that the best configuration for the selected area is a PV/biomass hybrid microgrid with a minimum NPC and LCOE of $319,219 and $0.208/kWh, respectively.

In the context of the “Carbon peak, Carbon neutral” target, the introduction of carbon trading and the connection of new energy generation such as wind power and photovoltaics to the power grid have become important means to achieve a reduction to low carbon emissions. To this end, a virtual optimization model is established to take into account both low-carbon and economic aspects. Firstly, based on the basic concept of a virtual power plant, a virtual power plant model containing wind power, photovoltaic power, a gas turbine, and energy storage is established. Then, considering the uncertainty factors of wind power and PV power generation, Latin hypercube sampling (LHS) is used to simulate wind power and PV output scenarios, combined with the improved CLARA clustering algorithm to reduce the scenarios to form a classical scenario set to reduce the influence of wind power and PV output volatility. Finally, a carbon-trading mechanism and time-sharing tariff are introduced, and the model is solved with the objective function of maximizing the net benefit and minimizing the carbon emission of the Virtual Power Plant. Using arithmetic examples for verification, the results show that the introduction of carbon-trading mechanism can improve the net benefits of the Virtual Power Plant while promoting energy saving and emission reduction.

The temporal resolution of the demand and generation profiles may have a significant impact on the estimation of self-sufficiency and self-consumption for consumers and prosumers. As an example, measuring the load profile, with a low temporal resolution, may lead to the under-estimation of energy consumption, while measuring solar irradiation with a low temporal resolution may lead to the over-estimation of on-site energy generation. Storage systems may reduce errors due to the lower temporal resolution by 8–10 times or even more, depending on the capacity of the batteries. Besides self-generation and self-consumption, there are other indicators that can be influenced by temporal resolution that deserve to be investigated. This is a detailed study of the influence of temporal resolution and the time averaging on a hybrid photovoltaic-battery system; this study encompasses both economic and technical aspects, from the calculation of savings on the electricity bill to the estimation of the equivalent cycles of battery storage system. To this end, the three-minute load profile of a real case study is used to obtain other three load profiles with temporal resolution equal to 15, 30, and 60 min via data averaging. Therefore, the authors analyze the influence and the impact of temporal resolution and data averaging in terms of: The size of the photovoltaic generator and the capacity of the storage system; the savings in the electricity bill and the balance between costs and savings; the peak values and the average values of power flows during high generation and low generation; the profile of the storage system over the year; the utilization rate of the storage system and the rated power of the electronic converter that regulates the charge and the discharge; the profile of the state of charge of the storage system and the life-time estimation of batteries through the calculation of the equivalent number of cycles.

Energy communities represent a new energy management model for the use of local energy resources, in which different social actors participate in search of energy, environmental, social and economic benefits. Nevertheless, there is still a lack of concise guidelines in the literature dealing with the more technical aspects of energy communities. The aim of this article is presenting a methodology to support the design of new energy communities based on energetic, economic and environmental conditions in order to analyse their technical and economic viability. The methodology is supported by Homer Grid modelling software for simulating and optimising possible energy scenarios. This is better suited to energy communities connected to the grid, with renewable energy generation assets from local resources and with an equitable distribution of benefits for all members. The methodology has been applied to a case study in the village of Vinalesa, sizing the community's generation assets as well as the electricity tariff. Their implementation in the case study results in an installation of 870 kW of photovoltaic energy and capacity storage of 1.08 MWh in Lithium-Ion batteries that allows the residents of Vinalesa have additional savings of around 16.4% in their electricity bill.

As our energy systems evolve with the adoption of more variable renewable energy resources, so will our oil and gas industry play a pivotal role in what is expected to be a lengthy transitional phase to a greater mix of renewables with a reliance on fast, reliable gas peaking power generation, which have lower greenhouse gas emissions, and short delivery periods to construct. Oil and gas companies are also rapidly moving towards becoming integrated energy companies supplying a mix of gas, oil, photovoltaic power, wind power and hydrogen, coupling these into the electrical and gas grids. We discuss some of the components and tasks of a distributed energy system in its various system guises that contribute to a more cost effective, reliable and resilient energy system with lower greenhouse gas emissions. We discuss the role that hydrogen will play in the future as oil and gas companies explore alternatives to fossil fuels to address their need to reduce their carbon footprint, substituting or supplementing their conventional gas supply with renewably produced hydrogen. We talk about how Australia with its excellent renewable resources and the opportunity to potentially develop a new industry around the production of renewable fuels, power-to-X, such as hydrogen, with the potential for the oil and gas industry to leverage its existing assets (i.e. gas pipelines) and future embedded renewable assets to produce hydrogen through electrolysis with the intention of supplementing their liquefied natural gas exports with a portion of renewably produced hydrogen.

There is currently a growing interest in efficient power generation and transformation without increasing the cost and complexity of a system. One type of transformation is the conversion of energy from a direct current to an alternating current, which is used in various applications, for example, in photovoltaic systems. One of the elementary components of these systems is the inverter. However, there are several drawbacks in the design of these systems, such as the energy balance between their semiconductor devices. Therefore, it is important to study alternatives to balance the energy and thus achieve a positive impact on both the economic and reliability aspects of the system. This article deals with the study, design, and implementation of the modification of a modulation technique with reconstructed modulating signals, which aims to ensure the energy balance in each cell of a multilevel inverter and, at the same time, present better results concerning the different parameters of comparison established, such as harmonic distortion, percentage of unbalance, percentage of use of digital resources, and power transferred to the load.

Access to energy is related to the essential aspects of modern survival, impacting production processes, access to knowledge and economic development. The global energy demand grows every year, and remote areas without connection to central grids need viable and sustainable alternatives for generating, distributing and storing energy at the local level. This paper presents an analysis through academic research, patent publications, reports and government information to map global trends and identify the opportunities for hybrid systems for power generation in microgrids from renewable sources and with several modes of generation. The data showed recent exponentially rising technologies with a tendency to continue for the next few years. China leads in isolation followed by USA and India. Countries like Brazil and Mexico, despite favourable conditions, do not present local technological development nor are they seen as a market of interest. Technological and research routes point to improving storage processes. Photovoltaic energy source was most used and to lesser extent wind, biomass, bioethanol, biogas, biodiesel and biohydrogen. Most of the inventions were focused on creating and improving machines, equipment, and systems to operate and control, utilizing the Homer software, for example.

The achievement of the long-term national energy targets in Greece for large-scale integration of wind and solar energy may be facilitated by the development of hydro-pumped storage projects. In light of the above, technical aspects related with the operation of the Greek power system and its ability to absorb renewable energy are analyzed in connection with the role of hydro-pumped storage and relative economic aspects. The aim of this work is to assess the potential contribution of hydro-pumped storage projects and estimate the capacity magnitude order to support large-scale wind and photovoltaic (PV) integration in Greece. For this purpose, scenarios for the Greek power system with focus on Wind and PV development, in conjunction with hydro-pumped storage capacity, are developed, and results for current situation and reference years 2030 and 2050 are presented. For the simulation, among others, high resolution mesoscale wind data for a typical year in the whole Greek territory are used for the steady state simulation of the Greek power system, in order to better estimate the power that could be generated from installed wind turbines, taking into consideration technical characteristics of a typical commercial wind turbine. Results indicate the need of gradual development of hydro-pumped storage in parallel with the large-scale integration of wind and PV capacity into the Greek power system. In addition, the feasibility of the examined scenarios is supported from the low cost of wind and PV generation. In the case of Greece, thanks to the complex morphology and hydraulic conditions of the country, hydro-pumped storage composes an efficient and low-cost storage solution.

Highlights Battery energy storage may improve energy efficiency and reliability of hybrid energy systems composed by diesel and solar photovoltaic power generators serving isolated communities. In projects aiming update of power plants serving electrically isolated communities with redundant diesel generation, battery energy storage can improve overall economic performance of power supply system by reducing fuel usage, decreasing capital costs by replacing redundant diesel generation units, and increasing generator system life by shortening yearly runtime. Fast-acting battery energy storage systems with grid-forming inverters might have potential for improving drastically the reliability indices of isolated communities currently supplied by diesel generation. Abstract This paper will highlight unique challenges and opportunities with regard to energy storage utilization in remote, self-sustaining communities. The energy management of such areas has unique concerns. Diesel generation is often the go-to power source in these scenarios, but these systems are not devoid of issues. Without dedicated maintenance crews as in large, interconnected network areas, minor interruptions can be frequent and invasive not only for those who lose power, but also for those in the community that must then correct any faults. Although the immediate financial benefits are perhaps not readily apparent, energy storage could be used to address concerns related to reliability, automation, fuel supply concerns, generator degradation, solar utilization, and, yes, fuel costs to name a few. These ideas are shown through a case study of the Levelock Village of Alaska. Currently, the community is faced with high diesel prices and a difficult supply chain, which makes temporary loss of power very common and reductions in fuel consumption very impactful. This study will investigate the benefits that an energy storage system could bring to the overall system life, fuel costs, and reliability of the power supply. The variable efficiency of the generators, impact of startup/shutdown process, and low-load operation concerns are considered. The technological benefits of the combined system will be explored for various scenarios of future diesel prices and technology maintenance/replacement costs as well as for the avoidance of power interruptions that are so common in the community currently. Graphic abstract Discussion In several cases, energy storage can provide a means to promote energy equity by improving remote communities’ power supply reliability to levels closer to what the average urban consumer experiences at a reduced cost compared to transmission buildout. Furthermore, energy equity represents a hard-to-quantify benefit achieved by the integration of energy storage to isolated power systems of under-served communities, which suggests that the financial aspects of such projects should be questioned as the main performance criterion. To improve battery energy storage system valuation for diesel-based power systems, integration analysis must be holistic and go beyond fuel savings to capture every value stream possible.

In this modern era of civilization electricity plays a vital role in every aspects ranging from basic needs to technological advancements. Today most of the electrical energy is obtained from non-renewable source namely coal. But it has been estimated that coal which is a vital resource for the production of electricity will be exhausted within two or three decades, if it is being used continuously at the current rate. Hence it is necessary to find an appropriate source of energy that will provide enormous quantity of energy to produce electricity without disruptions for the present and future generations. To attain this objective we have introduced a new technology called Solar ponds which provides thermal energy from sunlight. The energy obtained from solar ponds is far more efficient than the energy obtained from photovoltaic cells. This paper discusses the fabrication of mini solar pond and in their operation and maintenance. The factors which influence the technical and economic viability of solar ponds for thermal applications and power generation have been discussed.

This paper presents a techno-economic assessment of a 100 kWp solar rooftop photovoltaic (PV) system at five hospitals in central southern Thailand. The system encompasses 100 kWp PV panels, 100 kW grid-tied inverters and balance of system (BOS) under the grid code of the Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA). The latest PV technology of bifacial mono-crystalline solar panels, inverters and BOS were simulated along with the Meteonorm 7.3 database using the PVsyst simulation toolkit with different tilt angles, orientations, solar radiations and ambient temperature. The technical aspects of solar rooftop PV power generation systems include the annual energy output and the performance ratio (PR) under IEC standard. Further, an economic analysis of the model was examined using a cost benefit analysis (CBA) and various assumptions. Four main financial criteria, i.e., benefit cost ratio (BCR), net present value (NPV), internal rate of return (IRR), and payback period (PBP) were evaluated under three different scenarios: (1) self-consumption scheme, (2) feed-in tariff (FiT) scheme, and (3) private power purchase agreement (PPA) scheme. Finally, the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) was also calculated. The results reveal that the Takua Thung hospital is characterized by the maximum average global horizontal irradiation (GHI) and the maximum annual produced energy of 199 kWh/m2 and 164.8 MWh/year, respectively. The PR calculated for all hospital sites is above 85%. The outcomes of the financial analysis show that the optimum scenarios are PPA and FiT schemes. The LCOE analysed in this study indicates that the Takua Thung hospital site has the lowest LCOE at 2.47 THB/kWh (0.07 USD/kWh). This research confirms the potential for hospitals and stakeholders in central southern Thailand for investments in solar rooftop PV systems

Recently, off-grid renewable power generation systems have become good alternatives for providing reliable electricity at a low cost in remote areas. According to the International Renewable Energy Agency, more than half the population of Nigerian rural communities are outside the electricity coverage area. This research examines the potential application of hybrid solar photovoltaic (PV)/hydro/diesel/battery systems to provide off-grid electrification to a typical Nigerian rural village. The performance of four different hybrid systems was evaluated via techno-economic and environmental analysis, and the optimized solution was selected using the HOMER analysis tool. The simulation results revealed that a hybrid PV solar/hydro/diesel with battery storage was the optimized solution and most suitable with the least net present cost (NPC) of $963,431 and a cost of energy (COE) of $0.112/kWh. The results also revealed that the optimal system prevented about 77.1% of CO2 gas emission from being released to the surrounding air as compared with the PV/diesel system (worst case). In addition, the results also showed better performance in technical aspects, making the system appropriate and ideal for rural electrification and clean energy development. Furthermore, the effects of varying some variables such as interest rate, solar radiation, water discharge, capacity shortage, and battery minimum state of charge on the system cost and operational performance were discussed via the sensitivity analysis because these parameters influence the economy and technical aspect of the power system.

Purpose Obviously, the development of a robust optimization framework is the main step in energy and climate policy. In other words, the challenge of energy policy assessment requires the application of approaches which recognize the complexity of energy systems in relation to technological, social, economic and environmental aspects. This paper aims to develop a two-sided multi-agent based modelling framework which endogenizes the technological learning mechanism to determine the optimal generation plan. In this framework, the supplier agents try to maximize their income while complying with operational, technical and market penetration rates constraints. A case study is used to illustrate the application of the proposed planning approach. The results showed that considering the endogenous technology cost reduction moves optimal investment timings to earlier planning years and influences the competitiveness of technologies. The proposed integrated approach provides not only an economical generation expansion plan but also a cleaner one compared to the traditional approach. Design/methodology/approach To the best of the authors’ knowledge, so far there has not been any agent-based generation expansion planning (GEP) incorporating technology learning mechanism into the modelling framework. The main contribution of this paper is to introduce a multi-agent based modelling for long-term GEP and undertakes to show how incorporating technological learning issues in supply agents behaviour modelling influence on renewable technology share in the optimal mix of technologies. A case study of the electric power system of Iran is used to illustrate the usefulness of the proposed planning approach and also to demonstrate its efficiency. Findings As seen, the share of the renewable technology agents (geothermal, hydropower, wind, solar, biomass and photovoltaic) in expanding generation increases from 10.2% in the traditional model to 13.5% in the proposed model over the planning horizon. Also, to incorporate technological learning in the supply agent behaviour leads to earlier involving of renewable technologies in the optimal plan. This increased share of the renewable technology agents is reasonable due to their decreasing investment cost and capability of cooperation in network reserve supply which leads to a high utilization factor. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, so far there hasn’t been any agent-based GEP paying attention to this integrated approach. The main contribution of this paper is to introduce a multi-agent based modelling for long-term GEP and undertakes to show how incorporating technological learning issues in supply agents behaviour modelling influence on renewable technology share in the optimal mix of technologies. A case study of the electric power system of Iran is used to illustrate the usefulness of the proposed planning approach and also to demonstrate its efficiency.

This problem is a solar hut photovoltaic cell in the attached and overhead two installation methods, the type of photovoltaic cells and array mode and inverter type optimization design issues. In question 1, since the photovoltaic cells are attached to the roof and exterior surfaces, the direction and angle of the battery are uniquely determined by the direction and angle of the attached surface. The problem is translated to optimize the installation of a certain type on a single surface area (array) of photovoltaic cells, so that the total amount of solar photovoltaic power generation as much as possible, and the unit power generation costs as small as possible, which is a multi-objective optimization problem. The problem can be discussed in the ideal environment in a single surface area of the battery installation optimization program, and then the actual environment of the multi-surface optimization. In the solution to Problem 1, the unit on the south of the roof of the battery at the moment to accept the solar energy formula is generated. The definition of and is the moment of direct radiation intensity, for the moment the sun and the south of the roof of the plane where the angle, for the level of horizontal radiation intensity, for the south of the roof and the horizontal angle, the planefor the plane, the center of the heart, the vertical upward direction is the axis of the positive coordinate system, obtained with the sun height angle , the sun azimuth , red angle, angle and the sun when the relationship is generated. The conclusion is only installed in the small roof surface type of battery C11, and the rest of the surface is not installed. 35 years of electricity generation is 77126 degrees, the economic benefits of 16,488 yuan, the recovery period of 21.3 years. In question 2, because the photovoltaic cells in the roof and the external wall surface can be installed overhead, the panel orientation and tilt will affect the efficiency of photovoltaic cells. Therefore, in the optimization scheme of Problem 1, the orientation and inclination of the panel on each surface are further adjusted to calculate the optimum orientation and inclination of the panel on each surface. The problem can be in the ideal weather environment to establish the sun running and the battery board efficiency model, and then the measured environment test. The optimal orientation of the panel is southward, and the optimal angle with the ground plane is 39.89 degrees. The conclusion is only installed in the small roof surface type of battery C11, and the rest of the surface is not installed. 35 years of generating capacity of 82165.2 degrees, the economic benefits of 18,998 yuan, the recovery period of 13 years. In question 3, by the optimization of the above two issues, in the building to meet the requirements of the hut under the design of the various aspects of the cabin and battery installation, and further optimize the total power generation of the hut, economic benefits. The whole model solver is run in MATLAB7.0.

Abstract The paper presents a technical and economic analysis for two energy systems (conventional and renewable) with grid connection. The investigation was carried out using an experimental measurement for the desired load and weather data (solar irradiance and ambient temperature), were 5.1 kWh the daily energy consumption as measured and 4.6 kWh/m2/day the annual average of the solar irradiance. The simulation process was done by using MATLAB and HOMER software at a 1 min time step resolution. The economic optimization objective presented for two energy system scenarios (i) photovoltaic/grid and (ii) diesel/grid, takes into account the economic aspects and component prices based on the Iraqi market and regulations. The diesel generator, very popular in rural areas, is designed to work during the same period as the photovoltaic system (only during day hours). The yearly operating hours were recorded at 4380 h/year, and energy generation was approx. 2349 kWh/year while fuel consumption was 1826 L/year. The results showed that the photovoltaic system in scenario (i) can generate about 7895 kWh, and for the diesel generator in scenario (ii), it can generate approximately 2346 kWh. Furthermore, for scenario (i) the levelized net present cost is $1079 and the cost of energy is about $0.035/kWh, while for scenario (ii) the levelized net present cost is $12,287 and the cost of energy is $0.598/kWh. The use of solar energy is highly recommended compared to diesel generators due to the lowest cost and delivery of energy to the grid. Furthermore, it can capture carbon dioxide by about 5295 kg/year.

Microgrids are autonomous systems that generate, distribute, store, and manage energy. This type of energy solution has the potential to supply energy to remote communities since they can integrate solar, wind, and back-up diesel generation. These systems are potentially beneficial in Peru, where there are approximately 1.5 million people without access to electricity. This paper studies the technical aspects of the implementation, operation, and social impact of a hybrid microgrid installed in Laguna Grande, Ica, Peru, a rural fishing community composed of about 35 families who have lived in this remote location for more than 40 years without access to electricity. The design of the microgrid comprised three main stages: assessment, sizing, and social management. According to resource assessment, this location has a very high wind potential with an average of 8 m/s and annual average irradiation of 6 kWh/m2/day. The microgrid was designed based on interviews with members of the community on energy use, social-economic aspects, and factors such as expected growth and available funds. The construction followed a participatory approach, involving the community in specific stages of the project. This hybrid microgrid is composed of a 6 kWp photovoltaic system and two wind turbines of 3 kW each. It has two coupled 4 kW inverters that deliver power to a 230 V AC distribution line to which all the community loads are connected. Energy is stored using a VRLA 800 Ah, 48 V battery bank, which is designed to work at 50% DOD. The installed microgrid has proven very effective in supplying the average daily demand of 23 kWh at an almost steady power of 1–1.2 kW. During almost 2 years of monitoring, it has presented a 10% loss of load due to peak increases in demand, technical problems, and occasional low solar and wind resources. PV/wind integration is very important since approximately 60% of the energy demand is nocturnal. The CAPEX of the project reached USD 36,000.00, obtaining a cost of energy levelized cost of energy of 0.267 USD per kWh. The project has a useful life of 20 years, with battery renewal every 3 years and wind turbines and electronics every 10.

Purpose Every day, the sun provides by far more energy than the amount necessary to meet the whole world’s energy demand. Solar energy, unlike fossil fuels, does not suffer from depleting resource and also releases no greenhouse gas emissions when being used. Hence, using solar irradiance to produce electricity via photovoltaic (PV) systems has significant benefits which can lead to a sustainable and clean future. In this regard, the purpose of this study is first to assess the technical and economic viability of solar power generation sites in the capitals of the states of Canada. Then, a novel integrated technique is developed to prioritize all the alternatives. Design/methodology/approach In this study, ten provinces in Canada are evaluated for the construction of solar power plants. The new hybrid approach composed of data envelopment analysis (DEA), balanced scorecard (BSC) and game theory (GT) is implemented to rank the nominated locations from techno-economic-environmental efficiency aspects. The input data are obtained using HOMER software. Findings Applying the proposed hybrid approach, the order of high to low efficiency locations was found as Winnipeg, Victoria, Edmonton, Quebec, Halifax, St John’s, Ottawa, Regina, Charlottetown and Toronto. Construction of ten solar plants in the ten studied locations was assessed and it was ascertained that usage of solar energy in Winnipeg, Victoria and Edmonton would be economically and environmentally justified. Originality/value As to novelty, it should be clarified that the authors propose an effective hybrid method combining DEA, BSC and GT for prioritizing all available scenarios concerned with the construction of a solar power plant.

Due to the current situation of fossil fuels eradication and over-exploitation across the world. The energy demands of the world are to be fulfilled by renewable energy sources. Among these Solar energy has the maximum potential to be exploited to the maximum level to full fill the energy demands of the world. Renewable energies contribute to the environmental, social, and economic development of countries [1]. There are various of clean and renewable energy sources such as Solar, biomass, wind, hydrogen, fuel cell, nanocomposite, and supercapacitor. Each of the energy sources are suitable for specific geographical locations and can suits from region to region [6]. Since ages Sun has been praised as a vitalizer of life. The total Solar energy absorbed by Earth's atmosphere, oceans and land masses is approximately 122 PW·year = 3,850,000 exajoules (EJ) per year. Most of the world's population live in areas with insolation levels of 150– 300 watts/m2, or 3.5–7.0 kWh/m2 per day [2 google- Solar Wikipedia]. Solar energy is the most secure and ubiquitous source of energy to meet the power needs after coal exploitation. In present time installation of photovoltaic (PV) Solar modules are growing extremely fast. As result of the increase, the volume of modules that reach the end of their life will grow at the same rate in the near future. Global installed PV capacity reached around 773 GW at the end of 2020 [3] and is expected to rise further to 2840 GW by 2030 and 4500 GW by 2050 [4, 5-Abstract ]. Considering an average module lifetime of 25 years, the worldwide Solar PV waste is anticipated to reach between 4%-14% of total generation capacity by 2030 and rise to over 80% (around 78 million tonnes) by 2050 [5-Abstract]. Therefore, the disposal of PV modules will become a pertinent environmental issue in the next decades. Eventually, there is plenty of room for progress in this area. This review present core reality of Photovoltaic Life Cycle, Photovoltaic Technology, Photovoltaic Recycling Process as well as global Waste Management Regulation in different countries and the Environmental & Economic Aspects of recycling. At present, PV recycling management in many countries envisages to extend the duties of the manufacturers of PV materials to encompass their eventual disposal or reuse. However, further improvements in the economic viability, practicality, high recovery rate and environmental performance of the PV industry with respect to recycling its products are indispensable. There is potential to develop new pathway for PV waste management industry development and offer employment and prospects for both public and private sector investors. Keywords: Recycling, End of life (EoL), Photovoltaic, Waste, Regulatory, c-Si, Thin film, Life cycle

Introduction I am a transmigrant who has moved back and forth between the West and the Rest. I was born and raised in a Muslim family in a predominantly Muslim country, Bangladesh, but I spent several years of my childhood in Pakistan. After my marriage, I lived in the United States for a year and a half, the Middle East for 5 years, Australia for three years, back to the Middle East for another 5 years, then, finally, in Australia for the last 12 years. I speak Bengali (my mother tongue), Urdu (which I learnt in Pakistan), a bit of Arabic (learnt in the Middle East); but English has always been my medium of instruction. So where is home? Is it my place of origin, the Muslim umma, or my land of settlement? Or is it my ‘root’ or my ‘route’ (Blunt and Dowling)? Blunt and Dowling (199) observe that the lives of transmigrants are often interpreted in terms of their ‘roots’ and ‘routes’, which are two frameworks for thinking about home, homeland and diaspora. Whereas ‘roots’ might imply an original homeland from which people have scattered, and to which they might seek to return, ‘routes’ focuses on mobile, multiple and transcultural geographies of home. However, both ‘roots’ and ‘routes’ are attached to emotion and identity, and both invoke a sense of place, belonging or alienation that is intrinsically tied to a sense of self (Blunt and Dowling 196-219). In this paper, I equate home with my root (place of birth) and route (transnational homing) within the context of the ‘diaspora and belonging’. First I define the diaspora and possible criteria of belonging. Next I describe my transnational homing within the framework of diaspora and belonging. Finally, I consider how Australia can be a ‘home’ for me and other Muslim Australians. The Diaspora and Belonging Blunt and Dowling (199) define diaspora as “scattering of people over space and transnational connections between people and the places”. Cohen emphasised the ethno-cultural aspects of the diaspora setting; that is, how migrants identify and position themselves in other nations in terms of their (different) ethnic and cultural orientation. Hall argues that the diasporic subjects form a cultural identity through transformation and difference. Speaking of the Hindu diaspora in the UK and Caribbean, Vertovec (21-23) contends that the migrants’ contact with their original ‘home’ or diaspora depends on four factors: migration processes and factors of settlement, cultural composition, structural and political power, and community development. With regard to the first factor, migration processes and factors of settlement, Vertovec explains that if the migrants are political or economic refugees, or on a temporary visa, they are likely to live in a ‘myth of return’. In the cultural composition context, Vertovec argues that religion, language, region of origin, caste, and degree of cultural homogenisation are factors in which migrants are bound to their homeland. Concerning the social structure and political power issue, Vertovec suggests that the extent and nature of racial and ethnic pluralism or social stigma, class composition, degree of institutionalised racism, involvement in party politics (or active citizenship) determine migrants’ connection to their new or old home. Finally, community development, including membership in organisations (political, union, religious, cultural, leisure), leadership qualities, and ethnic convergence or conflict (trends towards intra-communal or inter-ethnic/inter-religious co-operation) would also affect the migrants’ sense of belonging. Using these scholarly ideas as triggers, I will examine my home and belonging over the last few decades. My Home In an initial stage of my transmigrant history, my home was my root (place of birth, Dhaka, Bangladesh). Subsequently, my routes (settlement in different countries) reshaped my homes. In all respects, the ethno-cultural factors have played a big part in my definition of ‘home’. But on some occasions my ethnic identification has been overridden by my religious identification and vice versa. By ethnic identity, I mean my language (mother tongue) and my connection to my people (Bangladeshi). By my religious identity, I mean my Muslim religion, and my spiritual connection to the umma, a Muslim nation transcending all boundaries. Umma refers to the Muslim identity and unity within a larger Muslim group across national boundaries. The only thing the members of the umma have in common is their Islamic belief (Spencer and Wollman 169-170). In my childhood my father, a banker, was relocated to Karachi, Pakistan (then West Pakistan). Although I lived in Pakistan for much of my childhood, I have never considered it to be my home, even though it is predominantly a Muslim country. In this case, my home was my root (Bangladesh) where my grandparents and extended family lived. Every year I used to visit my grandparents who resided in a small town in Bangladesh (then East Pakistan). Thus my connection with my home was sustained through my extended family, ethnic traditions, language (Bengali/Bangla), and the occasional visits to the landscape of Bangladesh. Smith (9-11) notes that people build their connection or identity to their homeland through their historic land, common historical memories, myths, symbols and traditions. Though Pakistan and Bangladesh had common histories, their traditions of language, dress and ethnic culture were very different. For example, the celebration of the Bengali New Year (Pohela Baishakh), folk dance, folk music and folk tales, drama, poetry, lyrics of poets Rabindranath Tagore (Rabindra Sangeet) and Nazrul Islam (Nazrul Geeti) are distinct in the cultural heritage of Bangladesh. Special musical instruments such as the banshi (a bamboo flute), dhol (drums), ektara (a single-stringed instrument) and dotara (a four-stringed instrument) are unique to Bangladeshi culture. The Bangladeshi cuisine (rice and freshwater fish) is also different from Pakistan where people mainly eat flat round bread (roti) and meat (gosh). However, my bonding factor to Bangladesh was my relatives, particularly my grandparents as they made me feel one of ‘us’. Their affection for me was irreplaceable. The train journey from Dhaka (capital city) to their town, Noakhali, was captivating. The hustle and bustle at the train station and the lush green paddy fields along the train journey reminded me that this was my ‘home’. Though I spoke the official language (Urdu) in Pakistan and had a few Pakistani friends in Karachi, they could never replace my feelings for my friends, extended relatives and cousins who lived in Bangladesh. I could not relate to the landscape or dry weather of Pakistan. More importantly, some Pakistani women (our neighbours) were critical of my mother’s traditional dress (saree), and described it as revealing because it showed a bit of her back. They took pride in their traditional dress (shalwar, kameez, dopatta), which they considered to be more covered and ‘Islamic’. So, because of our traditional dress (saree) and perhaps other differences, we were regarded as the ‘Other’. In 1970 my father was relocated back to Dhaka, Bangladesh, and I was glad to go home. It should be noted that both Pakistan and Bangladesh were separated from India in 1947 – first as one nation; then, in 1971, Bangladesh became independent from Pakistan. The conflict between Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) and Pakistan (then West Pakistan) originated for economic and political reasons. At this time I was a high school student and witnessed acts of genocide committed by the Pakistani regime against the Bangladeshis (March-December 1971). My memories of these acts are vivid and still very painful. After my marriage, I moved from Bangladesh to the United States. In this instance, my new route (Austin, Texas, USA), as it happened, did not become my home. Here the ethno-cultural and Islamic cultural factors took precedence. I spoke the English language, made some American friends, and studied history at the University of Texas. I appreciated the warm friendship extended to me in the US, but experienced a degree of culture shock. I did not appreciate the pub life, alcohol consumption, and what I perceived to be the lack of family bonds (children moving out at the age of 18, families only meeting occasionally on birthdays and Christmas). Furthermore, I could not relate to de facto relationships and acceptance of sex before marriage. However, to me ‘home’ meant a family orientation and living in close contact with family. Besides the cultural divide, my husband and I were living in the US on student visas and, as Vertovec (21-23) noted, temporary visa status can deter people from their sense of belonging to the host country. In retrospect I can see that we lived in the ‘myth of return’. However, our next move for a better life was not to our root (Bangladesh), but another route to the Muslim world of Dhahran in Saudi Arabia. My husband moved to Dhahran not because it was a Muslim world but because it gave him better economic opportunities. However, I thought this new destination would become my home – the home that was coined by Anderson as the imagined nation, or my Muslim umma. Anderson argues that the imagined communities are “to be distinguished, not by their falsity/genuineness, but by the style in which they are imagined” (6; Wood 61). Hall (122) asserts: identity is actually formed through unconscious processes over time, rather than being innate in consciousness at birth. There is always something ‘imaginary’ or fantasized about its unity. It always remains incomplete, is always ‘in process’, always ‘being formed’. As discussed above, when I had returned home to Bangladesh from Pakistan – both Muslim countries – my primary connection to my home country was my ethnic identity, language and traditions. My ethnic identity overshadowed the religious identity. But when I moved to Saudi Arabia, where my ethnic identity differed from that of the mainstream Arabs and Bedouin/nomadic Arabs, my connection to this new land was through my Islamic cultural and religious identity. Admittedly, this connection to the umma was more psychological than physical, but I was now in close proximity to Mecca, and to my home of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Mecca is an important city in Saudi Arabia for Muslims because it is the holy city of Islam, the home to the Ka’aba (the religious centre of Islam), and the birthplace of Prophet Muhammad [Peace Be Upon Him]. It is also the destination of the Hajj, one of the five pillars of Islamic faith. Therefore, Mecca is home to significant events in Islamic history, as well as being an important present day centre for the Islamic faith. We lived in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia for 5 years. Though it was a 2.5 hours flight away, I treasured Mecca’s proximity and regarded Dhahran as my second and spiritual home. Saudi Arabia had a restricted lifestyle for women, but I liked it because it was a Muslim country that gave me the opportunity to perform umrah Hajj (pilgrimage). However, Saudi Arabia did not allow citizenship to expatriates. Saudi Arabia’s government was keen to protect the status quo and did not want to compromise its cultural values or standard of living by allowing foreigners to become a permanent part of society. In exceptional circumstances only, the King granted citizenship to a foreigner for outstanding service to the state over a number of years. Children of foreigners born in Saudi Arabia did not have rights of local citizenship; they automatically assumed the nationality of their parents. If it was available, Saudi citizenship would assure expatriates a secure and permanent living in Saudi Arabia; as it was, there was a fear among the non-Saudis that they would have to leave the country once their job contract expired. Under the circumstances, though my spiritual connection to Mecca was strong, my husband was convinced that Saudi Arabia did not provide any job security. So, in 1987 when Australia offered migration to highly skilled people, my husband decided to migrate to Australia for a better and more secure economic life. I agreed to his decision, but quite reluctantly because we were again moving to a non-Muslim part of the world, which would be culturally different and far away from my original homeland (Bangladesh). In Australia, we lived first in Brisbane, then Adelaide, and after three years we took our Australian citizenship. At that stage I loved the Barossa Valley and Victor Harbour in South Australia, and the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast in Queensland, but did not feel at home in Australia. We bought a house in Adelaide and I was a full time home-maker but was always apprehensive that my children (two boys) would lose their culture in this non-Muslim world. In 1990 we once again moved back to the Muslim world, this time to Muscat, Sultanate of Oman. My connection to this route was again spiritual. I valued the fact that we would live in a Muslim country and our children would be brought up in a Muslim environment. But my husband’s move was purely financial as he got a lucrative job offer in Muscat. We had another son in Oman. We enjoyed the luxurious lifestyle provided by my husband’s workplace and the service provided by the housemaid. I loved the beaches and freedom to drive my car, and I appreciated the friendly Omani people. I also enjoyed our frequent trips (4 hours flight) to my root, Dhaka, Bangladesh. So our children were raised within our ethnic and Islamic culture, remained close to my root (family in Dhaka), though they attended a British school in Muscat. But by the time I started considering Oman to be my second home, we had to leave once again for a place that could provide us with a more secure future. Oman was like Saudi Arabia; it employed expatriates only on a contract basis, and did not give them citizenship (not even fellow Muslims). So after 5 years it was time to move back to Australia. It was with great reluctance that I moved with my husband to Brisbane in 1995 because once again we were to face a different cultural context. As mentioned earlier, we lived in Brisbane in the late 1980s; I liked the weather, the landscape, but did not consider it home for cultural reasons. Our boys started attending expensive private schools and we bought a house in a prestigious Western suburb in Brisbane. Soon after arriving I started my tertiary education at the University of Queensland, and finished an MA in Historical Studies in Indian History in 1998. Still Australia was not my home. I kept thinking that we would return to my previous routes or the ‘imagined’ homeland somewhere in the Middle East, in close proximity to my root (Bangladesh), where we could remain economically secure in a Muslim country. But gradually I began to feel that Australia was becoming my ‘home’. I had gradually become involved in professional and community activities (with university colleagues, the Bangladeshi community and Muslim women’s organisations), and in retrospect I could see that this was an early stage of my ‘self-actualisation’ (Maslow). Through my involvement with diverse people, I felt emotionally connected with the concerns, hopes and dreams of my Muslim-Australian friends. Subsequently, I also felt connected with my mainstream Australian friends whose emotions and fears (9/11 incident, Bali bombing and 7/7 tragedy) were similar to mine. In late 1998 I started my PhD studies on the immigration history of Australia, with a particular focus on the historical settlement of Muslims in Australia. This entailed retrieving archival files and interviewing people, mostly Muslims and some mainstream Australians, and enquiring into relevant migration issues. I also became more active in community issues, and was not constrained by my circumstances. By circumstances, I mean that even though I belonged to a patriarchally structured Muslim family, where my husband was the main breadwinner, main decision-maker, my independence and research activities (entailing frequent interstate trips for data collection, and public speaking) were not frowned upon or forbidden (Khan 14-15); fortunately, my husband appreciated my passion for research and gave me his trust and support. This, along with the Muslim community’s support (interviews), and the wider community’s recognition (for example, the publication of my letters in Australian newspapers, interviews on radio and television) enabled me to develop my self-esteem and built up my bicultural identity as a Muslim in a predominantly Christian country and as a Bangladeshi-Australian. In 2005, for the sake of a better job opportunity, my husband moved to the UK, but this time I asserted that I would not move again. I felt that here in Australia (now in Perth) I had a job, an identity and a home. This time my husband was able to secure a good job back in Australia and was only away for a year. I no longer dream of finding a home in the Middle East. Through my bicultural identity here in Australia I feel connected to the wider community and to the Muslim umma. However, my attachment to the umma has become ambivalent. I feel proud of my Australian-Muslim identity but I am concerned about the jihadi ideology of militant Muslims. By jihadi ideology, I mean the extremist ideology of the al-Qaeda terrorist group (Farrar 2007). The Muslim umma now incorporates both moderate and radical Muslims. The radical Muslims (though only a tiny minority of 1.4 billion Muslims worldwide) pose a threat to their moderate counterparts as well as to non-Muslims. In the UK, some second- and third-generation Muslims identify themselves with the umma rather than their parents’ homelands or their country of birth (Husain). It should not be a matter of concern if these young Muslims adopt a ‘pure’ Muslim identity, providing at the same time they are loyal to their country of residence. But when they resort to terrorism with their ‘pure’ Muslim identity (e.g., the 7/7 London bombers) they defame my religion Islam, and undermine my spiritual connection to the umma. As a 1st generation immigrant, the defining criteria of my ‘homeliness’ in Australia are my ethno-cultural and religious identity (which includes my family), my active citizenship, and my community development/contribution through my research work – all of which allow me a sense of efficacy in my life. My ethnic and religious identities generally co-exist equally, but when I see some Muslims kill my fellow Australians (such as the Bali bombings in 2002 and 2005) my Australian identity takes precedence. I feel for the victims and condemn the perpetrators. On the other hand, when I see politics play a role over the human rights issues (e.g., the Tampa incident), my religious identity begs me to comment on it (see Kabir, Muslims in Australia 295-305). Problematising ‘Home’ for Muslim Australians In the European context, Grillo (863) and Werbner (904), and in the Australian context, Kabir (Muslims in Australia) and Poynting and Mason, have identified the diversity within Islam (national, ethnic, religious etc). Werbner (904) notes that in spite of the “wishful talk of the emergence of a ‘British Islam’, even today there are Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Arab mosques, as well as Turkish and Shia’a mosques”; thus British Muslims retain their separate identities. Similarly, in Australia, the existence of separate mosques for the Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Arab and Shia’a peoples indicates that Australian Muslims have also kept their ethnic identities discrete (Saeed 64-77). However, in times of crisis, such as the Salman Rushdie affair in 1989, and the 1990-1991 Gulf crises, both British and Australian Muslims were quick to unite and express their Islamic identity by way of resistance (Kabir, Muslims in Australia 160-162; Poynting and Mason 68-70). In both British and Australian contexts, I argue that a peaceful rally or resistance is indicative of active citizenship of Muslims as it reveals their sense of belonging (also Werbner 905). So when a transmigrant Muslim wants to make a peaceful demonstration, the Western world should be encouraged, not threatened – as long as the transmigrant’s allegiances lie also with the host country. In the European context, Grillo (868) writes: when I asked Mehmet if he was planning to stay in Germany he answered without hesitation: ‘Yes, of course’. And then, after a little break, he added ‘as long as we can live here as Muslims’. In this context, I support Mehmet’s desire to live as a Muslim in a non-Muslim world as long as this is peaceful. Paradoxically, living a Muslim life through ijtihad can be either socially progressive or destructive. The Canadian Muslim feminist Irshad Manji relies on ijtihad, but so does Osama bin Laden! Manji emphasises that ijtihad can be, on the one hand, the adaptation of Islam using independent reasoning, hybridity and the contesting of ‘traditional’ family values (c.f. Doogue and Kirkwood 275-276, 314); and, on the other, ijtihad can take the form of conservative, patriarchal and militant Islamic values. The al-Qaeda terrorist Osama bin Laden espouses the jihadi ideology of Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966), an Egyptian who early in his career might have been described as a Muslim modernist who believed that Islam and Western secular ideals could be reconciled. But he discarded that idea after going to the US in 1948-50; there he was treated as ‘different’ and that treatment turned him against the West. He came back to Egypt and embraced a much more rigid and militaristic form of Islam (Esposito 136). Other scholars, such as Cesari, have identified a third orientation – a ‘secularised Islam’, which stresses general beliefs in the values of Islam and an Islamic identity, without too much concern for practices. Grillo (871) observed Islam in the West emphasised diversity. He stressed that, “some [Muslims were] more quietest, some more secular, some more clamorous, some more negotiatory”, while some were exclusively characterised by Islamic identity, such as wearing the burqa (elaborate veils), hijabs (headscarves), beards by men and total abstinence from drinking alcohol. So Mehmet, cited above, could be living a Muslim life within the spectrum of these possibilities, ranging from an integrating mode to a strict, militant Muslim manner. In the UK context, Zubaida (96) contends that marginalised, culturally-impoverished youth are the people for whom radical, militant Islamism may have an appeal, though it must be noted that the 7/7 bombers belonged to affluent families (O’Sullivan 14; Husain). In Australia, Muslim Australians are facing three challenges. First, the Muslim unemployment rate: it was three times higher than the national total in 1996 and 2001 (Kabir, Muslims in Australia 266-278; Kabir, “What Does It Mean” 63). Second, some spiritual leaders have used extreme rhetoric to appeal to marginalised youth; in January 2007, the Australian-born imam of Lebanese background, Sheikh Feiz Mohammad, was alleged to have employed a DVD format to urge children to kill the enemies of Islam and to have praised martyrs with a violent interpretation of jihad (Chulov 2). Third, the proposed citizenship test has the potential to make new migrants’ – particularly Muslims’ – settlement in Australia stressful (Kabir, “What Does It Mean” 62-79); in May 2007, fuelled by perceptions that some migrants – especially Muslims – were not integrating quickly enough, the Howard government introduced a citizenship test bill that proposes to test applicants on their English language skills and knowledge of Australian history and ‘values’. I contend that being able to demonstrate knowledge of history and having English language skills is no guarantee that a migrant will be a good citizen. Through my transmigrant history, I have learnt that developing a bond with a new place takes time, acceptance and a gradual change of identity, which are less likely to happen when facing assimilationist constraints. I spoke English and studied history in the United States, but I did not consider it my home. I did not speak the Arabic language, and did not study Middle Eastern history while I was in the Middle East, but I felt connected to it for cultural and religious reasons. Through my knowledge of history and English language proficiency I did not make Australia my home when I first migrated to Australia. Australia became my home when I started interacting with other Australians, which was made possible by having the time at my disposal and by fortunate circumstances, which included a fairly high level of efficacy and affluence. If I had been rejected because of my lack of knowledge of ‘Australian values’, or had encountered discrimination in the job market, I would have been much less willing to embrace my host country and call it home. I believe a stringent citizenship test is more likely to alienate would-be citizens than to induce their adoption of values and loyalty to their new home. Conclusion Blunt (5) observes that current studies of home often investigate mobile geographies of dwelling and how it shapes one’s identity and belonging. Such geographies of home negotiate from the domestic to the global context, thus mobilising the home beyond a fixed, bounded and confining location. Similarly, in this paper I have discussed how my mobile geography, from the domestic (root) to global (route), has shaped my identity. Though I received a degree of culture shock in the United States, loved the Middle East, and was at first quite resistant to the idea of making Australia my second home, the confidence I acquired in residing in these ‘several homes’ were cumulative and eventually enabled me to regard Australia as my ‘home’. I loved the Middle East, but I did not pursue an active involvement with the Arab community because I was a busy mother. Also I lacked the communication skill (fluency in Arabic) with the local residents who lived outside the expatriates’ campus. I am no longer a cultural freak. I am no longer the same Bangladeshi woman who saw her ethnic and Islamic culture as superior to all other cultures. I have learnt to appreciate Australian values, such as tolerance, ‘a fair go’ and multiculturalism (see Kabir, “What Does It Mean” 62-79). My bicultural identity is my strength. With my ethnic and religious identity, I can relate to the concerns of the Muslim community and other Australian ethnic and religious minorities. And with my Australian identity I have developed ‘a voice’ to pursue active citizenship. Thus my biculturalism has enabled me to retain and merge my former home with my present and permanent home of Australia. References Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London, New York: Verso, 1983. Australian Bureau of Statistics: Census of Housing and Population, 1996 and 2001. Blunt, Alison. Domicile and Diaspora: Anglo-Indian Women and the Spatial Politics of Home. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005. Blunt, Alison, and Robyn Dowling. Home. London and New York: Routledge, 2006. Cesari, Jocelyne. “Muslim Minorities in Europe: The Silent Revolution.” In John L. Esposito and Burgat, eds., Modernising Islam: Religion in the Public Sphere in Europe and the Middle East. London: Hurst, 2003. 251-269. Chulov, Martin. “Treatment Has Sheik Wary of Returning Home.” Weekend Australian 6-7 Jan. 2007: 2. Cohen, Robin. Global Diasporas: An Introduction. Seattle: University of Washington, 1997. Doogue, Geraldine, and Peter Kirkwood. Tomorrow’s Islam: Uniting Old-Age Beliefs and a Modern World. Sydney: ABC Books, 2005. Esposito, John. The Islamic Threat: Myth or Reality? 3rd ed. New York, Oxford: Oxford UP, 1999. Farrar, Max. “When the Bombs Go Off: Rethinking and Managing Diversity Strategies in Leeds, UK.” International Journal of Diversity in Organisations, Communities and Nations 6.5 (2007): 63-68. Grillo, Ralph. “Islam and Transnationalism.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 30.5 (Sep. 2004): 861-878. Hall, Stuart. Polity Reader in Cultural Theory. Cambridge: Polity Press, 1994. Huntington, Samuel, P. The Clash of Civilisation and the Remaking of World Order. London: Touchstone, 1998. Husain, Ed. The Islamist: Why I Joined Radical Islam in Britain, What I Saw inside and Why I Left. London: Penguin, 2007. Kabir, Nahid. Muslims in Australia: Immigration, Race Relations and Cultural History. London: Kegan Paul, 2005. ———. “What Does It Mean to Be Un-Australian: Views of Australian Muslim Students in 2006.” People and Place 15.1 (2007): 62-79. Khan, Shahnaz. Aversion and Desire: Negotiating Muslim Female Identity in the Diaspora. Toronto: Women’s Press, 2002. Manji, Irshad. The Trouble with Islam Today. Canada:Vintage, 2005. Maslow, Abraham. Motivation and Personality. New York: Harper, 1954. O’Sullivan, J. “The Real British Disease.” Quadrant (Jan.-Feb. 2006): 14-20. Poynting, Scott, and Victoria Mason. “The Resistible Rise of Islamophobia: Anti-Muslim Racism in the UK and Australia before 11 September 2001.” Journal of Sociology 43.1 (2007): 61-86. Saeed, Abdallah. Islam in Australia. Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 2003. Smith, Anthony D. National Identity. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1991. Spencer, Philip, and Howard Wollman. Nationalism: A Critical Introduction. London: Sage, 2002. Vertovec, Stevens. The Hindu Diaspora: Comparative Patterns. London: Routledge. 2000. Werbner, Pnina, “Theorising Complex Diasporas: Purity and Hybridity in the South Asian Public Sphere in Britain.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 30.5 (2004): 895-911. Wood, Dennis. “The Diaspora, Community and the Vagrant Space.” In Cynthia Vanden Driesen and Ralph Crane, eds., Diaspora: The Australasian Experience. New Delhi: Prestige, 2005. 59-64. Zubaida, Sami. “Islam in Europe: Unity or Diversity.” Critical Quarterly 45.1-2 (2003): 88-98. Citation reference for this article MLA Style Kabir, Nahid. "Why I Call Australia ‘Home’?: A Transmigrant’s Perspective." M/C Journal 10.4 (2007). echo date('d M. Y'); ?> <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0708/15-kabir.php>. APA Style Kabir, N. (Aug. 2007) "Why I Call Australia ‘Home’?: A Transmigrant’s Perspective," M/C Journal, 10(4). Retrieved echo date('d M. Y'); ?> from <http://journal.media-culture.org.au/0708/15-kabir.php>.

This article makes a case for the everyday while on tour and argues that the ability to continue with everyday routines and social relationships, while at the same time moving through and staying in liminal or atypical zones of tourist locales, is a key part of some kinds of tourist experience. Based on ethnographic field research with grey nomads (retirees who take extended tours of Australia in caravans and motorhomes) everyday life while on tour is examined, specifically the overlap and intersection between the out-of-the-ordinary “tourist zone” and the ordinariness of the “everyday zone.” The “everyday zone” and “tourist zone” can be readily differentiated by their obvious geospatial boundaries (being at home or being away on holiday). More specifically, the “everyday zone” refers to the routines of quotidian life, or the mundane practices which make up our daily, at-home lives. These practices are closely connected with the domestic realm and include consumption practices (clothing, cooking, mass media) and everyday social interactions. The “tourist zone” is similarly concerned with consumption. In this zone, however, tourists are seen to consume places; the culture, landscape, and peoples of exotic or out-of-the-ordinary tourist locales. Needless to say this consumption of place also includes the consumption of services and objects available in the tourist destinations (Urry, “The Consuming of Place” 220). The notion of tourists being away from home has often been contrasted with constructions of home—with the dull routines of everyday life—by social scientists and tourist marketers alike in an effort to illuminate the difference between being “away” and being at “home.” Scott McCabe and Elizabeth Stokoe suggest that peoples’ notion of “home” takes into account the meaning of being away (602). That is to say that when people are away from home, as tourists for example, they often compare and contrast this with the fundamental aspects of living at home. Others, however, argue that with the widespread use of mobile communication technologies, the distinction between the notion of being at “home” and being “away” becomes less clear (White and White 91). In this sense, the notion of home or the everyday is viewed with an eye towards social relationships, rather than any specific geographical location (Jamal and Hill 77–107; Massey 59–69; Urry, “The Tourist Gaze” 2–14; White and White 88–104). It can be argued, therefore, that tourism entails a fusion of the routines and relationships associated with the everyday, as well as the liminal or atypical world of difference. This article is based on semi-structured interviews with 40 grey nomads, as well as four months of ethnographic fieldwork carried out in rural and remote Australia—in Western Australia, the Northern Territory, and South Australia. Grey nomads have been part of Australian senior culture for at least four decades. They are a relatively heterogeneous group of tourists encompassing a range of socio-economic backgrounds, preferred activities, health status, and favoured destinations (Davies et al. 40–1; Economic Development Committee 4; Holloway 117–47), as well age cohorts—including the frugal generation (1910–1932), the silent generation (1931–1946), and the baby boomer generation (1946–65). Grey nomads usually tour as spousal couples (Tourism Research Australia 26; Onyx and Leonard 387). Some of these couples live solely on government pensions while others are obviously well-resourced—touring in luxury motorhomes costing well over half a million dollars. Some prefer to bush camp in national parks and other isolated locations, and some choose to stay long term in caravan parks socialising with other grey nomads and the local community. All grey nomads, nonetheless, maintain a particularly close link with the everyday while touring. Mobile communication technologies anchor grey nomads (and other tourists) to the everyday—allowing for ready contact with existing family and friends while on tour. Grey nomads’ mobile dwellings, their caravans and motorhomes, integrate familiar domestic spaces with a touring life. The interior and exterior spaces of these mobile dwellings allow for easy enactment of everyday, domestic routines and the privatised world of adult spousal relationships. This peripatetic form of dwelling, where the dwelling itself accommodates both travel and an everyday domestic life further blurs the distinctions between the “everyday zone” and the “tourist zone”. In this sense grey nomads carry out a lifestyle that is both anchored and mobile; anchored in the everyday domestic life while at the same time being nomadic or geographically unstable. This blurring of the boundaries between the “everyday zone” and “tourist zone” is attractive to senior tourists, offering them a relatively safe and comfortable incursion into tourist locales, where established routines and patterns of everyday life can be maintained. Other homes-away-from-homes such as serviced apartments, holiday homes and house swaps also offer greater connection to the everyday, but are geographically anchored to specific tourism spaces. The caravan or motorhome allows this at-home connection for the peripatetic tourist offsets the relative rigours of outback touring in remote and rural Australia. Everyday Social Relationships in the “Tourist Zone” When tourists go away from home, they are usually thought of as being away from both place (home) and relationships (family and friends). Nowadays, however, being away from home does not necessarily mean being away from family and friends. This is because the ease and speed of today’s telecommunication technologies allows for instantaneous contact with family and friends back home—or the virtual co-presence of family and friends while being away on tour. In the past, those friends and relations who were geographically isolated from each other still enjoyed social contact via letters and telegrams. Such contacts, however, occurred less frequently and message delivery took time. Long distance telephone calls were also costly and therefore used sparingly. These days, telecommunication technologies such as mobile phones and the Internet, as well as the lower cost of landline phone calls, mean that everyday social contact does not need to be put on hold. Keeping in contact is now a comparatively fast, inexpensive, and effortless activity and socialising with distant friends and relatives is now a routine activity (Larsen 24). All grey nomads travel with a mobile phone device, either a digital mobile, Next G or satellite phone (Obst, Brayley and King 8). These phones are used to routinely keep in contact with family and friends, bringing with them everyday familial relationships while on tour. “We ring the girls. We’ve got two daughters. We ring them once a week, although if something happens Debbie [daughter] will ring us” (Teresa). Grey nomads also take advantage of special deals or free minutes when they scheduled weekly calls to family or friends. “I mainly [use] mobile, then I ring, because I’ve got that hour, free hour” (Helen). E-mail is also a favoured way of keeping in contact with family and friends for some grey nomads. This is because the asynchronicity of e-mail interaction is very convenient as they can choose the times when they pick up and send messages. “Oh, thank goodness for the e-mail” (Pat). Maintaining social contact with family and friends at a distance is not necessarily as straightforward as when grey nomads and other tourists are at home. According to discussants in this study and the Regional Telecommunications Independent Review Committee, mobile phone coverage within Australia is still rather patchy when outside major metropolitan areas. Consequently, the everyday task of kin keeping via the phone can be somewhat intermittent, especially for those grey nomads who spend a great deal of time outside major towns in rural and remote Australia. “You can never get much [reception] but [...] they can just ring the mobile and just leave a message and we will get that message [later]” (Rena). Similarly, using the Internet to e-mail family and friends and catch up with online banking can only be carried out when passing through larger towns. “I do it [using the Internet] like every major town we went through. I’d stop and do a set of e-mails and I used to do my banking” (Maureen). The intermittent phone coverage in remote and rural Australia was not always viewed as an inconvenience by discussants in this study. This is because continuing engagement with family and friends while on tour may leave little respite from the ongoing obligations or any difficulties associated with family and friends back home, and encroach on the leisure and relaxation associated with grey nomad touring. “I don’t want the phone to ring […] That’s one thing I can do without, the phone ringing, especially at 4:00 in the morning” (Rena). In this way, too much co-presence, in the form of mobile phone calls from family and friends, can be just as much a nuisance when away from home as when at home—and impinge on the feeling of “being away from it all.” Naomi White and Peter White also suggest that “being simultaneously home and away is not always experienced in a positive light” (98) and at times, continued contact (via the phone) with friends and family while touring is not satisfying or enjoyable because these calls reiterate the “dynamics evident in those that are [usually] geographically proximate” (100). Thus, while mobile communication technologies are convenient tools for grey nomads and other tourists which blur the boundaries between the “everyday zone” and “tourist zones” in useful and pleasurable ways, their overuse may also encroach on tourists’ away time, thus interfering with their sense of solitude and quiescence when touring in remote or rural Australia. The “Everyday Zone” of the Caravan or Motorhome Being a tourist involves “everyday practices, ordinary places and significant others, such as family members and friends, but co-residing and at-a-distance” (Larsen 26). While tourism involves some sense of liminality, in reality, it is interspersed with the actuality of the everyday routines and sociabilities enacted while touring. Tim Edensor notes that; Rather than transcending the mundane, most forms of tourism are fashioned by culturally coded escape attempts. Moreover, although suffused with notions of escape from normativity, tourists carry quotidian habits and responses with them: they are part of the baggage. (61) Grey nomads go further than this by bringing on tour with them a domestic space in which everyday routines and sociabilities are sustained. Travelling in this manner “makes possible, and probably encourages, greater continuity with everyday routine than many other kinds of holiday making” (Southerton et al. 6). To be able to sleep in your own bed with your own pillow and linen, or perhaps travel with your dogs, makes caravanning and motorhoming an attractive touring option for many people. Thus, the use of caravans or motorhomes when travelling brings with it a great deal of mobile domesticity while on tour. The caravan or motorhome is furnished with most of the essentially-domestic objects and technologies to enable grey nomads to sleep, eat, relax, and be entertained in a manner similar to that which they enjoy in the family home, albeit within smaller dimensions. Lorna: We have shower, toilet. We had microwave, stereo. We have air conditioning and heating.Eric: Yeah, reverse cycle air conditioning.Lorna: Reverse cycle. What else do we have?Eric: Hot water service. Gas or 240 volt. 12 volt converter in that, which is real good, it runs your lights, runs everything like that. You just hook it into the main power and it converts it to 12 volt. Roll out awning plus the full annex.Lorna: Full annex. What else do we have? There’s a good size stove in it. The size of caravans and motorhomes means that many domestic tasks often take less time or are simplified. Cleaning the van takes a lot less time and cooking often becomes simplified, due to lack of bench and storage space. Women in particular like this aspect of grey nomad travel. “It is great. Absolutely. You don’t have toilets to clean, you don’t have bathrooms to clean. Cooking your meals are easier because everything is all […] Yeah. It’s more casual” (Sonya). This touring lifestyle also introduces new domestic routines, such as emptying chemical toilets, filling water tanks, towing and parking the van and refilling gas tanks, for example. Nonetheless grey nomads, spend significantly less time on these domestic tasks when they are touring. In this sense, the caravan or motorhome brings with it the comforts and familiarity of home, while at the same time minimising the routine chores involved in domestic life. With the core accoutrements of everyday life available, everyday activities such as doing the dishes, watching television, preparing and eating a meal—as well as individual hobbies and pastimes—weave themselves into a daily life that is simultaneously home and away. This daily life, at home in the caravan or motorhome, brings with it possibilities of a domestic routinised lifestyle—one that provides welcome comfort and familiarity when travelling and a retreat from the demands of sightseeing. On the farm I used to make jam and cakes, so I do it again [in the caravan]. I make jam, I made marmalade a couple of weeks ago. We’d often stay home [in the caravan], I’d just clean or do a bit of painting. (Jenny) Touring in a caravan or motorhome allows for some sense of predictability: that you own and control the private spaces of your own mobile dwelling, and can readily carry out everyday domestic routines and sociabilities. “We go for a long walk. We come back and we see friends and we stop and have a coffee with them, and then you come home in the caravan at 2.30 and you can still have lunch” (Yvonne). Touring in a caravan or motorhome also frees grey nomads from dependence on prearranged tourist experiences such as organised tours or hotel meal times where much of the tourist experience can be regimented. We always went in hotels and you always had to dress up, and you had to eat before a certain time, and you had your breakfast before a certain time. And after 2.30 you can’t have lunch anymore and sometimes we have lunch at 2 o’clock. I like the caravan park [better]. (Donald) Despite the caravan or motorhome having close links with everyday life and the domestic realm, its ready mobility offers a greater sense of autonomy while touring: that you are unfettered, not bound to any specific place or timetable, and can move on at whim. Grey nomads often cross paths with other tourists dependent on guided bus tours. “They go in [to Kakadu] on a bus trip. All they do is go in on the main road, they’re in there for the day and there’re back. That’s absolutely ridiculous” (Vance). This autonomy, or freedom to structure their own tourist experiences, allows grey nomads the opportunity to travel at a leisurely pace. Even those grey nomads who travel to the same northern destination every year take their time and enjoy other tourist locations along the way. We take our time. This time, last time, we did three weeks before we got in [to] Broome. We spent a lot [of time] in Karratha but also in Geraldton. And when we came back, in Kalbarri, [we had] a week in Kalbarri. But it’s nice going up, you know. You go all through the coast, along the coast. (John) Caravan or motorhome use, therefore, provides for a routinised everyday life while at the same time allowing a level of autonomy not evident in other forms of tourism—which rely more heavily on pre-booking accommodation and transport options. These contradictory aspects of grey nomad travel, an everyday life of living in a caravan or motorhome coupled with freedom to move on in an independent manner, melds the “everyday zone” and the “tourist zone” in a manner appealing to many grey nomads. Conclusion Theories of tourism tend to pay little attention to the aspects of tourism that involve recurrent activities and an ongoing connectedness with everyday life. Tourism is often defined: by contrasting it to home geographies and everydayness: tourism is what they are not. [...] The main focus in such research is on the extraordinary, on places elsewhere. Tourism is an escape from home, a quest for more desirable and fulfilling places. (Larsen 21) Nonetheless, tourism involves everyday routines, everyday spaces and an everyday social life. Grey nomads find that mobile phones and the Internet make possible the virtual co-presence of family and friends allowing everyday relationships to continue while touring. Nonetheless, the pleasure of ongoing contact with distant family and friends while touring may at times encroach on the quietude or solitude grey nomads experienced when touring remote and rural Australia. In addition to this, grey nomads’ caravans and motorhomes are equipped with the many comforts and domestic technologies of home, making for the continuance of everyday domiciliary life while on tour, further obfuscating the boundaries between the “tourist zone” and the “everyday zone.” In this sense grey nomads lead a lifestyle that is both anchored and mobile. This anchoring involves dwelling in everyday spaces, carrying out everyday domestic and social routines, as well as maintaining contact with friends and family via mobile communication technologies. This anchoring allows for some sense of predictability: that you own and control the private spaces of your own mobile dwelling, and can readily carry out everyday domestic routines and sociabilities. Conversely, the ready mobility of the caravan or motorhome offers a sense of autonomy: that you are unfettered, not bound to any specific place and can move on at whim. 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“Human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them [...] life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves.” (Garcia Marquez 165) Introduction The refugee experience is, at heart, one of rebirth. Just as becoming a new, distinctive being—biological birth—necessarily involves the physical separation of mother and infant, so becoming a refugee entails separation from a "mother country." This mother country may or may not be a recognised nation state; the point is that the refugee transitions from physical connectedness to separation, from insider to outsider, from endemic to alien. Like babies, refugees may have little control over the timing and conditions of their expulsion. Successful resettlement requires not one rebirth but multiple rebirths—resettlement is a lifelong process (Layton)—which in turn require hope, imagination, and energy. In rebirthing themselves over and over again, people who have fled or been forced from their homelands become both mother and child. They do not go through this rebirthing alone. A range of agencies and individuals may be there to assist, including immigration officials, settlement services, schools and teachers, employment agencies and employers, English as a Second Language (ESL) resources and instructors, health-care providers, counsellors, diasporic networks, neighbours, church groups, and other community organisations. The nature, intensity, and duration of these “midwives’” interventions—and when they occur and in what combinations—vary hugely from place to place and from person to person, but there is clear evidence that post-migration experiences have a significant impact on settlement outcomes (Fozdar and Hartley). This paper draws on qualitative research I did in 2012 in a regional town in New South Wales to illuminate some of the ways in which settlement aides ease, or impede, refugees’ rebirth as fully recognised and participating Australians. I begin by considering what it means to be resilient before tracing some of the dimensions of the resettlement process. In doing so, I draw on data from interviews and focus groups with former refugees, service providers, and other residents of the town I shall call Easthaven. First, though, a word about Easthaven. As is the case in many rural and regional parts of Australia, Easthaven’s population is strongly dominated by Anglo Celtic and Saxon ancestries: 2011 Census data show that more than 80 per cent of residents were born in Australia (compared with a national figure of 69.8 per cent) and about 90 per cent speak only English at home (76.8 per cent). Almost twice as many people identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander as the national figure of 2.5 per cent (Australian Bureau of Statistics). For several years Easthaven has been an official “Refugee Welcome Zone”, welcoming hundreds of refugees from diverse countries in Africa and the Middle East as well as from Myanmar. This reflects the Department of Immigration and Citizenship’s drive to settle a fifth of Australia’s 13,750 humanitarian entrants a year directly in regional areas. In Easthaven’s schools—which is where I focused my research—almost all of the ESL students are from refugee backgrounds. Defining Resilience Much of the research on human resilience is grounded in psychology, with a capacity to “bounce back” from adverse experiences cited in many definitions of resilience (e.g. American Psychological Association). Bouncing back implies a relatively quick process, and a return to a state or form similar to that which existed before the encounter with adversity. Yet resilience often requires sustained effort and significant changes in identity. As Jerome Rugaruza, a former UNHCR refugee, says of his journey from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Australia: All the steps begin in the burning village: you run with nothing to eat, no clothes. You just go. Then you get to the refugee camp […] You have a little bread and you thank god you are safe. Then after a few years in the camp, you think about a future for your children. You arrive in Australia and then you learn a new language, you learn to drive. There are so many steps and not everyone can do it. (Milsom) Not everyone can do it, but a large majority do. Research by Graeme Hugo, for example, shows that although humanitarian settlers in Australia face substantial barriers to employment and initially have much higher unemployment rates than other immigrants, for most nationality groups this difference has disappeared by the second generation: “This is consistent with the sacrifice (or investment) of the first generation and the efforts extended to attain higher levels of education and English proficiency, thereby reducing the barriers over time.” (Hugo 35). Ingrid Poulson writes that “resilience is not just about bouncing. Bouncing […] is only a reaction. Resilience is about rising—you rise above it, you rise to the occasion, you rise to the challenge. Rising is an active choice” (47; my emphasis) I see resilience as involving mental and physical grit, coupled with creativity, aspiration and, crucially, agency. Dimensions of Resettlement To return to the story of 41-year-old Jerome Rugaruza, as related in a recent newspaper article: He [Mr Rugaruza] describes the experience of being a newly arrived refugee as being like that of a newborn baby. “You need special care; you have to learn to speak [English], eat the different food, create relationships, connections”. (Milsom) This is a key dimension of resettlement: the adult becomes like an infant again, shifting from someone who knows how things work and how to get by to someone who is likely to be, for a while, dependent on others for even the most basic things—communication, food, shelter, clothing, and social contact. The “special care” that most refugee arrivals need initially (and sometimes for a long time) often results in their being seen as deficient—in knowledge, skills, dispositions, and capacities as well as material goods (Keddie; Uptin, Wright and Harwood). As Fozdar and Hartley note: “The tendency to use a deficit model in refugee resettlement devalues people and reinforces the view of the mainstream population that refugees are a liability” (27). Yet unlike newborns, humanitarian settlers come to their new countries with rich social networks and extensive histories of experience and learning—resources that are in fact vital to their rebirth. Sisay (all names are pseudonyms), a year 11 student of Ethiopian heritage who was born in Kenya, told me with feeling: I had a life back in Africa [her emphasis]. It was good. Well, I would go back there if there’s no problems, which—is a fact. And I came here for a better life—yeah, I have a better life, there’s good health care, free school, and good environment and all that. But what’s that without friends? A fellow student, Celine, who came to Australia five years ago from Burundi via Uganda, told me in a focus group: Some teachers are really good but I think some other teachers could be a little bit more encouraging and understanding of what we’ve gone through, because [they] just look at you like “You’re year 11 now, you should know this” […] It’s really discouraging when [the teachers say] in front of the class, “Oh, you shouldn’t do this subject because you haven’t done this this this this” […] It’s like they’re on purpose to tell you “you don’t have what it takes; just give up and do something else.” As Uptin, Wright and Harwood note, “schools not only have the power to position who is included in schooling (in culture and pedagogy) but also have the power to determine whether there is room and appreciation for diversity” (126). Both Sisay and Celine were disheartened by the fact they felt some of their teachers, and many of their peers, had little interest in or understanding of their lives before they came to Australia. The teachers’ low expectations of refugee-background students (Keddie, Uptin, Wright and Harwood) contrasted with the students’ and their families’ high expectations of themselves (Brown, Miller and Mitchell; Harris and Marlowe). When I asked Sisay about her post-school ambitions, she said: “I have a good idea of my future […] write a documentary. And I’m working on it.” Celine’s response was: “I know I’m gonna do medicine, be a doctor.” A third girl, Lily, who came to Australia from Myanmar three years ago, told me she wanted to be an accountant and had studied accounting at the local TAFE last year. Joseph, a father of three who resettled from South Sudan seven years ago, stressed how important getting a job was to successful settlement: [But] you have to get a certificate first to get a job. Even the job of cleaning—when I came here I was told that somebody has to go to have training in cleaning, to use the different chemicals to clean the ground and all that. But that is just sweeping and cleaning with water—you don’t need the [higher-level] skills. Simple jobs like this, we are not able to get them. In regional Australia, employment opportunities tend to be limited (Fozdar and Hartley); the unemployment rate in Easthaven is twice the national average. Opportunities to study are also more limited than in urban centres, and would-be students are not always eligible for financial assistance to gain or upgrade qualifications. Even when people do have appropriate qualifications, work experience, and language proficiency, the colour of their skin may still mean they miss out on a job. Tilbury and Colic-Peisker have documented the various ways in which employers deflect responsibility for racial discrimination, including the “common” strategy (658) of arguing that while the employer or organisation is not prejudiced, they have to discriminate because of their clients’ needs or expectations. I heard this strategy deployed in an interview with a local businesswoman, Catriona: We were advertising for a new technician. And one of the African refugees came to us and he’d had a lot of IT experience. And this is awful, but we felt we couldn't give him the job, because we send our technicians into people's houses, and we knew that if a black African guy rocked up at someone’s house to try and fix their computer, they would not always be welcomed in all—look, it would not be something that [Easthaven] was ready for yet. Colic-Peisker and Tilbury (Refugees and Employment) note that while Australia has strict anti-discrimination legislation, this legislation may be of little use to the people who, because of the way they look and sound (skin colour, dress, accent), are most likely to face prejudice and discrimination. The researchers found that perceived discrimination in the labour market affected humanitarian settlers’ sense of satisfaction with their new lives far more than, for example, racist remarks, which were generally shrugged off; the students I interviewed spoke of racism as “expected,” but “quite rare.” Most of the people Colic-Peisker and Tilbury surveyed reported finding Australians “friendly and accepting” (33). Even if there is no active discrimination on the basis of skin colour in employment, education, or housing, or overt racism in social situations, visible difference can still affect a person’s sense of belonging, as Joseph recounts: I think of myself as Australian, but my colour doesn’t [laughs] […] Unfortunately many, many Australians are expecting that Australia is a country of Europeans … There is no need for somebody to ask “Where do you come from?” and “Do you find Australia here safe?” and “Do you enjoy it?” Those kind of questions doesn’t encourage that we are together. This highlights another dimension of resettlement: the journey from feeling “at home” to feeling “foreign” to, eventually, feeling at home again in the host country (Colic-Peisker and Tilbury, Refugees and Employment). In the case of visibly different settlers, however, this last stage may never be completed. Whether the questions asked of Joseph are well intentioned or not, their effect may be the same: they position him as a “forever foreigner” (Park). A further dimension of resettlement—one already touched on—is the degree to which humanitarian settlers actively manage their “rebirth,” and are allowed and encouraged to do so. A key factor will be their mastery of English, and Easthaven’s ESL teachers are thus pivotal in the resettlement process. There is little doubt that many of these teachers have gone to great lengths to help this cohort of students, not only in terms of language acquisition but also social inclusion. However, in some cases what is initially supportive can, with time, begin to undermine refugees’ maturity into independent citizens. Sharon, an ESL teacher at one of the schools, told me how she and her colleagues would give their refugee-background students lifts to social events: But then maybe three years down the track they have a car and their dad can drive, but they still won’t take them […] We arrive to pick them up and they’re not ready, or there’s five fantastic cars in the driveway, and you pick up the student and they say “My dad’s car’s much bigger and better than yours” [laughs]. So there’s an expectation that we’ll do stuff for them, but we’ve created that [my emphasis]. Other support services may have more complex interests in keeping refugee settlers dependent. The more clients an agency has, the more services it provides, and the longer clients stay on its books, the more lucrative the contract for the agency. Thus financial and employment imperatives promote competition rather than collaboration between service providers (Fozdar and Hartley; Sidhu and Taylor) and may encourage assumptions about what sorts of services different individuals and groups want and need. Colic-Peisker and Tilbury (“‘Active’ and ‘Passive’ Resettlement”) have developed a typology of resettlement styles—“achievers,” “consumers,” “endurers,” and “victims”—but stress that a person’s style, while influenced by personality and pre-migration factors, is also shaped by the institutions and individuals they come into contact with: “The structure of settlement and welfare services may produce a victim mentality, leaving members of refugee communities inert and unable to see themselves as agents of change” (76). The prevailing narrative of “the traumatised refugee” is a key aspect of this dynamic (Colic-Peisker and Tilbury, “‘Active’ and ‘Passive’ Resettlement”; Fozdar and Hartley; Keddie). Service providers may make assumptions about what humanitarian settlers have gone through before arriving in Australia, how they have been affected by their experiences, and what must be done to “fix” them. Norah, a long-time caseworker, told me: I think you get some [providers] who go, “How could you have gone through something like that and not suffered? There must be—you must have to talk about this stuff” […] Where some [refugees] just come with the [attitude] “We’re all born into a situation; that was my situation, but I’m here now and now my focus is this.” She cited failure to consider cultural sensitivities around mental illness and to recognise that stress and anxiety during early resettlement are normal (Tilbury) as other problems in the sector: [Newly arrived refugees] go through the “happy to be here” [phase] and now “hang on, I’ve thumped to the bottom and I’m missing my own foods and smells and cultures and experiences”. I think sometimes we’re just too quick to try and slot people into a box. One factor that appears to be vital in fostering and sustaining resilience is social connection. Norah said her clients were “very good on the mobile phone” and had links “everywhere,” including to family and friends in their countries of birth, transition countries, and other parts of Australia. A 2011 report for DIAC, Settlement Outcomes of New Arrivals, found that humanitarian entrants to Australia were significantly more likely to be members of cultural and/or religious groups than other categories of immigrants (Australian Survey Research). I found many examples of efforts to build both bonding and bridging capital (Putnam) in Easthaven, and I offer two examples below. Several people told me about a dinner-dance that had been held a few weeks before one of my visits. The event was organised by an African women’s group, which had been formed—with funding assistance—several years before. The dinner-dance was advertised in the local newspaper and attracted strong interest from a broad cross-section of Easthaveners. To Debbie, a counsellor, the response signified a “real turnaround” in community relations and was a big boon to the women’s sense of belonging. Erica, a teacher, told me about a cultural exchange day she had organised between her bush school—where almost all of the children are Anglo Australian—and ESL students from one of the town schools: At the start of the day, my kids were looking at [the refugee-background students] and they were scared, they were saying to me, "I feel scared." And we shoved them all into this tiny little room […] and they had no choice but to sit practically on top of each other. And by the end of the day, they were hugging each other and braiding their hair and jumping and playing together. Like Uptin, Wright and Harwood, I found that the refugee-background students placed great importance on the social aspects of school. Sisay, the girl I introduced earlier in this paper, said: “It’s just all about friendship and someone to be there for you […] We try to be friends with them [the non-refugee students] sometimes but sometimes it just seems they don’t want it.” Conclusion A 2012 report on refugee settlement services in NSW concludes that the state “is not meeting its responsibility to humanitarian entrants as well as it could” (Audit Office of New South Wales 2); moreover, humanitarian settlers in NSW are doing less well on indicators such as housing and health than humanitarian settlers in other states (3). Evaluating the effectiveness of formal refugee-centred programs was not part of my research and is beyond the scope of this paper. Rather, I have sought to reveal some of the ways in which the attitudes, assumptions, and everyday practices of service providers and members of the broader community impact on refugees' settlement experience. What I heard repeatedly in the interviews I conducted was that it was emotional and practical support (Matthews; Tilbury), and being asked as well as told (about their hopes, needs, desires), that helped Easthaven’s refugee settlers bear themselves into fulfilling new lives. References Audit Office of New South Wales. Settling Humanitarian Entrants in New South Wales—Executive Summary. May 2012. 15 Aug. 2013 ‹http://www.audit.nsw.gov.au/ArticleDocuments/245/02_Humanitarian_Entrants_2012_Executive_Summary.pdf.aspx?Embed=Y>. Australian Bureau of Statistics. 2011 Census QuickStats. Mar. 2013. 11 Aug. 2013 ‹http://www.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/2011/quickstat/0>. Australian Survey Research. Settlement Outcomes of New Arrivals—Report of Findings. Apr. 2011. 15 Aug. 2013 ‹http://www.immi.gov.au/media/publications/research/_pdf/settlement-outcomes-new-arrivals.pdf>. Brown, Jill, Jenny Miller, and Jane Mitchell. “Interrupted Schooling and the Acquisition of Literacy: Experiences of Sudanese Refugees in Victorian Secondary Schools.” Australian Journal of Language and Literacy 29.2 (2006): 150-62. Colic-Peisker, Val, and Farida Tilbury. “‘Active’ and ‘Passive’ Resettlement: The Influence of Supporting Services and Refugees’ Own Resources on Resettlement Style.” International Migration 41.5 (2004): 61-91. ———. Refugees and Employment: The Effect of Visible Difference on Discrimination—Final Report. Perth: Centre for Social and Community Research, Murdoch University, 2007. Fozdar, Farida, and Lisa Hartley. “Refugee Resettlement in Australia: What We Know and Need To Know.” Refugee Survey Quarterly 4 Jun. 2013. 12 Aug. 2013 ‹http://rsq.oxfordjournals.org/search?fulltext=fozdar&submit=yes&x=0&y=0>. Garcia Marquez, Gabriel. Love in the Time of Cholera. London: Penguin Books, 1989. Harris, Vandra, and Jay Marlowe. “Hard Yards and High Hopes: The Educational Challenges of African Refugee University Students in Australia.” International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education 23.2 (2011): 186-96. Hugo, Graeme. A Significant Contribution: The Economic, Social and Civic Contributions of First and Second Generation Humanitarian Entrants—Summary of Findings. Canberra: Department of Immigration and Citizenship, 2011. Keddie, Amanda. “Pursuing Justice for Refugee Students: Addressing Issues of Cultural (Mis)recognition.” International Journal of Inclusive Education 16.12 (2012): 1295-1310. Layton, Robyn. "Building Capacity to Ensure the Inclusion of Vulnerable Groups." Creating Our Future conference, Adelaide, 28 Jul. 2012. Milsom, Rosemarie. “From Hard Luck Life to the Lucky Country.” Sydney Morning Herald 20 Jun. 2013. 12 Aug. 2013 ‹http://www.smh.com.au/national/from-hard-luck-life-to-the-lucky-country-20130619-2oixl.html>. Park, Gilbert C. “’Are We Real Americans?’: Cultural Production of Forever Foreigners at a Diversity Event.” Education and Urban Society 43.4 (2011): 451-67. Poulson, Ingrid. Rise. Sydney: Pan Macmillan Australia, 2008. Putnam, Robert D. Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000. Sidhu, Ravinder K., and Sandra Taylor. “The Trials and Tribulations of Partnerships in Refugee Settlement Services in Australia.” Journal of Education Policy 24.6 (2009): 655-72. Tilbury, Farida. “‘I Feel I Am a Bird without Wings’: Discourses of Sadness and Loss among East Africans in Western Australia.” Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power 14.4 (2007): 433-58. ———, and Val Colic-Peisker. “Deflecting Responsibility in Employer Talk about Race Discrimination.” Discourse & Society 17.5 (2006): 651-76. Uptin, Jonnell, Jan Wright, and Valerie Harwood. “It Felt Like I Was a Black Dot on White Paper: Examining Young Former Refugees’ Experience of Entering Australian High Schools.” The Australian Educational Researcher 40.1 (2013): 125-37.

The Australian Government has been actively evaluating how best to merge the functions of the Australian Communications Authority (ACA) and the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) for around two years now. Broadly, the reason for this is an attempt to keep pace with the communications media transformations we reduce to the term “convergence.” Mounting pressure for restructuring is emerging as a site of turf contestation: the possibility of a regulatory “one-stop shop” for governments (and some industry players) is an end game of considerable force. But, from a public interest perspective, the case for a converged regulator needs to make sense to audiences using various media, as well as in terms of arguments about global, industrial, and technological change. This national debate about the institutional reshaping of media regulation is occurring within a wider global context of transformations in social, technological, and politico-economic frameworks of open capital and cultural markets, including the increasing prominence of international economic organisations, corporations, and Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). Although the recently concluded FTA with the US explicitly carves out a right for Australian Governments to make regulatory policy in relation to existing and new media, considerable uncertainty remains as to future regulatory arrangements. A key concern is how a right to intervene in cultural markets will be sustained in the face of cultural, politico-economic, and technological pressures that are reconfiguring creative industries on an international scale. While the right to intervene was retained for the audiovisual sector in the FTA, by contrast, it appears that comparable unilateral rights to intervene will not operate for telecommunications, e-commerce or intellectual property (DFAT). Blurring Boundaries A lack of certainty for audiences is a by-product of industry change, and further blurs regulatory boundaries: new digital media content and overlapping delivering technologies are already a reality for Australia’s media regulators. These hypothetical media usage scenarios indicate how confusion over the appropriate regulatory agency may arise: 1. playing electronic games that use racist language; 2. being subjected to deceptive or misleading pop-up advertising online 3. receiving messaged imagery on your mobile phone that offends, disturbs, or annoys; 4. watching a program like World Idol with SMS voting that subsequently raises charging or billing issues; or 5. watching a new “reality” TV program where products are being promoted with no explicit acknowledgement of the underlying commercial arrangements either during or at the end of the program. These are all instances where, theoretically, regulatory mechanisms are in place that allow individuals to complain and to seek some kind of redress as consumers and citizens. In the last scenario, in commercial television under the sector code, no clear-cut rules exist as to the precise form of the disclosure—as there is (from 2000) in commercial radio. It’s one of a number of issues the peak TV industry lobby Commercial TV Australia (CTVA) is considering in their review of the industry’s code of practice. CTVA have proposed an amendment to the code that will simply formalise the already existing practice . That is, commercial arrangements that assist in the making of a program should be acknowledged either during programs, or in their credits. In my view, this amendment doesn’t go far enough in post “cash for comment” mediascapes (Dwyer). Audiences have a right to expect that broadcasters, production companies and program celebrities are open and transparent with the Australian community about these kinds of arrangements. They need to be far more clearly signposted, and people better informed about their role. In the US, the “Commercial Alert” <http://www.commercialalert.org/> organisation has been lobbying the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission to achieve similar in-program “visual acknowledgements.” The ABA’s Commercial Radio Inquiry (“Cash-for-Comment”) found widespread systemic regulatory failure and introduced three new standards. On that basis, how could a “standstill” response by CTVA, constitute best practice for such a pervasive and influential medium as contemporary commercial television? The World Idol example may lead to confusion for some audiences, who are unsure whether the issues involved relate to broadcasting or telecommunications. In fact, it could be dealt with as a complaint to the Telecommunication Industry Ombudsman (TIO) under an ACA registered, but Australian Communications Industry Forum (ACIF) developed, code of practice. These kind of cross-platform issues may become more vexed in future years from an audience’s perspective, especially if reality formats using on-screen premium rate service numbers invite audiences to participate, by sending MMS (multimedia messaging services) images or short video grabs over wireless networks. The political and cultural implications of this kind of audience interaction, in terms of access, participation, and more generally the symbolic power of media, may perhaps even indicate a longer-term shift in relations with consumers and citizens. In the Internet example, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) Internet advertising jurisdiction would apply—not the ABA’s “co-regulatory” Internet content regime as some may have thought. Although the ACCC deals with complaints relating to Internet advertising, there won’t be much traction for them in a more complex issue that also includes, say, racist or religious bigotry. The DVD example would probably fall between the remits of the Office of Film and Literature Classification’s (OFLC) new “convergent” Guidelines for the Classification of Film and Computer Games and race discrimination legislation administered by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC). The OFLC’s National Classification Scheme is really geared to provide consumer advice on media products that contain sexual and violent imagery or coarse language, rather than issues of racist language. And it’s unlikely that a single person would have the locus standito even apply for a reclassification. It may fall within the jurisdiction of the HREOC depending on whether it was played in public or not. Even then it would probably be considered exempt on free speech grounds as an “artistic work.” Unsolicited, potentially illegal, content transmitted via mobile wireless devices, in particular 3G phones, provide another example of content that falls between the media regulation cracks. It illustrates a potential content policy “turf grab” too. Image-enabled mobile phones create a variety of novel issues for content producers, network operators, regulators, parents and viewers. There is no one government media authority or agency with a remit to deal with this issue. Although it has elements relating to the regulatory activities of the ACA, the ABA, the OFLC, the TIO, and TISSC, the combination of illegal or potentially prohibited content and its carriage over wireless networks positions it outside their current frameworks. The ACA may argue it should have responsibility for this kind of content since: it now enforces the recently enacted Commonwealth anti-Spam laws; has registered an industry code of practice for unsolicited content delivered over wireless networks; is seeking to include ‘adult’ content within premium rate service numbers, and, has been actively involved in consumer education for mobile telephony. It has also worked with TISSC and the ABA in relation to telephone sex information services over voice networks. On the other hand, the ABA would probably argue that it has the relevant expertise for regulating wirelessly transmitted image-content, arising from its experience of Internet and free and subscription TV industries, under co-regulatory codes of practice. The OFLC can also stake its claim for policy and compliance expertise, since the recently implemented Guidelines for Classification of Film and Computer Games were specifically developed to address issues of industry convergence. These Guidelines now underpin the regulation of content across the film, TV, video, subscription TV, computer games and Internet sectors. Reshaping Institutions Debates around the “merged regulator” concept have occurred on and off for at least a decade, with vested interests in agencies and the executive jockeying to stake claims over new turf. On several occasions the debate has been given renewed impetus in the context of ruling conservative parties’ mooted changes to the ownership and control regime. It’s tended to highlight demarcations of remit, informed as they are by historical and legal developments, and the gradual accretion of regulatory cultures. Now the key pressure points for regulatory change include the mere existence of already converged single regulatory structures in those countries with whom we tend to triangulate our policy comparisons—the US, the UK and Canada—increasingly in a context of debates concerning international trade agreements; and, overlaying this, new media formats and devices are complicating existing institutional arrangements and legal frameworks. The Department of Communications, Information Technology & the Arts’s (DCITA) review brief was initially framed as “options for reform in spectrum management,” but was then widened to include “new institutional arrangements” for a converged regulator, to deal with visual content in the latest generation of mobile telephony, and other image-enabled wireless devices (DCITA). No other regulatory agencies appear, at this point, to be actively on the Government’s radar screen (although they previously have been). Were the review to look more inclusively, the ACCC, the OFLC and the specialist telecommunications bodies, the TIO and the TISSC may also be drawn in. Current regulatory arrangements see the ACA delegate responsibility for broadcasting services bands of the radio frequency spectrum to the ABA. In fact, spectrum management is the turf least contested by the regulatory players themselves, although the “convergent regulator” issue provokes considerable angst among powerful incumbent media players. The consensus that exists at a regulatory level can be linked to the scientific convention that holds the radio frequency spectrum is a continuum of electromagnetic bands. In this view, it becomes artificial to sever broadcasting, as “broadcasting services bands” from the other remaining highly diverse communications uses, as occurred from 1992 when the Broadcasting Services Act was introduced. The prospect of new forms of spectrum charging is highly alarming for commercial broadcasters. In a joint submission to the DCITA review, the peak TV and radio industry lobby groups have indicated they will fight tooth and nail to resist new regulatory arrangements that would see a move away from the existing licence fee arrangements. These are paid as a sliding scale percentage of gross earnings that, it has been argued by Julian Thomas and Marion McCutcheon, “do not reflect the amount of spectrum used by a broadcaster, do not reflect the opportunity cost of using the spectrum, and do not provide an incentive for broadcasters to pursue more efficient ways of delivering their services” (6). An economic rationalist logic underpins pressure to modify the spectrum management (and charging) regime, and undoubtedly contributes to the commercial broadcasting industry’s general paranoia about reform. Total revenues collected by the ABA and the ACA between 1997 and 2002 were, respectively, $1423 million and $3644.7 million. Of these sums, using auction mechanisms, the ABA collected $391 million, while the ACA collected some $3 billion. The sale of spectrum that will be returned to the Commonwealth by television broadcasters when analog spectrum is eventually switched off, around the end of the decade, is a salivating prospect for Treasury officials. The large sums that have been successfully raised by the ACA boosts their position in planning discussions for the convergent media regulatory agency. The way in which media outlets and regulators respond to publics is an enduring question for a democratic polity, irrespective of how the product itself has been mediated and accessed. Media regulation and civic responsibility, including frameworks for negotiating consumer and citizen rights, are fundamental democratic rights (Keane; Tambini). The ABA’s Commercial Radio Inquiry (‘cash for comment’) has also reminded us that regulatory frameworks are important at the level of corporate conduct, as well as how they negotiate relations with specific media audiences (Johnson; Turner; Gordon-Smith). Building publicly meaningful regulatory frameworks will be demanding: relationships with audiences are often complex as people are constructed as both consumers and citizens, through marketised media regulation, institutions and more recently, through hybridising program formats (Murdock and Golding; Lumby and Probyn). In TV, we’ve seen the growth of infotainment formats blending entertainment and informational aspects of media consumption. At a deeper level, changes in the regulatory landscape are symptomatic of broader tectonic shifts in the discourses of governance in advanced information economies from the late 1980s onwards, where deregulatory agendas created an increasing reliance on free market, business-oriented solutions to regulation. “Co-regulation” and “self-regulation’ became the preferred mechanisms to more direct state control. Yet, curiously contradicting these market transformations, we continue to witness recurring instances of direct intervention on the basis of censorship rationales (Dwyer and Stockbridge). That digital media content is “converging” between different technologies and modes of delivery is the norm in “new media” regulatory rhetoric. Others critique “visions of techno-glory,” arguing instead for a view that sees fundamental continuities in media technologies (Winston). But the socio-cultural impacts of new media developments surround us: the introduction of multichannel digital and interactive TV (in free-to-air and subscription variants); broadband access in the office and home; wirelessly delivered content and mobility, and, as Jock Given notes, around the corner, there’s the possibility of “an Amazon.Com of movies-on-demand, with the local video and DVD store replaced by online access to a distant server” (90). Taking a longer view of media history, these changes can be seen to be embedded in the global (and local) “innovation frontier” of converging digital media content industries and its transforming modes of delivery and access technologies (QUT/CIRAC/Cutler & Co). The activities of regulatory agencies will continue to be a source of policy rivalry and turf contestation until such time as a convergent regulator is established to the satisfaction of key players. However, there are risks that the benefits of institutional reshaping will not be readily available for either audiences or industry. In the past, the idea that media power and responsibility ought to coexist has been recognised in both the regulation of the media by the state, and the field of communications media analysis (Curran and Seaton; Couldry). 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Web Links http://www.aba.gov.au http://www.aca.gov.au http://www.accc.gov.au http://www.acif.org.au http://www.adma.com.au http://www.ctva.com.au http://www.crtc.gc.ca http://www.dcita.com.au http://www.dfat.gov.au http://www.fcc.gov http://www.ippr.org.uk http://www.ofcom.org.uk http://www.oflc.gov.au Links http://www.commercialalert.org/ Citation reference for this article MLA Style Dwyer, Tim. "Transformations" M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture <http://www.media-culture.org.au/0403/06-transformations.php>. APA Style Dwyer, T. (2004, Mar17). Transformations. M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture, 7, <http://www.media-culture.org.au/0403/06-transformations.php>