Mining is the fourth-largest energy consumer in Australia, using roughly 10% of Australia’s total. Some of this comes from the electricity grid — but much is supplied offgrid in the form of diesel and…
If Australia’s to have nuclear power, there’ll have to be policies to support it.
flokru/Flickr
No sooner had foreign affairs minister Julie Bishop announced that Australia should take a fresh look at nuclear power than Prime Minister Tony Abbott responded that nuclear power would only be supported…
Roof-top solar panels are just one part of the micropower revolution.
Presidency Maldives
There is no shortage of shouting and dire warnings about the state of the climate and our need to phase out fossil fuels. But there is a more silent revolution happening too — in micropower. Small-scale…
Kagoshima power plant: is floating solar the future?
Kyocera
Two companies in Japan recently announced they are to begin building two huge solar power islands that will float on reservoirs. This follows Kagoshima solar power plant, the country’s largest, which opened…
Whenever I tell people I work with solar cells I am asked the same two questions: are they ever going to be really cheap? And can you get me some? While the answer to the second question is no, the answer…
Layers of cool: a thin layer of glass added to solar cells could help them work better for longer.
Minoru Karamatsu/Flickr
Self-cooling, longer lasting and more efficient solar cells are within reach simply by adding a thin layer of glass. A paper published today in the online journal Optica outlines a possible solution for…
Automatically labelling people as NIMBYs if they have concerns about local power projects is not a constructive way to proceed.
Grahamec/Wikimedia Commons
From coal seam gas to wind farms, new resource projects seem to be pitting communities against corporations, and people against their neighbours. We often see, in such cases, community concerns labelled…
The future will be dimly lit without tackling the growing energy gap.
Ben Curtis/PA
The Conservative Party apparently plans to introduce a moratorium on future onshore wind farms from 2020, hanging their hat on the growth of offshore wind instead, and following Germany’s lead by expanding…
If power can’t come to the village, the village must make its own.
AbuBakr Bahaj
It is estimated that around one and a half billion people globally have no access to reliable electricity. Most live in developing countries where the cost of connecting rural villages to the electricity…