Contrary to expectations, demand for electricity in Australia has been falling for several years. Reasons for this include large price rises (of which the carbon price is a relatively small component…
Australia could soon have millions of small electricity generators.
absentmindedprof/Flickr
The 2012 Energy White Paper has much to commend it. In particular, the far greater acknowledgement of the need to shift to clean energy sources is a fundamental shift from previous White Papers. The emphasis…
The mechanisms that make some fish hard to see could be used in next-generation electronics.
mattieb
Imagine setting up mirrors in a circle around you, the shiny sides all facing outwards to reflect your surroundings. To the casual observer you would appear to be “invisible”, blending into the environment…
Wind and solar power appears to have been behind a drop in wholesale power prices in South Australia, leading to a proposal to reduce retail prices for consumers.
Renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power appear to be the impetus behind a South Australian proposal to substantially drop electricity prices, just as other states are hiking theirs. The Essential…
The Climate Commission says Queensland could be a leader in concentrated solar thermal power, but the political will is lacking.
AAP
Around the clock solar power could be a reality for Australians in the foreseeable future, but experts say a hostile state government stands in the way of Queensland becoming the solar power leader suggested…
Sunlight falls equally on leaves and solar panels, but which does the best job of turning it into useful renewable energy?
kincuri/Flickr
About 80% of the world’s total energy consumption is derived from fossil fuels, with only 12.5% from renewable resources. Replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy sources derived from sunlight - such…
Ross Garnaut: “One can’t avoid the reality that some political leaders have said that they would like to remove carbon pricing.”
AAP/Alan Porritt
Tomorrow Australia will place a price on carbon. The former climate change adviser to the Federal Government, Ross Garnaut, a Professorial Fellow in Economics at the University of Melbourne, led the push…
A cleaner, more efficient Australia will blend smart grids and meters with renewable power’s growing capacity. Pictured: Spain’s Gemasolar concentrated solar thermal power plant.
Gemasolar
In part 13 of our multi-disciplinary Millennium Project series, Mark Diesendorf argues that it is high time we got smart about power: how we generate it and how we deliver it. Global challenge 13: How…
Do you see the light? Solar costs are comparable to fossil fuels, and are falling 45% annually.
Flickr/MyEye85
John Mathews, Macquarie Graduate School of Management
Recent postings to The Conversation have enlivened the debate over the “Great Transition” that is underway all around the world from the fossil-fuelled energy systems of the 20th century to the renewably…
John Gardner, US Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare joined Lyndon Johnson’s cabinet in 1965 to help create a ‘Great Society’ to end poverty, promote equality, improve education, rejuvenate cities…
Lack of political will is holding back Australia’s solar innovation: here, AREVA Solar’s CLFR technology.
Solar Dawn
John Mathews, Macquarie Graduate School of Management
Australia knows how to provide public leadership in the complex coordination of public events. Just look at the recent staging of the opera La Traviata on Sydney Harbour. It was a one-off event that required…
Let’s start with a question: why has Denmark been so successful in renewable energy creation and uptake? It can’t be that Denmark is a windy place (although that helped) or that it was a social democratic…
ANU’s “big dish” solar is the envy of Asia, but the Australian Government has turned its back.
AAP
John Mathews, Macquarie Graduate School of Management
I am here in Seoul, the burgeoning and confident capital of a burgeoning and confident Korea, to investigate the country’s formidable “Green Growth” strategy. Back in August 2008, the Korean government…
Cheap carbon nanotubes could be sprayed onto the windows of high-rise buildings, creating solar cells that generate power.
Freefoto/Ian Britton
Skyscrapers could one day generate enough power to offset much of their energy consumption, thanks to a breakthrough by Australian researchers who have moved a step closer to creating solar-cell windows…
There is a trade war brewing between the United States and China over intellectual property relating to clean technologies – particularly solar power. Steven Chu, a scientist, Nobel Laureate in Physics…
The “collapse” of the Solar Flagship Program has recently hit the news. With Minister Ferguson re-opening the bidding for the photovoltaic (PV) component of the program, and extending the deadline for…