Source: PAUL BUDDE: Australians to pay for failed national energy policy
Category: Energy
If you ask Scott Morrison about electric vehicles he throws poor, and inaccurate, marketing lines at you, such as they will “end the weekend”, they “won’t tow your trailer – it’s not going to tow your boat”, as he did when former Labor leader Bill Shorten backed fairly modest objectives concerning the electrification of our vehicle fleet in the run-up to the last election.
The world’s electric cars are leaving Australia for dust
Australia’s electricity market is unsustainable. Texas shows us why. A week ago Texas experienced a bout of severe weather as arctic air reached deep into the state, driving temperature down to levels that had not been experienced for 30 years. The full human toll is yet to be counted, but 20 deaths have so far been associated with motor accidents, from fires lit for warmth and from carbon-monoxide poisoning after residents used their cars to try to warm their homes. At the peak, 4.5 million people were without power in many cases for extended periods. The Texas Poison Centre received 450 calls about carbon monoxide poisoning.
Texas was a warning. Australia needs to rethink the design of its electricity market
The state’s energy crisis didn’t come out of nowhere: It took decades of deregulation to make it happen.
Deconstructed: The Roots of the Texas Energy Crisis
A project on the scale of transforming the energy system will create jobs – many jobs – which is perhaps the economic measure of most importance to the citizenry.
Research from me and others shows that fully renewable electric grids are feasible with current technology at current prices; barriers to using renewable electricity are more political and cultural than technological or economic.
via A Politics of Hope: How we Can go completely to Green Energy
Federal Energy Minister Angus Taylor on Sunday used a combination of company statements and analyst forecasts to claim the three largest power companies – AGL, Origin and EnergyAustralia – would see their collective profits almost double in the five years from 2015 to 2020.
via Minister’s blast: Power company ‘record profits’ must stop
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Like many other countries, Australian business and consumers have left their political leaders behind, opting for renewables backed up by gas, hydro and, to a smaller but growing extent, batteries.
The national energy guarantee policy is much better than a mere surrender to Abbott and the far right’s theological attachment to coal. It’s policy devised by experts and agreed to by politicians.
The head of the misnamed Coalition backbench environment committee, Craig Kelly, has been all over the media with ever more strident calls to stop all subsidies to renewable energy. His argument, which has been adopted by that jellyfish Frydenberg, is that, if renewables are cheaper then they don’t need subsidies. On June 25, Mr Kelly…
Michelle Grattan speaks to Deep Saini about the week in Australian politics.
Voters are tired of the old hyper-partisan blather, the posturing and the blame-shifting. They just want a solution
Attempts to blame renewable energy for high electricity prices are misguided says expert report.
Source: It’s gas, not renewables, that is pushing up electricity prices, report finds
For the last four years we’ve had a fact free zone of bad politics and no interest in understanding energy policy. The biggest losers are electricity consumers
Americans, regardless of whether they’re Democrats or Republicans, want to power their homes with renewable energy, according to a new study.
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Trump’s Executive Order deregulating dangerous gas emissions is being signed today …
Source: The simple Number that will Defeat Trump’s attempt to Roll back Obama Energy Policies
How a nation awash with gas ran dry in the middle of a global gas glut.
South Australia’s energy wars really began with the privatisation of the electricity network in the 1990s. It’s worth looking at what we’ve learnt since then
Today’s COAG meeting of energy Ministers should work towards a coordinated national plan to transform Australia’s energy system.
The Murdoch media and the Coalition are ramping up the war on renewables in the wake of soaring gas prices, writes Giles Parkinson.
Source: Murdoch and the Coalition: This week targetting renewables
An Australian company says its new solar thermal technology could produce power more cheaply than coal
As Australia becomes a leader in solar and battery power, our electricity bills will continue to skyrocket thanks to a massive over-investment in the network that we didn’t ask for and will never need.
Source: The great energy spend that is costing us billions – The Drum (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
House batteries could help the grid as well as consumers
How battery-powered homes are unplugging Australia
Australia, with the highest rate of residential solar penetration in the world, as well as a large number of communities and industry sitting off the grid, is an ideal laboratory and test market for storage technology. Already, Australian companies are reaping the benefits, exporting off-grid renewable energy, storage and control systems internationally.
