The good news is electricity prices are falling, decarbonisation is accelerating, and there should be little need for public subsidies for fossil fuel companies, despite their demands. Michael West speaks with energy finance analyst and renewable energy export Tim Buckley.
Hard-nosed billionaires like green energy champion Andrew Forrest, and his former venture partner Mike Cannon-Brookes, know that Australia’s future prosperity will come from sunshine and electrons.
Source: The power budget: Australia on cusp of green economy – Michael West
The German nuclear phase-out is a victory of reason over the lust for profit; over powerful corporations and their client politicians.
Source: Opinion | People Power Ends Nuclear Energy Era in Germany | Common Dreams
The media is all over the story that Governor DeSantis was notified that the danger threshold for evacuation was hit on Sunday, but he waited until Tuesday to order one (leaving a trail of dead bodies in his wake).
Babcock Ranch—Florida’s first 100% solar-powered community with over 700,000 panels providing more than enough electricity for all 2000 homes—happened in 2015, it wasn’t a bunch of environmentally-minded old hippies putting the project together. In fact, the community—like the region around it—tends to vote solidly red.
It wasn’t to save the world that they built an all-electric, all-solar community: it was to avoid exactly what happened to the surrounding area; electric and water outages and the collapse of infrastructure that typically accompanies a hurricane.
In 2010 it cost around $6/watt to install residential solar with batteries (just the solar panels themselves were around $2/watt), so a typical home’s system cost between $40,000 and $60,000.
Today it’s around $1.40/watt (the panels themselves are now around $.38/watt) and not only is the price typically below $20,000 but there are huge federal incentives to make the systems even cheaper.
Solar and wind are now the cheapest ways to produce electricity in the United States. This is why over a quarter-million Americans today earn their living installing and maintaining solar and wind systems.
He couldn’t tell the truth before he was elected how could he be expected to tell it before this recent election? Energy prices were going up despite the Ukraine not because of it.
On 30 April, less than a month before the election I penned this piece, about the foreshadowed spike in energy prices, about to hit Australian consumers: Coalition promises higher electricity costs! I wrote it because it was quite clear that the Coalition were not going to come clean before the election and it was a known major factor that was going to hit Australian businesses and consumers as winter came on.
Morrison denies that rapid transition is possible the world says otherwise
In fact, 50 countries now get at least 10 percent of their electricity from wind and solar alone. Wind and solar need to grow 20% a year for us to remain on track to meet the Paris climate goals, Ember points out. The report observes that in recent years, that is exactly how fast wind and solar have grown. This finding is a rare note of optimism in the sustainable energy field, and we should celebrate this impressive and skyrocketing growth.
Source: Combined, Green Sources generated 38% of global Electricity in 2021, for 1st Time Exceeding Coal
Australia should embrace the opportunity to become a renewable energy power. If we don’t act now, with the global energy transition gathering pace, Australia could be exposed to a hostile international energy environment with profound economic, security and diplomatic consequences.
Source: We could be a superpower: 3 ways Australia can take advantage of the changing geopolitics of energy
Victoria has powered its electricity grid with 50 per cent renewable energy for the first time, well ahead of state government projections for the transition to clean energy.
Victoria’s grid runs on 50 per cent renewable energy for first time
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
Vital Signs: timing of Yallourn’s closure shows it’s high time for a carbon price
Our energy transition is in disarray. It will only get worse without a price on carbon and an end to subsidies for all forms of energy. Failure to do so will merely sow the seeds for more transition problems in the years to come.
Vital Signs: timing of Yallourn’s closure shows it’s high time for a carbon price
Offshore Wind Energy, Not Nuclear, Is the Future
States across Europe and East Asia are closing nuclear reactors and replacing much of their electricity-generating capacity with offshore wind energy. Socialists should embrace the growth of this industry — and use green reindustrialization to fight for well-paid, stable jobs.
Offshore Wind Energy, Not Nuclear, Is the Future
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
WHAT AUSTRALIN CONSEVATIVES DON”T TALK ABOUT
In general, the world invested more in solar energy than in coal, gas, and nuclear combined last year. The Portuguese, Scottish and Costa Rican advances are not even very dependent on solar, which suggests that a whole new wave of further renewables implementation is around the corner.
via Three Countries show how Near a 100% Green Grid is | Informed Comment
By Sam Morgan | ( EURACTIV.com) | – – China eclipses Europe as 2020 solar power target is smashed. China …
Source: China smashes 2020 solar power target, leaves US & Europe in Dust
First it was dead birds, then noise. Now wind farms are being blamed for destroying the electricity market and pushing prices as high as $14,000 per megawatt hour.
Source: Coal is behind the attacks on wind turbines. It’s fighting for its life
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – World leaders signed the COP21 Paris climate accord on Friday, Earth …
Source: After Paris COP21: Top 6 Green Energy good News Stories Today | Informed Comment
The Tree | – – As renewable jobs skyrocket in the US, so do their immense health benefits. According to …
Source: How American Green Energy created 2.5 million Jobs and saved you from Bronchitis | Informed Comment
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