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
Less than two decades ago, South Australia generated all its electricity from fossil fuels. Last year, renewables provided a whopping 60% of the state’s electricity supply. The remarkable progress came as national climate policy was gripped by paralysis – so how did it happen?
Against the odds, South Australia is a renewable energy powerhouse; and they’re showing the world how to do it
A new report from Ember and Agora Energiewende finds that in 2020, the 27 countries of the European Union generated more electricity with renewables (wind, solar, hydro) than with fossil fuels (coal and natural gas). The growth in renewables has all come from wind and solar. These two increased by 51 terawatt-hours in 2020, substantially higher than the yearly average growth during the past decade.
President Biden, We can do this too: Europe generates more electricity with Renewables than Fossil Fuels for First Time
Murdoch Media tells Australia it’s too difficult too expensive too painful. It seems we are being scammed. (ODT)
Since California if it were a country would have the world’s fifth largest economy, and since so many other states are economically integrated with it, this plan, if signed by governor Jerry Brown, could help transform the entire country.
The goal is less difficult than it seems on the surface. California had already committed to getting one third of its electricity from renewables by 2020, and reached that goal in 2017. It committed to getting 50% of its electricity from renewables by 2030, and in fact will likely reach that goal 10 years early, in 2020.
Europe just reached a milestone of one million electric vehicles on the road. Chinese bought 600,000 or so just last year. California is set to become a leader in this area, as well.
California is showing us where the whole country is going, even if some states will take longer to get there. But likely it also will be a big influencer for the whole Pacific Rim. Can Japan really continue its natural gas + nuclear electricity mix once California has shown how easily renewables can supply all our needs? Moreover, California’s efforts will synch with those of China, in ways that will create synergies and thwart Trump’s fossil fuel obsession.
California will save enormous amounts of money by going to green energy, but more importantly, it will rapidly reduce carbon dioxide emissions and show others how to do it, putting a brake on the runaway greenhouse gases that threaten the stability of our natural ecosystems on earth. California is one of the more vulnerable states to the climate crisis.
via In Epochal Shift, California Votes for 100% Green Electricity by 2045
12.1% Global Renewable Energy Production and Accelerating.(ODT)
The worldwide investment in renewable energy touched $279.8 billion in 2017, taking cumulative investment since 2004 to $2.9 trillion. Globally, the percentage of electricity generated by renewables was at 12.1% in 2017. This reduced carbon dioxide emissions of about 1.8 gigatons as per the UNEP report.
via Renewable Energy By The Numbers Around The World – Nasdaq.com
Renewable energy generated more electricity than brown coal during Australia’s summer for the first time in 2017-18, according to a new report by Green Energy Markets.
Some of his policies may hurt the solar industry, but the market’s steady growth shows he has little power over it.
Source: Trump Can’t Kill Renewable Energy | The New Republic
Already, 22% of California’s electricity comes from renewable sources, and lawmakers are considering legislation requiring the state to be 100% green in its power by 2045.It isn’t just California that is swinging into action as the president retreats from our responsibility to avoid climate disaster. Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont will jointly cut power plant emissions by 30% between 2020 and 2030.
Source: Take that, Trump! 5% of California New Car Sales now Electric | Informed Comment
Tesla’s new battery will be big enough to power thousands of homes, but it’s likely to be just the first of many such installations.
Source: Explainer: what can Tesla’s giant South Australian battery achieve?
By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – I’ve been a booster of renewable energy for years and years. …
Source: In March for 1st Time, 10% of US Electricity came from Wind and Solar | Informed Comment
While Trump et al. continue to do all they can to trash the environment and pretend climate change isn’t happening, certain US states continue to forge the
Source: California Breaks Record After Getting 81 Percent Of Energy From Renewables | IFLScience
Almost 10 million people worked in renewables last year, according to a new report.
Source: 9.8 million people employed by renewable energy, according to new report
The public appetite for community funded renewable energy appears to be limitless, with projects selling out within minutes of being offered to investors.
Trump’s upcoming executive order meant to boost fossil fuel jobs may end up harming an even bigger job creator — renewable energy.
Source: Clean energy employs more people than fossil fuels in nearly every U.S. state
Industry makes the running on renewables while Turnbull’s politics of climate and energy remain in a rut. Peter Boyer reports.
Source: While Turnbull spins his wheels, industry gets on deploying renewables
We always hear that renewable energy is getting cheaper, but what does that really mean?
AGL Energy chief Andy Vesey has singled out the advance in battery storage as the factor that will “change the world” of energy investment.
Source: AGL Energy’s Andy Vesey sees batteries ‘changing the world’
Zero emission milestone reached as country is powered by just wind, solar and hydro-generated electricity for 107 hours
Source: Portugal Runs for Four Days Straight on Renewable Energy Alone
Electricity bills are often ludicrously high thanks to our energy-intensive modern world, but every now and then, thanks to the forces of nature, a metaphorical miracle takes place. As reported by Quartz, Germany just experienced such a phenomenon when a particularly bright and sunny day supercharged their solar and wind power sectors.
Source: Germany Just Produced So Much Renewable Energy That It Had To Pay People To Use It | IFLScience
Poor battery life is the number one complaint when it comes to smartphones and laptops. As a wireless society, having to tether ourselves down to power up our gadgets seems more and more a nuisance. And while researchers are looking into wireless charging, if batteries were better we would have to worry less.
Source: A Researcher Just Accidentally Developed A Battery That Could Last A Lifetime | IFLScience
An Australian company says its new solar thermal technology could produce power more cheaply than coal
According to a new study from Climatescope, developing nations are far outpacing developed ones when it comes to the installation of new renewable energy infrastructure.
The study monitored 55 developing countries, including emerging economies like China, Brazil, South Africa, India and Kenya, and found that between the years of 2008-2013, developing nations saw 143% growth in renewable energy, versus only 84% in developed countries.
The Climatescope project was originally put together in 2012 by Bloomberg’s New Energy Finance division, the U.K. Government Department for International Development, and the Inter-American Development Bank Group to track the growth of renewable energy in 26 Latin American and Caribbean nations.
This year, they added 19 African countries as well as 10 in Asia to give a wider look at the emergence of renewable energy worldwide.
From 2007 to 2013, those 55 developing countries added a total of 142 gigawatts of renewable energy to their power grids, and more than doubled their total investments in renewable energy, from $59.3 billion to $122 billion.
They also passed a combined 450 legislative measures relating to renewables, according to the Climatescope report.
So why are these developing nations investing in renewables so much faster than the developed world? Well usually it just makes financial sense, according to Ethan Zindler, an analyst in Bloomberg’s New Energy Finance department.
In a phone interview, he used Jamaica as an example. In Jamaica, wholesale power costs about $300 per megawatt-hour. According to Zindler, the country could generate the same amount of power using current solar panel technology for about half that price.
He also added that Nicaragua could similarly cut their costs in half by using wind power (the feature photo of this article is a wind farm on the coast of Lake Nicaragua).
“Clean energy is the low-cost option in a lot of these countries. The technologies are cost-competitive right now. Not in the future, but right now,”
he said.
Read the full story from Bloomberg.
Also, make sure to check out the Climatescope 2014 Report, which features cool interactive maps that rank the countries in terms of their overall investment in renewables!
Although there is some overlap in design features, Solar Roadways’ panels are perhaps more innovative than SolaRoad’s. The US couple’s hexagonal panels are studded with LED lights to make road lines and signs, and also feature heating elements to melt ice and snow.
For the next three years, SolaRoad will test out the path in order to gauge how much energy it is capable of producing and assess safety under different weather conditions. Because it can’t be adjusted to the position of the sun, the panels will generate approximately 30% less energy than those placed on roofs. However, the team anticipates that eventually it should be sufficient to power traffic lights, road lights, houses and electric cars. TNO’s Sten de Wit had a chat with the Guardian about the project, and he believes that up to 20% of the Netherlands’ 140,000 kilometers of road is suitable for conversion into solar roads, which could rake in a lot of energy.
As it’s still early days, production costs are unfortunately rather hefty. The pilot cycle path came with a $3.75 million (€3 million) price tag, which was mostly put up by the local authority. However, as the technology develops and production gets scaled-up, the price should drop.
