australia

100% Renewables in Oz?

A new study suggests that a bold-but-not-extreme carbon price could make providing all of Australia’s electricity needs cost-effective by 2030.[read more]

energy vs. electricity

The World Wildlife Fund released its World Solar Atlas report reckoning that the world’s entire projected needs in 2050 of something beginning with “e” could be met with solar panels.[read more]

The Australian government is working toward a strategic policy framework for future energy supply. It does not include nuclear energy despite goals to lower carbon emissions and keep energy affordable. Should nuclear power be in the the strategic plan?[read more]

Last week the Australian Government and the European Commission announced that their respective emission trading systems would link up progressively over Phase III of the EU system, but for Australian entities from the start of full carbon allowance trading in 2015. This is a bold move by both parties and quite possibly one that will make others with nascent trading systems sit up and think about where they want to go.[read more]

It does not take long in any discussion of nuclear power before people want to talk turkey. How much does nuclear power cost? That suggests a misunderstanding of not so much nuclear economics, but of energy economics more generally. It also hints at an ideological position if the same criteria are not applied elsewhere.[read more]

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The debate in Australia has now shifted to whether or not the selected price of $23 per tonne of CO2 in the first year, but later on shifting to a full cap-and-trade (probably around 2015), is the right one. Many argue that as the “prevailing global price” of carbon is much lower, then Australia is out of step and therefore undermining its own competitiveness.[read more]

I read with interest today about the recent arrival of Turkish company Solimpeks to Australia.What is most interesting to me is that they have a hybrid PV panel and Solar Thermal panel which is fully integrated together; called PowerVolt and Power Therm.Having (previously) sold both products for many years and worked for manufacturers, I...[read more]

Recently on BNC, I ran two guest posts on the economic and technical challenges of supplying an energy-intensive, developed-world market using 100% renewable sources (under a situation where large hydro and/or conventional geothermal can provide little or no contribution). The case study was the national electricity market of...[read more]

The Solar Dawn consortium proposing to build a 250MW solar thermal plant in south-west Queensland as part of Australia’s Solar Flagships program has won a six month extension to its contract after initially failing to gain finance for the project. However, the future of the $1.2 billion project looks uncertain.[read more]

An opinion piece that appeared in the Wall Street Journal (Europe) on Tuesday (a few days earlier in the USA) presented the views of sixteen scientists on the issue of climate change under the heading “No Need to Panic About Global Warming“. Unfortunately there isn’t much in the way of science discussed and the reality of the policy world is very different from the story they have written.[read more]

On the EarthTechling Utterly Cool Projects Scale™, the EnviroMission Solar Tower project might be unrivaled. More than 2,600 feet tall, with a mile-in-diameter greenhouse canopy at its base creating hot air that is sucked up into the tower, spinning electricity-creating turbines along the way – it’s like something a kid would build in...[read more]

Guest Post by Geoff Russell. Geoff is a mathematician and computer programmer and is a member of Animal Liberation SA. His recently published book is CSIRO Perfidy. His previous article on BNC was: Feeding the billions in 2050′s sauna (Part I) —————— Welcome to Part II of my presumptuously titled series on...[read more]

Robyn Williams is the host of Australian public broadcasting's The Science Show.  Here's how he introduced the new hit song "Denial Tango" on his show this week: "2011 has been momentous.  It marked the burial of climate science, as former Prime Minister [of Australia] John Howard remarked on Monday. Next year promises...[read more]

With the latest round of international climate negotiations coming to an anticlimactic close in Durban, South Africa, former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's chief advisor Andrew Charlton offers a pragmatic "Plan B" for tackling the challenges of climate change and energy access. Writing for the Canberra Times, Charlton promotes an agenda centered on technological innovation and the expansion of human welfare.[read more]

The end of the Durban conference is approaching, and in all likelihood, the end of the Kyoto Protocol along with it.Developments in the last few days indicate the outcome is more likely to confirm a global disagreement, rather than agreement, over the idea of a second Kyoto commitment period, or “Kyoto II,” for all countries, both...[read more]