Momentum for the country’s first solar thermal tower in Port Augusta is building, despite the fossil fuel sector’s recent attack on South Australia’s renewable energy leadership. Testament to the success of the grassroots Repower Port Augusta campaign and the viability of the … Continue reading Momentum builds for Port Augusta solar tower
Texas which is a leading state when it comes to wind energy is aiming for an ambitious solar, distributed energy plan. Arguments against solar tech in the state are becoming out dated as the technology becomes cheaper to utilities. This article was published … Continue reading Texas city aims for 950MW of solar, bold distributed energy goals
This article originally posted at Green Tech Media. View the original post here. Wind, solar, geothermal and biomass are surpassing hydropower as the dominant forms of renewable electricity. And according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, this new … Continue reading Renewables Rising: Wind, Solar, Geothermal and Biomass Will Top Hydropower in 2014 (US)
This article originally posted at The Climate Group. View the original post here. LONDON: Global wind power capacity increased 12% last year, while solar has already achieved grid parity in France, Germany and Italy’s commercial sectors. As clean, sustainable and affordable power … Continue reading 6 huge solar and wind projects that are driving the world’s clean revolution
This article originally posted at The Conversation. View the original post here.
In a recent article on The Conversation, University of Melbourne Professor Emeritus Frank Larkins wrote that Australia’s targets to increase renewable energy will make electricity more expensive, thanks to problems with consistency and storage.
But Professor Larkins is several years behind developments in renewable energy and its integration into electricity grids. In fact, we already have technically feasible scenarios to run the Australian electricity industry on 100% renewable energy — without significantly affecting supply. Continue reading “Renewable energy is ready to supply all of Australia’s electricity”
Original article originally posted at EcoGeneration. View the original post here. The Renewable Energy Target (RET), initially introduced by the Howard Government in 2001, has enjoyed bi-partisan support. In the lead up to the last election the Abbott Opposition committed … Continue reading Green Energy Trading’s Ric Brazzale on Solar PV and the RET
Written by Zachary Shahan of CleanTechnica, 11th April 2014.
With about 37,007 megawatts (MW) of solar PV power installed in 2013, world solar PV power capacity increased about 35% to 136,697 MW.
Whereas Europe had dominated annual growth for years up until 2013 (10 years, to be precise), solar PV growth was much more evenly split last year, and China actually topped the tables.
Continue reading “World Solar Power Capacity Increased 35% In 2013”
Published at The Conversation. View the original article.
By Mark Diesendorf, Associate Professor and Deputy Director, Institute of Environmental Studies at the University of New South Wales.
The future of civilisation and much biodiversity hangs to a large degree on whether we can replace fossil fuels – coal, oil and gas – with clean, safe and affordable energy within several decades. The good news is that renewable energy technologies and energy efficiency measures have advanced with extraordinary speed over the past decade.
Energy efficient buildings and appliances, solar hot water, on-shore wind, solar photovoltaic (PV) modules, concentrated solar thermal (CST) power with thermal storage and gas turbines burning a wide range of renewable liquid and gaseous fuels are commercially available on a large scale. The costs of these technologies have declined substantially, especially those of solar PV. In 2012, despite the global financial crisis, global investment in these clean, safe and healthy technologies amounted to US $269 billion. Denmark, Scotland and Germany and several states/provinces around the world have official targets of around 100% renewable electricity and are implementing policies to achieve them.
The principal barrier is resistance from vested interests and their supporters in the big greenhouse gas polluting industries and from an unsafe, expensive, polluting, would-be competitor to a renewable energy future, nuclear power. These powerful interests are running a campaign of renewable energy denial that is almost as fierce as the long-running campaign of climate change denial. Both campaigns are particularly noisy in the Murdoch press. So far the anti-renewables campaign, with its misinformation and gross exaggerations, has received little critical examination in the mainstream media.
The renewable energy deniers rehash, among others, the old myth that renewable energy is unreliable in supplying base-load demand. Continue reading “The Conversation: Baseload power is a myth: even intermittent renewables will work”
Friday March 22 was a sad day for fossil fools… Australia’s clean-coal loving energy minister, Martin Ferguson, resigned his post. Martin Ferguson’s exit from the energy portfolio is good news for Australians who support renewables. Thanks to Ferguson’s mismanagement of … Continue reading Pollie Watch: Farewell fossil Ferguson!
The reelection of United States President Barack Obama has made headlines around the world. Though beyond the initial excitement and fanfare for the popular politician, the election has implications for renewable energy globally.
A second term for the Obama Administration paves the way for the continued expansion of renewable energy production in the US. Due to the administration’s favourable policies, renewable energy generation from wind, solar and geothermal sources has doubled in four years. Such a large customer for renewable energy technologies is driving cost reductions that will make clean energy cheaper for all of us.
In the following post, friend of Yes 2 Renewables Dan Cass considers the implications of President Obama’s reelection for solar energy, and the technology’s potential to reshape American politics. Consultant Dan writes:
Like most people in the world, I am glad that President Barack Obama won the election. I’ve just watched his victory speech, in which he showed again that he is one of the great orators of our time. Obama can talk about hope and make it sound credible, in a way that most leaders from most countries cannot.
There is so much to say in response to Obama and this election. It is only because of the remarkable ‘audacity of hope’ that a poor black man, married to a working-class woman descended from slaves and slave-owners, is the most powerful man in the world.
But I’m going to stick to one key argument. The success of solar power, over the next four years, can change political power in America. That simple fact could change the world and give us the chance to stop the climate catastrophe.
According to Steven Chu, Obama’s Nobel prize-winning Energy Secretary, solar ‘baseload’ thermal and solar PV will be cheaper than conventional electricity across all the US, by 2020.
If Secretary Chu is right, then during the second term of the Obama administration, solar will be the cheaper choice for tens of millions of households, businesses and farmers.
By the time Barack Obama completes his second term as President, solar will have won the energy argument. Continue reading “Barack Obama and Solar Hope”
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