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Can-do Campbell slashes Queensland solar PV tariffs
Campbell Newman closes down solar incentives in the Sunshine State, which had accounted for nearly half of Australian rooftop installations in recent months. Nearly half of the 11,000 solar jobs in the state are now considered at risk. Expect a last minute rush for installations – but will new financing plans then take up the slack?12 -
Five things we learned this week… the merit order exists!
Ferguson acknowledges the merit order effect; green schemes are reducing demand and costs; the carbon price may be redundant before it starts; what the electricity sector should learn from the media industry; and the crushing disappointment of Rio+20. -
Solar Insights: Global PV market to treble in three years
The global market for solar PV is expected to treble by 2015, producing panels at less than half the current cost. That will be the signal for the major electronics giants to enter the market. Plus: Martin Ferguson says rooftop solar killing gas, not coal. -
5 things we learned this week …. about green energy myths
If you believed government advisors and the mainstream media, then you would conclude that renewable energy systems are useless, costly, unpopular and add nothing to the economy. But it’s not hard to find information that shows this in not true. -
Networks should have nothing to fear from solar PV
Concerns that soaring deployment of solar PV could cause problems for Australia’s electricity networks are largely unfounded, says a new CSIRO-led study. The real concern, the report finds, is the level of ignorance on such a critical energy issue: how much solar PV can be accommodated by Australia’s grids? -
Canberra stalls on 100% renewables planning
Yet more delays in Australian green energy. A study on planning to transition to 100 per cent renewables that was supposed to have been completed by mid year has not even been started. Meanwhile, a 200MW solar PV plant will be built in California in less than half the time, and at two-thirds the cost of the Flagships winner. But households get it, and are installing solar at record rates. -
Time to radically reform our energy system, says IEA
The International Energy Agency says it’s time to move beyond centralised generation to a flexible, demand-based system. And it outlines its vision for how the global electricity grid might look in 2075, noting the importance of technologies where Australia could play a critical role.
