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Renewables – they’re green and clean, but what’s the cost?
It seems everyone is in agreement about the market impact of renewables and their effect on fossil fuels – they lower wholesale market prices and put coal and gas plants out of business. Where opinion differs is on whether this is a good thing for the industry and consumers, or a bad thing. As a cricketer would observe, it’s a spinner’s wicket. -
Do energy consumers benefit from competition? It’s hard to see
Data is emerging as a key issue in the electricity industry. So much data about network operations is kept secret, but if it was released it could help stop gold-plating. And it may even help consumers getter better deals from energy retailers. -
AGL Energy squeezed by the merit order effect
AGL Energy says it will suspend investment in renewables in South Australia if the state’s pricing regulator orders it to pass on the benefits of lower wholesale prices to its customers. So, who should benefit from the merit order effect – consumers or gentailers? This is a tricky argument for the energy industry as a whole. -
Solar Insights: Grid parity is really here, this time
Spain and Italy are expecting their solar PV markets to thrive, even as all forms of subsidies are removed. In Australia, the solar industry will have to wait a few extra years. In the meantime, the energy industry has to ask itself an important question: which way to point the panels? -
Five things we learned this week … about energy dinosaurs
Why the Galilee Basin may never get dug up, and Clive Palmer loves dinosaurs; the fossil fuel generators and their mortal enemy, the wind turbine; why we need smart regulators rather than a smart grid; why clean energy is no longer bipartisan policy; and why Campbell Newman wouldn’t like Poland. -
Why you are paying $10/hr to run your neighbour’s air-con
The Productivity Commission report highlights some of the massive distortions in our energy market, such as the cross-subsidies to users of air conditioners. Sadly, it also reveals some of the wobbly thinking about the solutions. They just cannot get their mind around new technologies and energy systems. -
Fossil fuels just a back up for wind and solar energy?
The head of REpower Systems says he’s surprised that Australia seems to be a hotbed of complaints about the health effects of wind farms. And he suggests it is inevitable that fossil fuels will be relegated to supporting roles for wind and solar energy. -
Merit order, falling demand claim their biggest coal victim
The closure of a unit at the Yallourn brown coal generator makes it clear now that Australia has a unique opportunity to effect a dramatic change in its energy make-up, if it’s got the courage of its convictions. Even if you accept the coal industry’s rubbery numbers, that will only cost 5c a day.
