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Five things we learned this week ….
Canberra considers exporting carbon pricing policy to Poland; the Australian solar boom continues, this time in Victoria; where to find the biggest solar PV energy bill offsets; why the energy business model is broken; and why wind is central to Obama’s re-election bid. -
Redflow takes cap in hand to charge up battery storage plan
Energy storage developer Redflow seeks to charge up its battery technology with a new fund raising and a major mea culpa. They got their business strategy wrong, and their share price is just a fraction of its post-IPO heights. It’s not easy being green, and even less so in Australia. -
Fossil fuel and nuclear giants prepare for green energy future
TRUenergy confirms it has canned its float for the moment, and the cash for clunkers coal buyback appears dead in the water. But beneath the results – and those for German giants RWE and E.ON – lies a fundamental change to the way utilities do business. -
Rooftop solar panels: our new peaking power generators
The debate on meeting peak demand usually overlooks the contribution of renewables. The CSIRO has shown that a collection of rooftop solar panels, combined with sophisticated forecasting techniques and a small amount of energy storage, can look to the grid just like a traditional fossil-fueled generator. -
SA shows wind and solar make energy cleaner and cheaper
South Australia has the largest wind penetration of any advanced economy, and one out of five houses now have rooftop solar PV. This combination of wind and solar has helped defer new fossil fuel generation, forced some plants to close, reduced demand, helped meet peak demand and lowered wholesale electricity prices. Is this the energy future – clean, green and cheap? -
It’s official: Australia needs no new coal or gas baseload
The energy market operator says virtually no new baseload generation is needed in Australia over the next decade because of dramatic changes in demand. Maybe we don’t need so many new poles and wires either. The operator also questions whether the renewable energy target can be met.
