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Do energy consumers want a smart grid, or no grid at all?
Julia Gillard this week gave a glimpse of what the smart grid of the future might look like. Regulatory reform is crucial, but energy utilities need to get this right. If they don’t, it won’t be just Californian pot smokers and the US Marines leaving the grid. And we’ll be watching utilities disappear down a “bottomless vortex”11 -
Gillard’s energy backflip paves way for market reform
The federal government wants a COAG agreement by the end of the year on energy market reform. Gillard speaks of recasting the energy industry into a service rather than just a commodity, and of a future of smart grids and smart appliances. But can Labor deliver smart policy? -
Carbon price claims SA’s largest coal-fired generator
Carbon and the merit order effect claim large victims in South Australia. The state’s largest coal-fired generator shut down in July and will only reopen for the summer peaks. But the argument still rages over what should follow – gas or solar thermal? -
Australia gets energy wake-up call – but is anybody listening?
The new report on energy costs by the government’s key forecasting body marks a line in the sand in the energy debate in this country. We can no longer pretend that fossil fuels are the cheapest option. It’s time to talk seriously about alternatives and to design a new energy system. -
Canberra concedes wind, solar to be cheapest energy by 2030
Updated report by Bureau of Energy Economics says solar and wind to provide cheapest forms of energy, and the nation’s electricity grid will experience significant changes. Its cost estimates suggest that coal is dead, but it gives an astonishingly optimistic view of nuclear. Developers of solar thermal and wave technologies may also quibble with the numbers. -
Five things we learned from… Clean Energy Week
Mainstream parties defend the RET, but what exactly are they defending? The Coalition is blinded by its hatred of green technologies; why The Greens get it and mainstream parties don’t; why renewables could avert a gas-fired price surge; and why it’s better to be behind the meter than in front of it.
