Ray Wills, Author at Renew Economy

Ray Wills

Contributor

Ray Wills is managing director of Future Smart Strategies, and claims to be world’s least wrong futurist.

Commentary

Our island homes: Isolated grids are now the test beds for high‑penetration renewables and storage
Islanded and semi‑islanded grids cannot pretend the old fossil fleet will always come to the rescue. They must plan for independence, high shares of renewables, storage and flexible demand.
Ray Wills

May 5, 2026

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Commentary

No more Dark Side of the Grid: The fossil fuel empire loses ground to renewables and storage
Australia’s regions used to be the very definition of the grid’s dark side: expensive diesel, fragile long lines, limited reliability. They are now a proving ground for high‑renewable, storage‑rich power.
Ray Wills

May 4, 2026

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Electric Vehicles

An electric farm, an electric harvest …. electric everything
Farms need to be electric – because, once this kit is scaled appropriately, on-farm costs will be so much lower.
Ray Wills

Apr 5, 2026

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Commentary

One ship loaded with solar PV is now worth more to the grid than 120 coal-carriers
Technology gains mean that one ship load of solar PV panels is now worth more to the grid than 120 coal carriers, or 57 LNG tankers.
Ray Wills

Jan 16, 2026

1
Chart of the day

Big batteries overtake big solar in the world’s largest isolated grid
In the world’s biggest isolated grid, the addition of two giant batteries has seen daily battery dispatch overtake that of utility scale solar.
Ray Wills

Nov 30, 2025

2
Commentary

Gas and high coal penetration are the drivers of expensive, volatile power prices
The evidence in observed data and modelled projections shows that delaying renewables does not save money: It prolongs high prices and entrenches fossil fuels.
Ray Wills

Oct 14, 2025

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Australia keeps adding solar, as rooftop installs head to one million
More than 10% of Australian homes now have installed solar panels, and projections suggest 1 million homes will have rooftop PV by mid-2013.
Ray Wills

Oct 10, 2012

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Over 750,000 homes in Australia now have rooftop solar
That’s 1.7GW of installed capacity and counting, with new data suggesting small-scale solar will rise to over 2.3 GW in around 12 months time.
Ray Wills

Jul 23, 2012

2
Australian car makers need change, not more of the same
The Australian auto industry has been asleep at the wheel. And until it wakes up to the changing climate, the job losses will continue.
Ray Wills

Jul 18, 2012

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Solar subsidies: who needs them?
Continuously falling PV prices mean that, by the end of next year, subsidies for solar will no longer be needed to drive rooftop installations.
Ray Wills

Jun 27, 2012

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