What you read in 2020, and why we’re taking a break

And we thought 2019 was a crazy year! Australian renewable energy records have continued to topple over the course of 2020, even as global economies were brought to their knees by Covid-19.

As well as an unprecedented global pandemic, 2020 delivered record shares of renewable energy generation on Australia’s grid, record amounts of new rooftop solar capacity, record corporate and government demand for solar and wind energy contracts, an ever bigger big battery pipeline, and – on the down-side – record warming contributing to an increase in extreme weather events.

Through all of the ups and the downs, RenewEconomy continues to grow, alongside its sister sites The Driven and One Step Off The Grid.

In 2020, page views from RenewEconomy titles jumped more than 30 per cent to reach more than 20 million. The flagship Renewconomy website gained more than 15 per cent to 12.5 million, despite a months-long Covid-19 inspired downtrend as online searches focused on the virus, and the EV-focused www.TheDriven.io overcame the Covid impact to lift traffic but 70 per cent to more than 7 million. That’s a big EV market waiting to burst. Our solar and storage focused One Step Off The Grid also had a record year, topping 2 million page views for the first time.

And what were the most popular stories? On RenewEconomy it was international stories: Bad news for coal: India lands world’s largest, super cheap solar and storage tender and New Zealand passes historic zero carbon bill with near unanimous bipartisan support. The most read Australia story was “We’re out”: Big contractor dramatically quits Australian solar sector

On the Driven, it was a collection of EV battery stories and this one about Victoria and South Australia’s proposed EV road tax.  

On One Step, it was this story about north facing solar panels.

Downloads from our series of podcasts topped half a million – Energy Insiders, Solar Insiders, and The Driven podcast – and our webinars also proved hugely popular.

We would like to take this opportunity to say a big thank you all of the people who have visited our sites, for your readership and your continuing support, and for your feedback.

And we’d like to thank our advertisers for their support, and to the many people who have given donations – some of them one-offs but many of them monthly – to help ensure we can continue to deliver the independent coverage the industry deserves. This has enabled us to expand our coverage and add new staff.

To prepare for another big year in 2021 our team is taking a short break.

Today’s newsletter will be the last for the year, until we return to our desks in early January.

Happy and safe holidays to all!

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