The hydrogen economy has been touted for decades as a way to navigate the clean energy transition. Now a new CSIRO roadmap sets out how hydrogen power can become a major energy player.
Most garages can double as EV charging stations.
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Australia needs to accelerate its transition to clean energy, and not prolong the use of high-polluting, coal-fired infrastructure. Otherwise it risks missing out on an economic windfall.
Solar panels being installed in new housing under construction in Sacramento, Calif.
AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli
Environmentalists and climate hawks are cheering, but many experts aren’t excited about the state making rooftop solar panels mandatory on most new homes beginning in 2020.
Tesla is installing one of the world’s largest solar arrays at its Gigafactory 1 in Nevada.
EPA
Will the renewable energy transition end up creating yet more greenhouse emissions, as we ramp up the manufacture of wind turbines and solar cells? Not if their manufacture is itself powered by renewables.
Solar photovoltaics are now the world’s leading source of new electricity generation.
US Air Force
Solar photovoltaics and wind power are on track to supplant fossil-fuel-based electricity generation by the 2030s. The only thing holding back the renewable revolution is politics.
Grid-scale energy storage systems may make it easier to rely completely on renewable energy.
petrmalinak/Shutterstock.com
Saving power to use later lets consumers, businesses and utilities generate energy when it’s cheap and deliver it when they need it most. There’s not much of it today, but the industry is growing fast.
Looking through semitransparent cells – one day these could be big enough to make windows.
UNSW
Solar windows would need to trap enough light to generate power, while letting through enough to keep buildings light. Thankfully, newly developed semitransparent cells offer to do just that.
Most of the growing number of jobs in the solar industry have more to do with maintaining and installing panels than manufacturing them.
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Andrew Blakers, Australian National University; Bin Lu, Australian National University, and Matthew Stocks, Australian National University
New modelling suggests that Australia could use renewable energy to hit its 2030 emissions reduction targets, without it costing any more overall than maintaining the status quo.
Transportation is the biggest contributor to greenhouse gases by sector. Converting the U.S. fleet to cleaner electric vehicles would likely take decades.
AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin
What if the world really got serious about meeting global climate goals? Doing the math on current emissions and the pace of energy transitions shows how quickly fossil fuels need to be phased out.
The new energy policy could potentially function to preserve black coal’s place in the energy mix.
AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts
By rebranding coal as ‘dispatchable’, the government’s National Energy Guarantee looks set to preserve demand for coal-fired power by giving it a new role – one it’s not well equipped to fulfil.
Business as usual is not an option.
CSIRO/Wikimedia Commons
A new CSIRO roadmap outlines the options for oil and gas companies to keep pace with the clean energy transition, including solar-powered hydrogen fuel production.
Yes, but who’s directing energy policy?
AAP Image/David Mariuz
We have learned a lot in the year since South Australia’s lights went out, and have made some useful early reforms. But the energy sector and politicians need to chart a much steadier course in future.
Pumped hydro: all you really need is some reservoirs and a big hill.
AAP Image/Lukas Coch
Andrew Blakers, Australian National University; Bin Lu, Australian National University, and Matthew Stocks, Australian National University
Electricity storage is vital to the stability of a renewable energy grid. The world’s favourite form of storage is pumped hydro – and researchers have located thousands of candidate sites.
The Victorian government is aiming to boost renewable energy to 40%.
Changyang1230/Wikimedia Commons
Victoria’s plan to legislate its own renewable energy target of 40% by 2025 shows how states are increasingly taking the energy policy reins away from the federal government.
A report released this week by the Australian Council of Social Service has pointed out that many vulnerable households cannot access rooftop solar and efficient appliances, describing the issue as a serious…