Electric cars are hot, yet their global market penetration remains less than 0.5% of all vehicles. Research points the way to key questions to ask when building new markets.
Labor would aim for a new threshold under a revamp of the existing safeguards mechanism of 25,000 tonnes of direct CO2 pollution annually, which would be phased in after consultation with industry.
It’s unclear exactly what mix of technologies will drive the zero-emission vehicles of the future. But in terms of ‘well-to-wheel’ efficiency, electric batteries outperform hydrogen.
A year ago, the world’s largest lithium-ion battery began dispatching power to South Australia’s grid. It has been a remarkable success but there are some concerns that have so far escaped scrutiny
The battery technology and cooling systems needed for electric aircraft to lift people and cargo are getting closer to reality, but they’re still very different from electric cars and trucks.
Federal Labor has promised to give rebates of up to $2,000 to 100,000 households to install batteries to store power from solar panels. Is this good energy policy, or just middle-class welfare?
Is it too much to dream of batteries that are part of the structure of an item, helping to shape the form of a smartphone, car or building while also powering its functions?
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.
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.
A new rechargeable ‘proton battery’ - made chiefly from carbon and water - promises to outperform conventional lithium-ion batteries, while also being more environmentally friendly.
Evan Franklin, University of Tasmania dan Frank Jotzo, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
‘Virtual power plants’ offer extra power to the grid by tweaking the operation of batteries and appliances right across the network. But even this might be too blunt a tool for our future energy needs.
Our energy system puts consumers more or less at the mercy of business and regulators. What if the future of energy meant putting the power back in the hands of households?