Fossil fuels

Analysis and Comment (30)

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Chapelcross, Scotland: decisions over our future sources of energy won’t wait until the cows come home. Magnox Sites Ltd

Nuclear subsidies: a gamble on the price of gas

By Will Blyth, London Business School

Providing power to the nation is no small task. It requires considerable forward planning, involves huge costs and considerable risks. More risk and cost, in fact, than most energy providers can stomach…
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Putting panels on your roof reduces your power bill, but it also reduces the risk of price rises for everyone on the network. murphyz/Flickr

Rooftop solar reduces the risk of price hikes … for everyone

By Laura Eadie, University of Technology, Sydney

How much would you pay to avoid another $250 a year hike in your electricity bill? Does $15 a year sound like too much to reduce that risk? We’ve heard a lot lately about rising electricity prices. That…
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The body of people and organisations speaking out against fuel and energy subsidies is growing. AAP Image/Penny Bradfield

Subsidies for unburnable carbon need to go up in smoke

By Chris Riedy, University of Technology, Sydney

More than half of global greenhouse gas emissions come from burning fossil fuels. Reducing and eventually eliminating fossil fuel use is a critical priority. Most of the world’s remaining fossil fuel reserves…
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The debate around the Keystone XL pipeline represents concern over the environmental effects of non-conventional fossil fuels. Flickr/shannonpatrick

US non-conventional fossil fuel: environmental risks

By Barry Naughten

In the US, extraction of non-conventional fossil fuels is booming. Investment in extra-heavy and heavy oils, oil shales and sands, tight oil and gas, shale gas and coal seam gas is taking off as companies…
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A boom in cheap gas is weaning the US off foreign fossil fuels, and that has implications for geo-politics. EPA/JIM LO SCALZO

How is US non-conventional fossil fuel affecting the rest of the world?

By Barry Naughten

Instead of increased reliance on gas imports expected five years ago the US now has an abundance of cheap gas for domestic use, and is even projecting LNG exports. Reliance on oil imports has fallen from…
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If you don’t deal with road transport, you’re really not dealing with emissions. Rachel Wray

Oil’s well in the white paper’s version of future transport

By Leigh Glover, University of Melbourne

Much of the recent debate over Australia’s new Energy White Paper deals with climate change, the planned growth of Australia’s coal and gas exports, and the future of electricity sector. And although when…
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Several countries have backed away from nuclear power following the Fukushima disaster in Japan. http://www.theenvironmentalblog.org/, http://www.flickr.com/photos/environmentblog

Fossil fuel subsidies up, nuclear power down: IEA

By Sunanda Creagh, The Conversation

Market-distorting fossil fuel subsidies rose 30% from 2010 to 2011, stymying efforts to boost the renewables sector and reduce greenhouse emissions worldwide, a new global report has found. The 2012 World…
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Sign of things to come: a depleted Lake Hume in 2007, when the big dry still had a couple years to run. Flickr/Tim J Keegan

Climate change and Victoria: high time to innovate, adapt, and cope

By Tim Flannery

Victoria has entered a critical decade in the race to adapt for the stresses of climate change, according to a new report from the Climate Commission. Following the release of Victorian climate impacts…
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A cleaner, more efficient Australia will blend smart grids and meters with renewable power’s growing capacity. Pictured: Spain’s Gemasolar concentrated solar thermal power plant. Gemasolar

Challenge 13: smart energy demand and renewable supply

By Mark Diesendorf

In part 13 of our multi-disciplinary Millennium Project series, Mark Diesendorf argues that it is high time we got smart about power: how we generate it and how we deliver it. Global challenge 13: How…
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State of dependency: Australia imports the majority of its oil for the first time since 1970. Flickr/Sr. Samolo

Australia’s growing oil imports are an energy security issue

By Vlado Vivoda, Griffith University

For all the talk about Australia’s resource and energy riches and the country’s economy riding the waves of a resource boom, one facet of the country’s energy situation has largely been under the radar…
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Do you see the light? Solar costs are comparable to fossil fuels, and are falling 45% annually. Flickr/MyEye85

Newsflash: solar power costs are falling below fossil fuels

By John Mathews, Macquarie Graduate School of Management

Recent postings to The Conversation have enlivened the debate over the “Great Transition” that is underway all around the world from the fossil-fuelled energy systems of the 20th century to the renewably…
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Driving away from fossil fuels: fields of rapeseed which is used in biofuels, many of which are under development in Australia and abroad. Flickr/roger g1

Growing the grunt: developing green biofuels for Australia

By Daniel Tan

In 300 BC, the Syrian city of Antioch had public street lighting fuelled by olive oil. At the 1900 Paris World Fair, German inventor Rudolph Diesel demonstrated his engine powered by peanut oil. Biofuels…
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There are several options for future energy generation. We just need to get there. waldopepper

Stepping stones: the slippery path to a clean energy future

By Roger Dargaville, University of Melbourne

In news today, the Greens are calling for an end to federal funding for a proposed coal- and gas-fuelled power plant in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley. Others have suggested the plant provides a source of…
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Future fuels will be made from a range of raw materials, including algae. SandiaLabs

Explainer: the evolution of biofuels

By Ian O'Hara, Queensland University of Technology

It’s one of the key challenges of our generation: transforming our global energy use from emissions-intensive, non-renewable fossil fuels to low-carbon, sustainable energy technologies. The challenge…
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Solar is now a viable industry that should be taken seriously. AFP Photo/Sakis Mitrolidis

Solar will force coal and nuclear out of the energy business

By Andrew Blakers

A solar energy revolution is brewing that will put the coal and nuclear industries out of business. Solar is already reaching price parity with coal in many parts of Australia. In contrast to coal and…
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What can you do with a hole in the ground? It’s about more than planting trees. OZinOH/flickr

Sending mines to rehab: good for health, good for the environment

By Robin Tennant-Wood, University of Canberra

In late 1986, residents of Diamond St, Kingston, an outer southern suburb of Brisbane, began to notice a black sludge-like substance seeping through the soil and into their gardens. Within six months…
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The movie Gasland galvanised the public on the dangers of fracking. Gasland

NSW’s coal seam gas ban – where the frack to next?

By Tina Hunter

Fracking. It’s a hotbed of controversy that spans our increasingly energy-hungry globe. The French have turned their back on it. Permanently. And now the NSW government has temporarily frozen the use…
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Believe it or not, sulphur emissions are keeping us cooler. lillicomanche/flickr

Beyond two degrees celsius: sulphur won’t save us for long

By Andrew Glikson

The Earth energy balance – the difference between energy/heat absorbed by the Earth from solar radiation and the energy/heat emitted back to space – is currently offset by the cooling effect of sulphur…
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Renewables or fossil fuels, we’ll send them offshore when it makes sense. Flickr/nosha

Australian energy may be more useful abroad than at home

By Geoff James, CSIRO

Australia is a major energy exporter. Are we going to continue to increase our contribution to Asia’s energy mix? Will it be clean energy? And is it possible that our best renewable energy resources will…
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A carbon tax priced at $26 per tonne could raise $11.5 billion in the first year, said economist Ross Garnaut. AAP

Final Garnaut climate change review: the experts respond

By Sunanda Creagh, The Conversation

Economist Professor Ross Garnaut has released his final report to the government on climate change and the economy. The report says global warming is expected to continue and estimates that a $26 per…
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Coal seam gas drilling threatens our most arable land. «Jonny Boy»/flickr

Coal seam gas a risk to food security

By Peter Dart

Coal seam gas has been touted by some as the answer to our addiction to dirty coal. It’s marketed as a “transition fuel” that will ween us off fossil fuels as we move to renewable energy. But the process…
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For politicians, there’s no bright future in pushing up petrol prices. Alcohol Gasoline/Flickr

Driving off a cliff? The politics of petrol and carbon-pricing

By Matthew Burke, Griffith University

Politically, increasing petrol prices is one of the least popular things a government can do. But is there any point to a carbon tax if it doesn’t cover petrol? Vladimir Putin has just found how quickly…
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Our old-fashioned addiction will be hard to kick. JD Hancock/flickr

Going up: peak oil wolf is scratching at the door

By Vlado Vivoda, Griffith University

Oil is a finite and non-renewable resource. Its production is going to peak. “Peak oil” is the point at which half of the world’s original endowment of oil has been extracted. This is the point at which…
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At least three-quarters of city commuters travel by car. AAP

Carbon tax on petrol has zero chance of cutting emissions

By Leigh Glover, University of Melbourne

Emissions trading is back in the news and in national political debate, as is the related question of how it will affect Australian motorists. Fair enough. This should receive attention because greenhouse…

Research and News (8)

Research Briefs (1)

Call to arms to capture energy

Stanford University

Storing electricity to use later is critically important to the energy sector and in reducing carbon emissions. In the US…

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