The future of civilisation and much biodiversity hangs to a large degree on whether we can replace fossil fuels – coal, oil and gas – with clean, safe and affordable energy within several decades. The…
China’s solar photovoltaic industry has exploded in the last decade.
AAP/Chinese Solar Energy.
By John Mathews, Macquarie Graduate School of Management
The bankruptcy of Chinese solar energy company Suntech Wuxi is being depicted in the media as a sign of chaos in the solar industry.
The industry is said to be suffering from disastrous price falls created…
There are two main types of solar energy technology: photovoltaics (PV) and solar thermal. Solar PV is the rooftop solar you see on homes and businesses – it produces electricity from solar energy directly…
It’s time to take solar transport fuels a lot more seriously.
National Renewable Energy Lab
Many times in human history governments have tried to write policies based around future technologies and missed identifying the transformational keys. In the 1970s, for example, few if any horizon-scanning…
Things go wrong when prices are out of whack.
Kevin Baird
Contrary to expectations, demand for electricity in Australia has been falling for several years. Reasons for this include large price rises (of which the carbon price is a relatively small component…
Australia could soon have millions of small electricity generators.
absentmindedprof/Flickr
The 2012 Energy White Paper has much to commend it. In particular, the far greater acknowledgement of the need to shift to clean energy sources is a fundamental shift from previous White Papers.
The emphasis…
The mechanisms that make some fish hard to see could be used in next-generation electronics.
mattieb
Imagine setting up mirrors in a circle around you, the shiny sides all facing outwards to reflect your surroundings. To the casual observer you would appear to be “invisible”, blending into the environment…
Wind and solar power appears to have been behind a drop in wholesale power prices in South Australia, leading to a proposal to reduce retail prices for consumers.
Renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power appear to be the impetus behind a South Australian proposal to substantially drop electricity prices, just as other states are hiking theirs.
The…
Sunlight falls equally on leaves and solar panels, but which does the best job of turning it into useful renewable energy?
kincuri/Flickr
About 80% of the world’s total energy consumption is derived from fossil fuels, with only 12.5% from renewable resources. Replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy sources derived from sunlight – such…
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
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…
Do you see the light? Solar costs are comparable to fossil fuels, and are falling 45% annually.
Flickr/MyEye85
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…
Embrace the blazing sphere.
AAP/EPA/NASA/Solar Dynamics Observatory
John Gardner, US Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare joined Lyndon Johnson’s cabinet in 1965 to help create a ‘Great Society’ to end poverty, promote equality, improve education, rejuvenate cities…
Lack of political will is holding back Australia’s solar innovation: here, AREVA Solar’s CLFR technology.
Solar Dawn
By John Mathews, Macquarie Graduate School of Management
Australia knows how to provide public leadership in the complex coordination of public events. Just look at the recent staging of the opera La Traviata on Sydney Harbour. It was a one-off event that required…
The Big Dish, developed in Canberra, could be a renewable energy winner if the government focussed funding.
WizardPower
Let’s start with a question: why has Denmark been so successful in renewable energy creation and uptake?
It can’t be that Denmark is a windy place (although that helped) or that it was a social democratic…
ANU’s “big dish” solar is the envy of Asia, but the Australian Government has turned its back.
AAP
By John Mathews, Macquarie Graduate School of Management
I am here in Seoul, the burgeoning and confident capital of a burgeoning and confident Korea, to investigate the country’s formidable “Green Growth” strategy.
Back in August 2008, the Korean government…
US-China competition could lead to a brighter clean energy future, or a trade war.
whitehouse.gov
There is a trade war brewing between the United States and China over intellectual property relating to clean technologies – particularly solar power.
Steven Chu, a scientist, Nobel Laureate in Physics…
With so many barriers to large-scale solar, roof-top panels may still be the way to go.
murphyz/Flickr
The “collapse” of the Solar Flagship Program has recently hit the news. With Minister Ferguson re-opening the bidding for the photovoltaic (PV) component of the program, and extending the deadline for…
Domestic solar panel use has risen dramatically in recent years; commercial uptake can’t be far behind.
EPA/Patrick Pleul
A recent report by the Clean Energy Council claims that the capacity of domestic solar panels in Australia has increased 35-fold in the past three years. This (among other factors) means we are well on…
India’s power needs are growing at a staggering rate and coal won’t do the job.
NASA
As the Australian Labor Party changes its stance on trading uranium with India, a pertinent question arises: why is India so keen to buy this controversial fuel? And what do India’s energy resources look…
Photosynthesis converts low-energy photons into usable energy; it may teach us how to do the same.
papalars
As the great spectre of climate change continues to loom large over the future, the search for viable, renewable energy sources is becoming ever more important.
Solar power has long been seen as a vital…
Building and racing a solar car is a true team effort.
Matt Cumming
The World Solar Challenge (WSC) is a race held every two years in which roughly 40 teams race solar-powered cars from Darwin to Adelaide.
I’m a member of the UNSW Solar Racing Team (called Sunswift…
The Tokai Challenger team after winning the 2011 World Solar Challenge.
World Solar Challenge
On October 20 2011, the Tokai Challenger solar car drove quietly into Victoria Square in the centre of Adelaide, winning the 2011 World Solar Challenge.
The car had crossed Australia from north to south…
Developing sustainable energy sources needs some of the country’s best and brightest.
x-ray delta one
Project: Develop hydrogen-based sustainable energyCost: $20 millionTimeframe: Seven years
Finding real green energy is a vital area of research. Is there an energy that meets the needs of its users…
There are several options for future energy generation. We just need to get there.
waldopepper
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…
Solar is now a viable industry that should be taken seriously.
AFP Photo/Sakis Mitrolidis
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…
Concentrating solar energy has a lot of commercial potential in Australia.
John Marmaras/CSIRO
Most people are familiar with solar energy generated by photovoltaic (PV) solar cells; they are the tiny PV cells on your calculator or the large PV installations that many people are installing on their…
Large-scale solar could be Australia’s dominant renewable technology by 2030.
AAP
Australia has a huge solar energy resource.
Solar collectors spread out over a square 50 km could generate all of Australia’s current electricity demand.
Of course in practice, we would need a mix of…
