Canada’s proposed new environmental assessment law is facing heated, if not necessarily well-informed, opposition. The real question is whether it goes far enough.
A river dike on the Rio Nil near El Asintal, Guatemala.
(Consejo de Comunidades en Defensa del Ambiente del Municipio de El Asintal)
New data have revealed a disturbing trend in forest loss: the hearts of the world’s forests are disappearing. To stop them bleeding out, we’ll have to say ‘no’ to some developments.
Tasmanian hydro power had a boom couple of years when the carbon price was in place.
CSIRO/Wikimedia Commons
A year after the demise of the carbon tax, we might expect both coal and greenhouse emissions to have bounced back, at the expense of renewables like hydroelectricity. Sure enough, that’s what happened.
Investment in technologies beyond the existing wind and solar could stagnate in the face of the government’s reduced Renewable Energy Target.
Rolandg/Wikimedia Commons
After months of deadlock, a deal has finally been reached to reduce the Renewable Energy Target, ending the uncertainty for industry but also risking an already sparse pipeline of future projects.
Wind farms: great, unless it’s not windy.
mattinbgn/Wikimedia Commons
Australia has some fairly ambitious goals for green energy: a renewable energy target (currently under review) of 20% of electricity from renewables by 2020, and a forecast to get 51% of electricity from…
Water storage is used to smooth the output from hydroelectric power - but it can be used with other renewables too.
Martin Kraft/Wikimedia Commons
More and more renewable energy sources are being plugged into Australia’s electricity grids. South Australia, for example, will get 40% of its electricity from wind and solar once the Snowtown wind farm…
Alcoa is to close its Point Henry smelter in Geelong.
AAP
Alcoa’s decision to close the Point Henry smelter, at a cost of almost 1000 jobs in Geelong and elsewhere, comes amid a perfect storm buffeting Australia’s aluminium industry. Point Henry will be the second…
South Australia produces plenty of wind power, but it might become more
than the grid can handle.
Flickr/holidaypointau
In late September, the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) released a report investigating how wind can better be integrated into the power grid. AEMO reports that as more wind turbines are deployed…
Hydropower stations such as the Three Gorges in China are able to produce large amounts of electricity but they can also alter ecosystems and displace communities.
EPA
Hydroelectricity is an established power-generation technology with over 100 years of commercial operation. Hydroelectricity is produced when moving water rotates a turbine shaft; this movement is converted…