Are blackouts really looming by the middle of this decade? An AEMO report warns they might be – but there are plenty of projects on the drawing board that will help ease the squeeze on the grid.
South Africans are taking their power supply into their own hands with backup systems that don’t rely on power utility Eskom.
Ihsaan Haffejee/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
We’ll need to almost double our electricity sector workforce to build renewables as quickly as we need to. Where will the workers come from amid a skills shortage and infrastructure boom?
NASA, NOAA and SpaceWeather say a coronal mass ejection will reach Earth this week. It has the potential to knock out communications in some parts of the world.
Typical amounts of solar particles hitting the Earth’s magnetosphere can be beautiful, but too much could be catastrophic.
Svein-Magne Tunli - tunliweb.no/Wikimedia
Every few centuries the Sun blasts the Earth with a huge amount of high-energy particles. If it were to happen today, it would wreak havoc on technology.
When multiple electricity companies compete for consumers, there is pressure to keep costs low and to improve service quality.
GettyImages
A decision to merge energy sector agencies could depress investors’ appetite to finance infrastructure expansion.
China is currently in a better position than the West to assist the Indo-Pacific, due to geography, trade dynamics and its own clean tech sector. China’s chief negotiator Xie Zhenhua, right, walks with John Kerry, United States Special Presidential Envoy for Climate at the COP26 U.N. Climate Summit in Glasgow, Scotland, on Nov. 12, 2021.
(AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)
Jonas Goldman, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa
Western democracies need to create a financing program to support the energy transition in the Indo-Pacific — and to achieve both regional security and climate goals.
Here are four ways the current electricity system favours existing, higher emitting technologies. These must be overcome to rapidly cut Australia’s emissions.
Renewable mini-grids are central to reducing rural communities’ dependence on diesel fuel, but a large number of these projects are abandoned shortly after their installation.
(pxfuel)
The electric vehicle transition is about more than just scrapping petrol cars. We must also ensure quality technology, anticipate the future and make sure no-one gets left behind.
Nearly five million homes and businesses lost power in Texas on Feb. 15, and millions remained without power throughout the week.
(AP Photo/LM Otero)
The weather-related impacts of climate change will increasingly threaten critical infrastructure in the future. Shifting electricity grids towards microgrids could help.
It doesn’t fit!
AndreyPopov/iStock via Getty Images
Energy-efficiency initiatives are consistently identified as the lowest impact and most cost-effective means of meeting energy needs. Why isn’t Ontario focusing on them?
An all-renewable grid will mean more electricity and more transmission lines.
Russ Allison Loar/flickr
We have all the technologies needed to make the electric grid run on renewables and lower pollution. What are they and what are the barriers to adopting them widely?