Two moves by the Trump administration signal a dramatic shift in energy policy to favor coal and nuclear, but markets forces and legal challenges mean changes could take years.
Pumped hydro: all you really need is some reservoirs and a big hill.
AAP Image/Lukas Coch
Electricity storage is vital to the stability of a renewable energy grid. The world’s favourite form of storage is pumped hydro – and researchers have located thousands of candidate sites.
Using solar power could give the U.S. military some advantages – and more security.
Diane Durden/U.S. Marine Corps
US military bases usually get their electricity from the civilian grid, which is vulnerable to attack and to disaster. Solar-powered microgrids could protect national security, and would save money.
Hurricanes Harvey and Irma caused widespread power outages.
AP Photo/Eric Gay
Would putting power lines underground avoid hurricanes knocking out electricity service for millions of people? The answer is not as straightforward as it seems.
Coal power has long been a mainstay of the electricity system but has lost share as natural gas prices have gone down.
John Fowler
The Department of Energy’s review of the electricity grid finds natural gas, rather than renewables, has hurt coal and nuclear power. But that’s only half the story of the changes underway.
A man fixes electric wires in the Lagos Island district. Nigeria has serious power challenges made worse by the way the sector is regulated.
Reuters/Akintunde Akinleye
The centralised regulation of electric power in Nigeria is stalling progress in the sector. To achieve stable power supply, the country must obey its constitution and decentralise regulation.
Eclipses are fun, but no one wants to be left in the dark by a blackout.
REUTERS/Adrees Latif
The solar eclipse offered electricity network operators a “live drill” in how to cope with fluctuating output from renewable energy. They passed with flying colours.
Proposals for the government to commission more “baseload” electricity generation will raise private sector concerns over Canberra’s growing willingness to intervene in a previously free market.
The Finkel review’s recommendations would put pressure on coal while encouraging gas and renewable energy
Dan Himbrechts/AAP
A Clean Energy Target and a swathe of measures to improve the security and reliability of the electricity grid are among the recommendations of the keenly awaited Finkel Review.
Lessons from the Lone Star State: A surge in wind power on the Texas grid didn’t cause reliability problems (and brought down electricity prices) because regulators improved the efficiency of wholesale electricity markets.
Sarah Fields Photography/Shutterstock.com
Energy Secretary Rick Perry wants to know if wind and solar are compromising the reliability of the grid and hurting coal power. The answer lies in his home state of Texas.
Locking down the federal government.
NicoElNico via shutterstock.com
Despite its name, the National Electricity Market doesn’t reach WA. But those charged with guiding the eastern states’ energy transition should look west once in a while.
Just think of it as a battery that can also take you to the shops.
Steve Jurvetson/Wikimedia Commons
By boosting the demand for energy from the grid, electric cars could help create an incentive for more renewable energy investment, while smoothing over issues with supply and demand.
The long view: energy policy needs to stay firmly focused on the horizon.
Mattinbgn/Wikimedia Commons
The current flurry of energy policy aims to make power cheaper and more reliable. But it will take more than that to meet vital longer-term goals like cutting carbon while keeping future prices low.
Old school: Much of the power plant and transmission network we rely on has been around for decades.
andrewfhart/flickr
Trump has pledged to invest big in infrastructure. An analysis shows the electric grid will need hundreds of billions of dollars over the next decade just to keep things as they are.
SA energy minister Tom Koutsantonis (left) and Premier Jay Weatherill have outlined their vision for the state’s electricity.
AAP Image/David Mariuz
Jeffrey Sommerfeld, Queensland University of Technology
South Australia is investing $550 million in a plan to improve the reliability of its electricity. But the side-effect is that the National Electricity Market will now be even harder to run.
A cyberattack on the electricity grid happened in Ukraine – could it happen here too?
Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters
Here’s the real problem behind Australia’s electricity woes: the rules that govern decisions about what infrastructure to build, and when, are inflexible and outdated.