Sun, wind, waste biomass, geothermal, tides and waves: all these energy sources in Sydney’s backyard add up to a zero-carbon energy solution for the city.
Managed in the right way, wind farms can actually help stabilise the grid, rather than disrupting it.
AAP Image/Lukas Coch
New modelling suggests that Australia could use renewable energy to hit its 2030 emissions reduction targets, without it costing any more overall than maintaining the status quo.
Solar home designed by University of Maryland students for the Department of Energy’s 2017 Solar Decathlon.
DOE Solar Decathlon
Energy Secretary Rick Perry says the US needs to subsidize nuclear and coal power plants to keep the grid stable. But this policy would raise energy costs and could drive consumers off-grid instead.
A solar and battery-powered microgrid got San Juan’s Children’s Hospital quickly back online after Hurricane Maria.
Alvin Baez/Reuters
Yes, Puerto Rico and any other storm-vulnerable location could benefit from on-site solar and battery backup, but it’s unrealistic to say these microgrids are enough to power the island.
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.
Solar panels are still a rarity in WA’s lower-income areas.
Orderinchaos/Wikimedia Commons
Western Australia has huge amounts of sunshine and wind, yet only 7% of its energy comes from renewables. What’s more, most households in the poorest suburbs are still locked out of the solar panel boom.
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.
Solar PV outstripped coal as the leading source of new electricity generation worldwide last year.
AAP Image/Lukas Coch
Solar PV and wind energy have overtaken coal as the leading sources of new electricity generation worldwide, with falling prices and new storage technologies making clean energy ever more attainable.
Getting your strata committee to agree to solar panels is tricky, but it can be done.
Stucco
Apartment-dwellers risk being left behind in the rooftop solar boom. But some projects are showing how apartments can join the transition to a distributed renewable energy future.
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.
The UN Sustainable Energy initiative has set the goal of ensuring sustainable energy for all by 2030. However, the international community still can’t overcome the problem of energy access.
Over a period in which the Australian economy saw around 600,000 additional people get jobs, employment in the renewables sector has been going backwards.
AAP Image/City of Sydney, Damian Shaw
Estimates released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics suggest that the number of direct full-time equivalent jobs in renewable energy activities has continued to fall from its 2011-12 peak.
With the right mix, the grid can go fully renewable for the same cost and reliability as fossil fuels.
Pixabay/Wikimedia Commons
The Turnbull government is funding energy storage as a crucial missing piece of the electricity grid puzzle. Analysis suggests an affordable, fully renewable grid doesn’t require any heroic assumptions.
Solar subsidies encouraged a massive take-up of solar panels in Australia.
Solar image from www.shutterstock.com
Joe Wyndham, University of Technology Sydney e Jay Rutovitz, University of Technology Sydney
Now that our rooftop solar industry has matured, we need to reconsider the purpose of feed-in tariffs and align them with our goals for the electricity system in the future.
The Australian Renewable Energy Agency has survived, amid a groundswell of domestic and overseas support. Its budget has been chopped, but here’s how it can still drive the renewable energy revolution.
Connecting renewable energy across Australia will help generate reliable electricity.
Wind farm image from www.shutterstock.com