Saving power to use later lets consumers, businesses and utilities generate energy when it’s cheap and deliver it when they need it most. There’s not much of it today, but the industry is growing fast.
Solar panels sit on the roof of a home in Enkanini, on the outskirts of Stellenbosch, Western Cape, South Africa.
(Shutterstock)
Innovation in small-scale solar systems and mobile money systems is giving people in sub-Saharan Africa access to electricity at a lower cost than diesel or kerosene.
Lowering your carbon footprint by living off-grid is a sustainability dream. But how possible is it using current technology?
South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill, SA Liberal leader Steven Marshall and SA Best leader Nick Xenophon at a leaders’ debate hosted by the ABC.
AAP Image/Morgan Sette
SA Liberal Party leader Steven Marshall said that state Labor policy had left South Australians with ‘the highest energy prices in Australia’ and ‘the least reliable grid’. Is that right?
The proton battery, connected to a voltmeter.
RMIT
A new rechargeable ‘proton battery’ - made chiefly from carbon and water - promises to outperform conventional lithium-ion batteries, while also being more environmentally friendly.
More blue sky thinking could help the grid get even smarter.
AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts
Evan Franklin, University of Tasmania and Frank Jotzo, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
‘Virtual power plants’ offer extra power to the grid by tweaking the operation of batteries and appliances right across the network. But even this might be too blunt a tool for our future energy needs.
The fossil fuel era won’t last forever. And a new set of countries will find their reserves of lithium, copper and rare earth metals are in high demand.
Keeping the lights on has always been a stormy issue in South Australia.
Jon Westra/Wikimedia Commons
Two decades ago, the then SA premier, John Olsen, defied a campaign promise and announced plans to privatise the state’s electricity industry. It’s been a high-voltage issue ever since.
Looking through semitransparent cells – one day these could be big enough to make windows.
UNSW
Solar windows would need to trap enough light to generate power, while letting through enough to keep buildings light. Thankfully, newly developed semitransparent cells offer to do just that.
Water treatment plants can’t afford not to think about electricity too.
CSIRO/Wikimedia Commons
Cities all over the world are facing growing challenges to provide clean, reliable water. And many of the fixes, such as desalination plants, have a huge carbon footprint.
The European Investment Bank’s funding of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline will harm the climate and makes little financial sense.
Puerto Rico’s power utility, PREPA, has been decimated by years of scarcity and bad management. But will privatizing it really turn the lights back on for Puerto Ricans?
AP Photo/Carlos Giusti
Many Puerto Ricans are happy to see their broke power utility sold off to whoever can get the lights turned back on. But privatizing the island’s energy grid may bring more problems than relief.
South Africa’s Jacob Zuma and Russia’s Vladimir Putin meeting in 2015. Should South Africa be relying on Russia for nuclear energy?
Reuters/Ivan Sekretarev
Critical thinking is of paramount importance, especially as it applies to research on the internet – and to our energy future. Educators have a duty to ensure students avoid fake news on energy.
The Loy Yang power station ‘tripped’ early in the year, triggering fears of a summer of blackouts.
DAVID CROSLING/AAP
Fill a tank with water, sugar, and old mobile phones. Add bacteria and stir. Result? Rare earth metals. This is biomining, and it’s the way of the future.
Now that panel costs in U.S. will go up, will reflectors make a comeback?
Joshua M. Pearce
What’s at stake as the Trump administration imposes trade sanctions on imported solar panels? A look at the US solar energy industry, which generates more than twice as many jobs as coal energy.
Sights like this Brooklyn rooftop covered with solar panels with a view of the Manhattan skyline have become more commonplace amid a U.S. renewable energy industry boom.
AP Photo/Mark Lennihan