The political outlook for renewable energy is not great – and I’m not just talking about the view out of Joe Hockey’s car window. The Renewable Energy Target (RET), which aims to deliver 41 million megawatt-hours…
Lake George, complete with “offensive” wind turbines. Expect more views like this around Canberra soon.
Darcyj/Wikimedia Commons
We now know that Treasurer Joe Hockey is not a fan of wind farms, on aesthetic grounds at least. On Friday he told Macquarie Radio’s Alan Jones he finds the view “utterly offensive” and “a blight on the…
Politically, the carbon tax issue has been great for Tony Abbott, allowing him to position himself as a friend to business.
AAP Image/Lukas Coch
Nine years ago, I spent long days inside Downing Street working with the then British Prime Minister Tony Blair on how to position his government on the global climate problem. Blair was keen to work out…
Could Australia have large solar farms like this one in New York?
Brookhaven National Laboratory/Flickr
The recent start of construction on the first of two large-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) power plants in outback New South Wales shows the importance of renewable energy targets and funding. The first…
A mini power plant in a North Sydney basement. Trigeneration plants like these generate electricity, heating and cooling far more efficiently than with mains power.
AAP/Short Communications, Girrit Fokkema
The debate about the future of Australia’s Renewable Energy Target (RET) has largely focused on the issue of immediate costs to business. But if we’re thinking about Australia’s long-term economic interests…
One in five Queensland homes have gone solar, like this house in Brisbane’s Alexandra Hills.
Melanie Cook/Flickr
You have to feel sorry for people working in renewable energy. Their industry has been reviewed to within an inch of its short life, and the goalposts have been shifted so many times that they don’t know…
Environment Minister Greg Hunt has announced a review of Australia’s renewable energy target.
AAP/Alan Porritt
The head of the Abbott government’s new renewable target review says he is going into the inquiry with “a very open mind”, despite his scepticism about humans’ contribution to global warming. Former Reserve…
Cooling towers at Yallourn, one of Victoria’s major brown coal power generators.
Flickr/ccdoh1
Australia’s Renewable Energy Target looks likely to be weakened or even axed, with the Prime Minister saying the scheme needs to be reviewed because it is causing “pretty significant price pressure”. But…