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.
Andrew Blakers, Australian National University; Bin Lu, Australian National University, and Matthew Stocks, Australian National University
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.
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.
Would putting power lines underground avoid hurricanes knocking out electricity service for millions of people? The answer is not as straightforward as it seems.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.