Solar thermal technology uses the sun’s heat to generate electricity, or heating.
Beyond Coal & Gas Image Library/Flickr
Mining requires huge amounts of energy – could it be replaced with renewables?
Tasmania’s hydro power is dependent on rains.
Dam image from www.shutterstock.com
Catch 22: renewable energy can help fight climate change, but climate change might prove hard on renewable energy.
Labor has promised half of Australia’s electricity will come from renewables in 2030.
Wind turbine image from www.shutterstock.com
There’s a wealth of climate policies to choose from this election – but what will they do electricity prices?
Despite the benefits of going renewable, it may be harder to get there than we thought.
Indigo Skies Photography/Flickr
Phasing out fossils fuels would go a long way to stopping dangerous climate change – but it might be harder than we thought.
Investment in renewables has slowed to trickle.
Chris Murray/Flickr
Renewable energy has had a rough time in Australia. Good climate policy could fix that.
Large-scale solar projects have been highlighted for investment in the new fund.
Solar image from www.shutterstock.com
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has announced a new “Clean Energy Innovation Fund”. But will it generate much-needed investment in the sector?
Fly away on my Zephyr.
Airbus
Internet connections could one day come from solar-powered planes that fly for months or even longer at a time.
Might the sun set on this technology before it’s even taken off?
129664508@N08/flickr
Solar panels and roads — combining them just makes sense to help meet our clean energy needs, right? Maybe not quite.
More people are installing solar panels to take control of their electricity supply.
Solar PV image from www.shutterstock.com
Updated forecasts from CSIRO suggest electricity prices will continue to rise as more renewable energy enters the grid.
Desert troughs.
Green Prophet
A large solar thermal plant in Morocco will provide energy for 1m people – here’s how it will work.
Mozambique is seeking to use renewable energy to extend electricity access to rural institutions.
Joshua Kirshner
Mozambique has long standing energy challenges and widespread energy poverty. To change this, particularly for people living in rural areas, it needs to democratise the way it supplies energy.
Solar energy is key to development in African countires.
Shutterstock
Integrated research is key to sustainable development, which helps Africa resolve its energy woes.
Low carbon choices such as solar power are essential for the African continent, if it intends to stop the harmful global warming effects.
www.shutterstock.com
For the sake of mitigating climate change, the African continent needs to make low carbon energy choices.
Solar hot water may be green, but sometimes it can leave you out in the cold.
Cold shower image from www.shutterstock.com
Solar hot water is an excellent way to heat up without adding to your electricity bill. Unfortunately, it seems Australians are not getting the most from their solar hot water systems.
Australia has some catching up to do to match the rest of the world on large-scale solar.
Brookhaven National Laboratory/Flickr
New funding for large-scale solar could be backing a winner, but only with the right leadership.
Access to the grid has crowded out solar in some places in India.
DFID - UK Department for International Development/Flickr
Given existing technologies, expanding access to electricity almost always increases CO2 emissions. There are real trade-offs between addressing poverty and climate change.
Is the price right for installing solar panels?
Edmund Tse/Flickr
Victoria’s solar will soon get a mere 5 cents for power they send to the grid. But is that a fair price?
Labor wants 50% of Australia’s electricity to come from renewables by 2030 - but what about other climate policies?
Lawrence Murray/Flickr
Labor’s proposal for 50% renewables demonstrates in spades how poisonous climate change politics has trumped good policy.
Packing heat: concentrating sunlight into a reactor to split H2O and CO2 – a step toward making liquid fuels.
Courtesy of Professor David Hahn, University of Florida
Rooftop solar power is exploding in the US but some scientists are pursuing a radically different route in renewable energy: storing solar energy as a liquid fuel.
Hepburn Wind in Victoria is Australia’s largest community renewable energy project.
Hepburn Wind/Flickr
Australia, like much of the rest of the world, is in the midst of an energy transition, driven by falling demand and uptake of renewables. Community energy is one way we can mange this transition to the benefit of all Australians.