Solar and wind can’t deliver power on demand. But overbuilding solar and wind, and simply dumping unneeded energy, would go a long way to smoothing out those bumps, study finds.
Electric utilities have a right to make money on their government-granted monopolies, but customers also have a right to know what cyber-protections they would get if they paid more.
A year ago, the world’s largest lithium-ion battery began dispatching power to South Australia’s grid. It has been a remarkable success but there are some concerns that have so far escaped scrutiny
Federal Labor has promised to give rebates of up to $2,000 to 100,000 households to install batteries to store power from solar panels. Is this good energy policy, or just middle-class welfare?
The federal government is primarily to blame for the mess that is Australia’s energy policy. It’s time for the states to step up, to reduce both prices and emissions.
Mark Olsthoorn, Grenoble École de Management (GEM); Nikolas Wölfing, Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung (ZEW), and Swaroop Rao, Grenoble École de Management (GEM)
France, Germany and other European countries are increasing their use of renewable energy sources as well as storage solutions to help overcome their intermittent nature.
The announcement of a new fast-charging network to link the major east coast cities will do much to encourage motorists to buy electric cars. But the power utilities need to get on board too.
There are some good explanations for the mismatch between regional support for climate action and the areas where renewable energy is making the biggest inroads.
Australia could be getting half of its electricity from renewable energy by 2025, even without government subsidies for new wind and solar projects, according to a new analysis of energy industry trends.
Sections of the media have talked up the prospects of future power outages, even though the electricity market operator predicts that Australia’s stringent reliability standards will still be met.
Australians are angry about electricity prices and both the federal government and opposition are proposing to cap them. Will this approach work, and what are the risks?
As South American countries recover from a massive blackout, the US isn’t immune: The Northeast Blackout of 2003 cut power to 50 million people, and many threats to the electricity grid remain.
Power utilities’ cybersecurity practices may be effective, but need to evolve over time. And all companies operating elements of the grid – even the small ones – should step up.
There are calls from the backbench and elsewhere for the federal government to safeguard the future of coal. But do those calls make economic sense? A look at Queensland’s energy landscape suggests not.
Advanced small modular reactors, known as SMRs, will probably have many advantages over older technology. But it’s not yet known how they will stack up against other sources of electricity.