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Uni Newcastle researchers say their lab-proven "stackable" thermal energy storage solution is a fraction of the cost of li-ion batteries, and ready to be tested in the real world.

The post Energy storage “Lego blocks” offer missing piece to 100 per cent renewable grid appeared first on RenewEconomy.

A daily summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world.

The fires have burned through more than two million acres in California so far this year, fire officials say.

Concerns remain around the “murkiness” of the global voluntary carbon trade, but two of the main offset certifiers keeping the market running are confident that a new era of increased participation and scrutiny, including by the financial sector, will bring much-needed transparency and investor confidence.

ACT government secures record low prices in new wind auction, while Neoen and GPG will also build two big batteries in the National Capital.

The post ACT secures two big batteries for Canberra and record low price for wind appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Neoen bids record low price for wind energy to win ACT government auction and kick-start construction of Australia's biggest renewable energy hub.

The post Australia’s biggest renewable energy hub lands first contract with ACT appeared first on RenewEconomy.

European Environment Agency calls for strong action to protect most vulnerable in society

Cutting air pollution and improving green spaces in cities would immediately improve the health of the poorest people in society, a report from Europe’s environmental watchdog has found.

Environmental factors inflict greater damage on the health of those in poverty, who already suffer a disproportionately greater burden of disease, than on the better-off, according to the European Environment Agency. Measures that reduce air pollution and give people greater access to parks and similar amenities are well within the reach of governments.

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The blocks can be used to run steam turbines at power stations as a clean alternative to burning coal, and at a fraction of the price of storing energy in batteries. Erich Kisi, Professor of Engineering , University of Newcastle Alexander Post, Conjoint Lecturer, University of Newcastle Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Sussan Ley says conditions of export licence for shark fins and other products have not been met

Environment minister Sussan Ley has moved to revoke the export of shark fins and other seafood products from a Queensland government fishery over inaction on reforms to protect threatened species.

Ley has written to Queensland’s fisheries minister, Mark Furner, saying the state had not met the conditions of its export licence for the East Coast Inshore Fin Fish Fishery, which would be revoked from 30 September.

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Report calls for more support if plan to plant 100m hectares of vegetation is to be realised

The world’s most ambitious reforestation project, the Great Green Wall of Africa, has covered only 4% of its target area but is more than halfway towards its 2030 completion date, according to a status report.

More funds, greater technical support and tighter oversight will be needed if the plan to plant 100m hectares of trees and other vegetation is to be realised, say the authors of the study, which was unveiled on Monday at a meeting of regional ministers.

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Campaigners say expansion is a betrayal as government had pledged to phase out cull

The government’s badger cull is being expanded to 11 new areas of England including parts of Oxfordshire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire and Derbyshire so that more than 60,000 badgers can be killed.

Conservation groups said the expansion was a betrayal of trust after the government this year pledged to phase out the badger cull, intended to reduce bovine TB in cattle, after a scientific review cast doubt on its efficacy.

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The brown bear, a master escapologist, is now back in its north Italian wildlife enclosure

A brown bear nicknamed Papillon for its propensity for escaping from its enclosure has been captured by rangers in the Italian province of Trento after 42 days of freedom.

Codenamed M49, the 149kg (23st) bear fled from the Casteller centre on 27 July after climbing over its enclosure, which had been reinforced following previous escapes.

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Australian species roam over massive distances and help the land recover from fire, research finds.

Discovery of early bony fish casts doubt on accepted ideas about evolutionary history of vertebrates

The partial skull of an armoured fish that swam in the oceans over 400m years ago could turn the evolutionary history of sharks on its head, researchers have said.

Bony fish, such as salmon and tuna, as well as almost all terrestrial vertebrates, from birds to humans, have skeletons that end up made of bone. However, the skeletons of sharks are made from a softer material called cartilage – even in adults.

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From blockading printers to meditating outside Barclays, the climate crisis campaign has drawn a variety of participants

Thousands of Extinction Rebellion (XR) activists and supporters have been staging “die-ins”, preventing copies of newspapers from being distributed and meditating outside banks over the past week in a series of actions aimed at highlighting the worsening ecological crisis.

At printing plants in Merseyside and in Hertfordshire on Friday evening, many trucks carrying newspapers were unable to deliver to shops. The prime minister, Boris Johnson, accused XR of seeking to limit the public’s access to news amid suggestions that the environmental group could subsequently be treated like an organised crime group by the authorities.

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Financial organisations in China’s Guangdong province and territories of Hong Kong and Macao have founded a ‘Green Finance Alliance’ that has developing a regional carbon trading market as one of its major ambitions.

EUAs hit a two-week low below €27 on Monday as the market struggled to absorb a hefty auction, in what will be the biggest sale supply week of the year so far.

The Western Australia EPA on Monday backed Mitsui’s plans for a new gas-fired power plant that would buy carbon offsets as part of a strategy to put it on a path towards net zero emissions by 2050.

Market observers expect the Australian government’s Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF) will have to pay at least in line with the previous round’s record prices to secure significant emission reductions at this week’s auction.

Renewable energy records tumble across Australia, including a new milestone of 50.4 per cent on the main grid where wind and solar beat coal.

The post Australia’s main grid hits new renewable energy record of 50.4 per cent appeared first on RenewEconomy.