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Two years on from the South Australia blackout, things are not working out quite as the renewable antis might have hoped. It has actually highlighted the grim reality about Australia's ageing and vulnerable grid. If anything, the energy transition has been accelerated rather than stalled.

The post South Australia blackout didn’t stop energy transition, it accelerated it appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Acciona develops blockchain system that guarantees electricity stored in batteries, and then exported to the grid, does in fact come from wind and solar plants.

The post Acciona uses blockchain to show stored electricity comes from wind and solar appeared first on RenewEconomy.

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

California regulator ARB approved a set of regulatory amendments to the state’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) late Thursday, strengthening the programme’s GHG targets through 2030 amid a plethora of other changes.

A full analysis of where Australia is up to with its huge pipeline of wind and solar projects.

The post Stocktake of where Australia is up to with wind and solar appeared first on RenewEconomy.

World Bank unveils $1USbn commitment to accelerate investments in battery storage in developing and middle-income countries.

The post World Bank commits $US1 billion to develop storage in developing world appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Volunteers are urged to make a weekly record of the Tawny owl's distinctive hoot, as numbers fall.

Orcas are in deep trouble because of persistent chemical pollution in the environment, researchers say.

A new report by the OECD and the World Bank has found the vast majority of nations have failed to take action to meet their Paris Agreement climate targets.

Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) prices rose over course of the week to build on two-year highs reached earlier this month, while California Carbon Allowances (CCA) continued to decline on the secondary market.

Traditional remedies used by gardeners to deter slugs and snails appear to have no scientific merit.

As climate extremes mount, let's reflect on Victorian London's 'Great Stink' sewage crisis - when things finally became so bad authorities were forced to accept evidence, reject sceptics, and act. Chris Turney, Professor of Earth Science and Climate Change, ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, UNSW Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Gardeners using methods like these to protect against gastropods are wasting their time, study shows

Environmentally friendly gardeners who attempt to deter slugs and snails from devouring their vegetables with eggshells or copper tape are wasting their time, according to a study by the Royal Horticultural Society.

Gastropods inflicted the same damage to lettuces protected with five natural methods – eggshells, copper tape, horticultural grit, pine bark mulch and wool pellets – as they did to lettuces left untreated.

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Banned PCB chemicals are still severely harming the animals – but Arctic could be a refuge

At least half of the world’s killer whale populations are doomed to extinction due to toxic and persistent pollution of the oceans, according to a major new study.

Although the poisonous chemicals, PCBs, have been banned for decades, they are still leaking into the seas. They become concentrated up the food chain; as a result, killer whales, the top predators, are the most contaminated animals on the planet. Worse, their fat-rich milk passes on very high doses to their newborn calves.

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Chemical pollution threatens the long-term viability of the most exposed orca groups.

Five campaigners jailed for their part in the 1990s Twyford Down protests reflect on the sentencing of a group of anti-fracking demonstrators. Plus reaction from Dr Richard Carter

The fracking protesters who were sentenced to over a year in prison this week are to be saluted (Anti-fracking protesters are jailed in landmark decision, 27 September). Unfortunately, the soundbite used by their lawyer, and reported by the Guardian, that “there has been no environmental protester sentenced to jail since 1932”, is simply not true.

We were among the seven campaigners first sentenced to 28 days’ imprisonment in 1993 for protesting against the building of the M3 through Twyford Down. These direct action protests at Twyford Down from 1992 to 1995 kickstarted the modern-day environmental direct action movement from which today’s fracking protests have emerged.

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EU carbon prices lifted above €20 on Thursday, as a stronger auction helped to claw back some of the heavy losses of the previous two sessions.

The spreads between the main EU carbon allowance futures have exploded this week to levels not seen in years, though traders and analysts were at odds over the reasons behind the big moves.

After receiving a custodial sentence, the three men promise they will win battle against fracking

Three environmental activists jailed for their part in an anti-fracking protest have released a video message promising they will win the battle against fracking.

The men became the first to receive a custodial sentence for environmental protests against shale gas extraction this week. Simon Roscoe Blevins, 26, and Richard Roberts, 36, were given 16 months in prison and Richard Loizou, 31, was sentenced to 15 months in jail on Wednesday after being convicted of causing a public nuisance by a jury at Preston crown court in August.

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Alaska Governor Bill Walker (I) did not rule out implementing a carbon tax in the state during a press conference on Wednesday, which followed his appointed climate change committee calling for such a levy.