Around The Web

Jolywood Joins hands with Golden Invest to develop Australian solar projects

RenewEconomy - Thu, 2018-03-22 12:32
Per the agreement, Golden Invest will develop power projects with a total capacity of 100 MW in Australia, which will exclusively utilize N-type bifacial solar modules manufactured and supplied by Jolywood.
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Greens signal they may not back Labor in blocking Coalition's marine park plans

The Guardian - Thu, 2018-03-22 12:26

Plans ‘woefully inadequate’, party says – but it fears replacing some protections with none at all

The Greens have signalled that they might not back a move by Labor to disallow controversial new marine park management plans proposed by the Turnbull government, calling for time to consider their position.

The Greens’ healthy oceans spokesman, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, told Guardian Australia on Thursday that if the new government plans were disallowed, “then we move from some protections to no protections, and the protections of our oceans have to rely on Labor winning government and the conservative major and minor parties not having the numbers to disallow whatever plans Labor put in place”.

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Call for Clean Energy award nominations to shine a light on record year for industry

RenewEconomy - Thu, 2018-03-22 12:24
Renewable energy leaders and innovators are invited to nominate for the 2018 Clean Energy Council Awards, which highlight innovation and excellence in the Australian renewable energy and energy storage industry.
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'Radical change' needed on countryside

BBC - Thu, 2018-03-22 11:12
The UK government is failing rural communities and the natural environment, a report says.
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NSW eyes 77GW of wind and solar – “enough for modern energy system”

RenewEconomy - Thu, 2018-03-22 10:27
NSW says three regional energy zones could host 77,000MW of wind and solar capacity - enough to meet demands of modern energy system.
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Leading global recruitment firm, The Green Recruitment Company, open new office in Sydney

RenewEconomy - Thu, 2018-03-22 10:14
The Green Recruitment Company are pleased to announce the opening of a new Australian office, based in Sydney.
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SA Water set to add another 5MW solar, including floating PV array

RenewEconomy - Thu, 2018-03-22 10:05
SA Water awards tender to install 5MW solar across various facilities, and to develop a floating solar PV array, on path to zero net energy.
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Global new coal plant pipeline keeps shrinking

RenewEconomy - Thu, 2018-03-22 10:00
Number of coal plants in permitting and planning process fell another 22% in 2017 – a 59% fall over the last two years.
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BYD goes big on small and flexible, in new battery storage push

RenewEconomy - Thu, 2018-03-22 09:52
Chinese battery maker BYD unveils updated range of modular “solar batteries” for Australian market, as it turns up the heat on Tesla and other rivals.
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Climate science on trial as high-profile US case takes on fossil fuel industry

The Guardian - Thu, 2018-03-22 09:18

Courtroom showdown in San Francisco pitted liberal cities against oil corporations, and saw judge host unusual climate ‘tutorial’

The science of climate change was on trial Wednesday when leading experts testified about the threats of global warming in a US court while a fossil fuel industry lawyer fighting a high-profile lawsuit sought to deflect blame for rising sea levels.

The hearing was part of a courtroom showdown between liberal California cities and powerful oil corporations, including Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell and BP. San Francisco and Oakland have sued the world’s biggest fossil fuel companies, arguing that they are responsible for damages related to global warming.

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'Leader to laggard': the backlash to Australia’s planned marine park cutbacks

The Guardian - Thu, 2018-03-22 08:57

Conservation groups produce analysis showing protection for 35m hectares of ocean will be downgraded

More than 35m hectares of “no-take” ocean will be stripped from Australia’s marine parks if plans released by the government go ahead, according to analysis commissioned by conservation groups.

The environment minister, Josh Frydenberg, released plans for 44 marine parks on Tuesday, claiming a “more balanced and scientific evidence-based approach to ocean protection”.

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Australia's birds are not being protected by environmental laws, report says

The Guardian - Thu, 2018-03-22 07:31

BirdLife says loopholes, exemptions, omissions and powers open to politicisation have been exploited

Some of Australia’s favourite birds are threatened with extinction and Australia’s environmental laws are failing to protect them, a new report by BirdLife Australia has found.

The report identified in the existing laws a slew of loopholes, exemptions, omissions and discretionary powers open to politicisation, each of which have been exploited to allow the decline of birds including the Carnaby’s black cockatoo, the swift parrot and the southern black-throated finch.

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Tesla, Fluence to build two big batteries in Victoria

RenewEconomy - Thu, 2018-03-22 07:25
Tesla and Fluence to build two new big batteries in Victoria after ARENA stepped in to help Victoria government with funding for the projects.
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Murray-Darling system under strain as tree plantations increase 41%

The Guardian - Thu, 2018-03-22 05:39

Farmers and others in Mildura region are warning trees could be left to wither and die

A huge expansion of irrigated crops in the Mildura region of the lower Murray is threatening to overtake the water available in the river, and has set the scene for a disaster if drought conditions return.

A 16-day heatwave that hit the region this summer exposed the vulnerability of the Sunraysia and western New South Wales regions. During that time, the Murray-Darling basin’s water managers scrambled to meet demand, as the region experienced a run of days over 35C between 16 and 29 January.

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As the Libs claim South Australia, states are falling into line behind the National Energy Guarantee

The Conversation - Thu, 2018-03-22 05:33
The end of Jay Weatherill's government has removed a significant obstacle to progress on the federal National Energy Guarantee – even though we don't yet know what the full policy will look like. Kate Griffiths, Senior Associate, Grattan Institute Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
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Bulgarians rush to save a phalanx of distressed, frozen storks

The Guardian - Thu, 2018-03-22 04:33

Villagers come to the rescue after icy wings ground hundreds of migrating birds

What would you do if you encountered scores of distressed storks covered in ice lying in a snow-covered field? In Bulgaria, people have been taking them home.

A cold snap in the north-east of the country has stranded hundreds of the migrating birds this week, covering their wings in ice and grounding them.

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This is just fracking by another name | Letters

The Guardian - Thu, 2018-03-22 03:35
By declaring all sources of oil and gas in limestone and sandstone as ‘conventional’, writes Kathryn McWhirter, the government and oil companies are hoping the controversy over fracking will go away

The threat that you refer to (National parks land faces new oil threat, campaigners warn, 16 March) actually looms over a great swathe of south-east England, not just national parks. And the plethora of promised wells will not be “conventional” as your article states – at least not in the scientifically accepted meaning of the word. A new, political definition of “conventional” was inserted into national minerals planning guidance in March 2014 by the then Department of Energy and Climate Change. It declared “conventional” all sources of oil and gas in limestone and sandstone. This is not true. Both limestone and sandstone, geologically speaking, can be conventional or unconventional. The scientific divide between the two pivots on permeability – how freely oil or gas can flow through the rocks. And, deep within the shale under the Weald, the thin, muddy limestone layers that are currently the target of oil companies have low permeability. They are unconventional.

It is convenient for the oil industry to be able to claim its drilling to be conventional. To the public, media and planners it makes oil wells seem a more minor issue. But the industry’s plans are major. Precisely because of the low permeability of the target rocks (now muddy limestone, soon no doubt the surrounding shale), there will be a need for a great many wells. You can extract oil only by getting up close to each bit of “unconventional” rock, and dissolving it with acid or cracking it open. Stephen Sanderson, CEO of UK Oil and Gas, said of his plans for Surrey and Sussex: “This type of oil deposit very much depends on being able to drill your wells almost back to back.”

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Flooding and heavy rains rise 50% worldwide in a decade, figures show

The Guardian - Thu, 2018-03-22 03:00

Such extreme weather events are now happening four times more than in 1980, according to a European science paper

Global floods and extreme rainfall events have surged by more than 50% this decade, and are now occurring at a rate four times higher than in 1980, according to a new report.

Other extreme climatological events such as storms, droughts and heatwaves have increased by more than a third this decade and are being recorded twice as frequently as in 1980, the paper by the European Academies’ Science Advisory Council (Easac) says.

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NSW Labor refuses to approve forestry agreements based on 'out-of-date' science

The Guardian - Thu, 2018-03-22 03:00

In wake of Guardian Australia report, Penny Sharpe says regional forest agreements must include climate change as a consideration

NSW Labor has demanded that climate change be on the table as part of a full scientific assessment of the state’s regional forest agreements (RFAs), which are set to expire over the next two years.

Penny Sharpe, opposition environment spokeswoman, said NSW Labor would not sign off on proposed extensions because the government “knows the science underpinning the RFAs is out of date and incomplete”.

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Europe faces 'biodiversity oblivion' after collapse in French birds, experts warn

The Guardian - Thu, 2018-03-22 01:31

Authors of report on bird declines say intensive farming and pesticides could turn Europe’s farmland into a desert that ultimately imperils all humans

The “catastrophic” decline in French farmland birds signals a wider biodiversity crisis in Europe which ultimately imperils all humans, leading scientists have told the Guardian.

A dramatic fall in farmland birds such as skylarks, whitethroats and ortolan bunting in France was revealed by two studies this week, with the spread of neonicotinoid pesticides – and decimation of insect life – coming under particular scrutiny.

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