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AGL project to roll out 1,000 battery systems to homes and businesses will operate like a 5MW plant, and optimise energy produced from solar panels

Adelaide will be home to the world’s largest “virtual power plant” – AGL is rolling out 1,000 battery systems to homes and businesses, with backing from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (Arena).

AGL and Arena say the project will improve network security and dampen a volatile wholesale electricity price in South Australia. However, an energy expert says that at the current size, the system will have a minimal impact on network security or wholesale prices, but might pose a challenge to the revenues of companies that own the poles and wires.

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Oil spills in the Komi Republic caused by old pipelines are relatively small and rarely garner widespread attention - but added up they threaten fish stocks and pasture for cattle

The Komi Republic in northern Russia is renowned for its many lakes, but sites contaminated by oil are almost just as easy to find in the Usinsk oilfields. From pumps dripping oil and huge ponds of black sludge to dying trees and undergrowth — a likely sign of an underground pipeline leak — these spills are relatively small and rarely garner media attention.

But they add up quickly, threatening fish stocks, pasture land and drinking water. According to the natural resources and environment minister, Sergei Donskoi, 1.5m tonnes of oil are spilled in Russia each year. That’s more than twice the amount released by the record-breaking Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.

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Watership Down, Hampshire Disturbingly large and menacing in flight, the billy witch is a beetle of otherworldly workmanship

The day has been hot and heavy and full of the drones of insects sounding up at their own unique frequencies. In the cool of the evening my muscle memory is still swaying, an artefact from the repeated left and right arc of cutting hay on the meadow bank. All day as I worked I’d watched the bees hum and fumble at the flower heads as I cut down through the cornflowers, ox-eye daisies and yarrow at the field’s edge; a meadow’s measure of summer music.

At my desk in front of the wide open window I can hear what sounds like the distant hum of a chainsaw, its pitch changing as it cuts through the wood. With alarming suddenness, the sound is upon me, in the room and loud around my ears as a cockchafer flies past my head and settles on the books by a lamp.

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Darwin Airport has completed first phase of 5.5MW solar farm, switching on 4MW installation that will ultimately supply 25% of airport's power needs.

AGL Energy to install 1,000 centrally controlled battery storage systems in South Australian homes and businesses with a total capacity of 7MWh – equivalent to a 5MW solar peaking plant. A foretaste of what many expect to be the energy system of the future.

French energy minister Ségolène Royal has inaugurated a manufacturing plant that will produce the so-called "Wattway" paving, made of solar PV.

Despite giving tours to press and customers in the past few weeks, many details about developments at Tesla Motors and Panasonic’s “gigafactory” near Reno are still murky, and little light was shed by Elon Musk in Tesla’s Q2 results.

Besides record heat, the world saw many other unwanted records tumble in 2015, providing ever more evidence for the effect humans are having on climate.

There are synergies between EVs and solar, so the basic concept of merging Tesla and SolarCity seems sound. The biggest risk is that somebody else might execute it better.

As the Senate shapes up to be heavy on Hansonites and climate skepticism, and light on support for renewable energy, retaining a fully-funded ARENA could be the best the industry can hope for.

Activist Debi Goenka says Indian coal market, which has swung dramatically against the viability of imported coal for power, will seal Carmichael mine’s fate

Continued attempts by Australian politicians to link Adani’s Carmichael coalmine to the social uplift of the poor in India are “completely ridiculous”, a veteran Indian conservationist says.

Debi Goenka, the Mumbai activist who challenged Adani’s environmental licence for its mine in the Queensland land court in 2014, said Australian government figures continued to rely on arguments about imported coal lifting Indians out of poverty, which were “all bunkum”.

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For the first time in its history, Suncorp has listed climate change as a specific business risk. But it's still not convinced by the science.

New research suggests that badgers do not transmit TB to cattle by direct contact.

Queen Mary University of London tracked four bumblebees for whole life, and found disparities in how they found food

A study has revealed that bumblebees have distinct personalities.

Some bees play it safe by returning to the same flowers again and again while others search for new sources of nectar, scientists found.

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What if humans could invent a leaf-like solar cell that could turn carbon dioxide pollution from the atmosphere into fuel for electric power plants? Researchers led by University of Illinois-Chicago might have developed just that.

Net zero energy buildings have been gaining momentum around the world. However, there still remains an industry-wide perception that net zero energy is too expensive, or comes at a much higher incremental cost over business as usual.

Patrick Barkham on how a colony of rare butterflies living in a healthy elm has become a key element for citizens resisting Sheffield council tree felling

We tend to picture butterflies feeding on flowers, but five British species spend most of their lives in the tops of trees. These insects are often overlooked during their unobtrusive lives. But the white-letter hairstreak finds itself in the spotlight this month as local people fight to save a fine mature elm in Sheffield.

Related: Rare UK butterfly under threat as elms disappear

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Geologists have found evidence for an ancient megaflood which they say could be the mythical flood at the dawn of the first Chinese dynasty.

An analysis of sports events suggests men may be better at reconciliation after conflicts which could give them advantages in the workplace.

After boundaries were re-drawn on 1 August, we asked you to share your best pictures of the Yorkshire Dales and Lake District national parks – including the newly incorporated areas now on many walkers’ bucket lists

• See more images and add yours using the blue GuardianWitness button below
  

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