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Genex reveals more windfall gains from its two operating solar farms, and says pumped hydro project still on track despite "influx of water" that brought drilling to a halt.

The post Solar farms still reaping rich rewards from fossil fuel inflated electricity prices appeared first on RenewEconomy.

NSW government confirms that the Waratah "super" battery - the largest of its type in Australia - will be built at site of demolished coal generator.

The post Australia’s biggest network battery to be built at site of demolished coal power station appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Thames and Southern worst in England and Wales, as complaints to Thames on bills, sewerage and supply double in five years

Thames Water is at the top of a league table charting the number of written complaints made to water firms in England and Wales last year, with the number more than doubling since 2017.

The number of written complaints received by the firm from household customers has risen from 17,039 in 2017/18 to 40,060 in 2021/22, according to the most recent figures from the Consumer Council for Water (CCW). The firm accounted for nearly half (47%) of all written complaints to water and sewerage firms in England and Wales last year.

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Only 5% of species now expected to survive as disease hits harder than first thought and prevention costs mount

Warburg Nature Reserve is one of the gems of the Chiltern Hills. In the autumn, its beech, birch and oak trees are transformed into a blazing canopy of red, yellow, brown and golden leaves. Buzzards and red kites swoop overhead while a startling array of fungi – from milkcaps to collared earthstars – push up through the woodland floor of the 100-hectare site.

This curtain of multicoloured delights hides a grim secret, however. A stroll through the reserve, which is owned by the Wildlife Trusts, reveals gaps that have recently appeared in the foliage.

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2022 has been Australia’s year of freak floods. Here’s what stricken Victorians are set to experience in the weeks and months ahead. Mel Taylor, Associate Professor, Macquarie University Barbara Ryan, Senior Lecturer, University of Southern Queensland Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Twice the number of sites have been exposed to concerning levels of pollution and sewage since 2019, government report finds

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One in five swimming spots in New South Wales have been rated as having “poor” or “very poor” pollution levels, including Sydney’s popular Coogee beach, after the state experienced its wettest summer in a decade.

Twice the number of beaches, lakes and lagoons have been exposed to concerning levels of pollution and sewage since 2019, according to the annual state of the beaches report released by the NSW Department of Planning and Environment.

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A British businessman believes it could suck a billion tonnes of carbon out of the atmosphere annually.

Process involves using electrostatic separation on PV panels to collect out valuable materials, reducing them to 2-3% of original weight

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New research has proposed a cost-effective way to recycle solar panels to help handle an increasing volume of retired photovoltaic (PV) cells expected by the end of the decade.

In a paper published by a team from the University of New South Wales last week, researchers outlined a process to collect and extract valuable materials from solar arrays to see if it was technically, economically and environmentally feasible.

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Scorching summer left reservoirs depleted and unlikely to recover, as growers warn of supply chain collapse in leaked meeting

Farmers have warned they will not be able to grow crops next year if predictions that the drought will last until next summer prove accurate.

Leaked slides from a national drought group meeting, seen by the Observer, show there are concerns that because reservoirs are still empty due to record dry conditions, the fruit and vegetable supply chain could collapse.

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A Louisiana power company’s plan to capture climate emissions is raising concerns about the state’s water supplies

A carbon capture proposal for a central Louisiana power plant has been titled “Project Diamond Vault” by its owner, Louisiana utility Cleco. The utility says the project will have “precious value” to the company, customers and state.

Yet less than six months after announcing the project to capture carbon from the plant’s emissions and store them underground near the plant, Cleco revealed in a recent filing to its state regulator the $900m carbon capture retrofit could reduce electricity produced for its customers by about 30%.

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Exclusive: critics say stripped-down Environment Agency has not levied a fine in 12 years so no point to higher cap

The government’s pledge to raise the cap on the amount of money the Environment Agency can fine water companies for sewage pollution to £250m has been described as “hot air”, as the Guardian can reveal the regulator has failed to levy any such penalties since it was given powers to do so 12 years ago.

Variable monetary penalties (VMPs) were introduced in 2010 to enable the Environment Agency to directly levy fines for serious environmental offences without having to go through expensive and lengthy court proceedings, but to date the agency has not levied a single VMP against water companies.

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

Conversations around missing demand echoed in the hallways of London's Royal Institution on Friday, the final day of this year's Carbon Forward conference, where navel-gazing voluntary carbon market (VCM) participants opined over the possible reasons, which ranged from a souring global economy, to the increased reputational risk linked to using offsets, to confusion and frustration over a reforming process to meant to make the market less confusing and frustrating.

Eels are tracked to the Sargasso Sea on an epic migration, helping in their conservation.

The surplus of voluntary offsets globally could be quickly whittled away by a rising tide of companies seeking to compensate commodity shipments, a conference heard Friday.

Compliance entities reversed course and padded their California Carbon Allowance (CCA) holdings this week, while financial players shortened their WCI positions but lengthened in RGGI, according to US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) data published Friday.

EUA prices are expected to take four years to recover to recent levels as the EU grapples with a darkening economic outlook and record energy costs, as well as an expected shift in supply towards the front of the curve as the bloc sells more allowances, according to an updated analyst forecast.

A group of progressive US senators on Thursday called on the US Commodity and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to implement strong accountability, robust standards, and rules governing the voluntary carbon market, as well as to investigate current VER futures contracts.

A minimum price of $20/tonne would be required across the voluntary carbon market for there to be high integrity climate impact from quality projects, according to analysts speaking at the Carbon Forward conference Friday.

A European energy and carbon market intelligence firm will start providing insight on US carbon markets, adding to the growing list of analysts dissecting North America's  programmes.