Feed aggregator

MCA publicises report asking governments to commit similar resources to carbon capture and storage as to renewables

The Minerals Council of Australia has stepped up its advocacy for coal power in spite of its biggest member, BHP, saying it will leave the group unless it shifts its stance to become technology-neutral.

On Tuesday the MCA publicised a report by the Coal Industry Advisory Board that called for governments to commit similar resources to carbon capture and storage as they do to renewable energy.

Continue reading...

Allendale chimneys, Northumberland: The flue lines from the smelter in the valley can still be seen, bulging like veins across the frosty peatland

High above Allendale on this frost-sparkling January day, two stone chimneys reach up into a clear blue sky. Built in the 19th century, they exhaled fumes from horizontal flues that ran from a lead smelter more than two miles below on the valley floor. The flue lines can still be seen, bulging like veins across the fields. In places they have collapsed, revealing arched interiors where lead and silver would condense to be intermittently scraped off and recovered.

The Allen valley is far less populated now than it was in the busy lead mining days. From this high point on Dryburn Moor I look out across a quiet dale parcelled up by drystone walls, farmhouses sheltered by Scots pine woods and a drove road that curves over the hillside. There’s a far horizon of uplands and ridges and, in the distance, beyond the long trough of the Tyne Valley, is the white-crested wave of Cheviot. Snow lies on Cold Fell to the west and bleaches the level summit of Cross Fell in Cumbria. It’s an exhilarating near-360-degree view.

Continue reading...

The Tesla big battery has shifted from showing off its different capabilities and is now in the business of making money for its owners. Last week's heatwave and price gyrations presented the perfect opportunity.

New database launched by RenewEconomy and Sunwiz shows 161 large scale solar projects completed or in the pipeline, representing some 19GW of potential capacity.

Australian battery company Redflow Limited has achieved a second manufacturing milestone by successfully producing the first battery electrode stacks from its new factory in Thailand.

The Granville Harbour wind farm will contribute towards plans to double Tasmania’s renewable energy capacity and make it the Battery of the Nation.

Port Augusta solar thermal on track as renewables attract investment and create jobs Port Augusta’s 150 MW solar thermal power plant is on track, with SolarReserve opening its Australian headquarters in Adelaide.

ESCO Pacific and Elliott Advisers (UK) Ltd. ("Elliott") are pleased to announce the successful financial close of the 98MW Susan River Solar Farm and 75MW Childers Solar Farm.

Electric cars might finally be having their moment in Australia, but falling costs alone won’t convert consumer sentiment into actual sales.

At Davos, the world’s economic elite will make much of climate crisis and their desire to green global capitalism; but will ignore one of the most powerful tools.

China installs more solar capacity than thermal capacity in 2017, while in the US Trump slaps tariffs on imported solar in effort to protect American coal.

Miranda Gibson was an unlikely candidate to break the record for Australia’s longest tree-sit. The shy Queenslander had never seen a forest until her early twenties. In 2011 she vowed to live in a tree in the Tyenna Valley until it was protected from logging.

New data confirms the 2020 RET will be met well ahead of time, and even energy minister Josh Frydenberg says more wind and solar will cut prices and improve reliability.

Despite looming policy uncertainty in the two most active markets, corporations globally purchased 5.4 gigawatts of clean power through long-term contracts, surpassing 2015’s record.

Rising temperatures are killing coral at an alarming rate and scientists worry it could die off completely unless something is done quickly.

Despite persistent buzz, the falling cost of electric cars isn't enough to guarantee sales in Australia. Graciela Metternicht, Professor of Environmental Geography, School of Biological Earth and Environmental Sciences, UNSW Gail Broadbent, Post Graduate Researcher Electric Vehicles, UNSW Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Researchers have tracked Naya from eastern Germany into the Netherlands and now Belgium

The first recorded wolf on Belgian soil for at least 100 years has made her bloody mark.

Farmers in north-east Flanders have been put on high alert after evidence emerged that Naya, a female originally from eastern Germany that has been making a pioneering trek across Europe, had killed two sheep and injured a third near the Belgian town of Meerhout.

Continue reading...

2.6GW of capacity built in 2017 before subsidies ban industry says will make generation dearer

A record amount of onshore wind power was built in the UK last year, but government policy has been stalling the sector and risked increasing energy bills for consumers, the industry has warned.

Turbines capable of generating 2.6GW were installed across Britain in 2017 as developers rushed to meet the government deadline for securing subsidies. The previous record was 1.3GW in 2013.

Continue reading...

Looking at a zebra's stripes may not be a good way to tell different types apart, say scientists.

Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov said he had many questions from people asking if it was possible.