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Sandy, Bedfordshire Tiny spears pierce my trousers and the skin of my knee, releasing toxins that tingle with fiery heat

Under a hawthorn hedge and all along the bank grows one of Britain’s most feared and reviled plants. I kneel down before it and feel its power. Its hairs, just a few millimetres long and looking like icicle spears, have pierced both my trousers and the skin of my knee, releasing toxins that tingle with fiery heat.

Even so, I reach out to grasp one of these plants between thumb and forefinger. I have come not to curse nettles, but to pick them, for their stinging hairs have no answer to gardening gloves, and their ferocious leaves can be tamed in a saucepan.

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Australia’s wind farms could soon become “core providers” of crucial grid stability services, according to the Australian Energy Market Operator.

Australian PV manufacturer Tindo Solar has a new owner, with plans to create nation's largest vertically integrated solar retailer.

Cohda Wireless today announces it has received two grants from the Government of South Australia, totaling $2 million, as part of the Future Mobility Lab Fund.

We think this is the best number-plate on a Tesla electric vehicle that we have seen to date.

New product will help Aussie businesses save thousands in electricity and other utility costs and reduce their carbon footprint.

Tony’s Abbott's war on renewables was meant to reduce electricity prices. But it has done the opposite—and a lot more.

Victoria regulator says there is obviously network value in rooftop solar, but it says it is difficult to work out how much without a grid services market.

The Palaszczuk Government will consult with the energy industry to develop innovative ways to reduce state school energy costs using solar and energy efficiency measures.

South Australia looking for only one hour of battery storage, in decision that may rule out some battery storage technologies.

Nearly every Australian will pay some part of the cost of the Abbott Government’s decision to effectively stop investment in generation.

New edition of International Cloud Atlas includes asperitas cloud after long campaign by skywatchers.

Electricity network owner attacks major energy retailers over reliability of their gas plants, the manipulation of prices and high retail fees. It says it wants rapid transition to renewables, but incumbents and market rules getting in the way.

Fairfax joins Murdoch media, ABC and right wing blogs with hysterical and inaccurate story about potential blackouts once Hazelwood is closed.

Almost three-quarters of the 35 victims were male, and 20% were bitten while trying to pick up or kill snake

More than half of the deaths caused by snake bites in Australia since 2000 have occurred in or around the victim’s home, a nationwide review has found.

The coronial-based retrospective study of fatalities from January 2000 to December 2016 found that, of the 35 deaths recorded by the National Coronial Information Service, 16 were a direct result of the bite.

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A look at how the seed of a South American tree is increasingly being used as an alternative to ivory.

State representative introduced a bill that would limit the state attorney general’s ability to investigate or prosecute people based on their political speech

Maine laws protect people from discrimination based on factors such as race, disabilities and sexual orientation, and a Republican lawmaker wants to add a person’s beliefs about climate change to that list.

State representative Larry Lockman has introduced a bill that would limit the state attorney general’s ability to investigate or prosecute people based on their political speech, including their views on climate change. It would also prohibit the state from making decisions on buying goods or services or awarding grants or contracts based on a person’s “climate change policy preferences”.

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Latest aerial surveys confirm 2017 as the fourth mass bleaching event on the Great Barrier Reef in the past 19 years.

Vic Premier Daniel Andrews wants 'a proper national debate' about energy with less point scoring.

An award-winning artist brings ancient fossil discoveries to life through illustrations.