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Which fuel is setting electricity prices? Clue: it’s not wind or solar

RenewEconomy - Thu, 2017-04-27 14:27
The way electricity prices were set in the wholesale market has changed dramatically in just one year. So, who's playing games with their gas and hydro power?
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Turnbull wants to subsidise coal AND gas transport

RenewEconomy - Thu, 2017-04-27 14:16
PM suggests public money could be used to subsidise gas pipelines in northern Australia, as well as underwriting rail plans of Indian coal giant Adani.
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Why age of populism won’t derail future solar, wind and EVs

RenewEconomy - Thu, 2017-04-27 14:14
Despite the climate-denying Trump Administration, and populist movements across the world, Michael Liebreich gave plenty of reasons to be optimistic about future of wind, solar and Evs.
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Victoria councils taking action for greener vehicle fleets

RenewEconomy - Thu, 2017-04-27 13:37
Minister for Local Government Natalie Hutchins has announced $33,200 for a program led by Nillumbik Shire Council to develop a plan for more environmentally friendly vehicle fleets.
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What do we sell when they don’t want our coal?

RenewEconomy - Thu, 2017-04-27 13:20
If the world is to decarbonise, Australia's key trading partners of ours must be part of that shift. That means zero emissions hydrogen fuels - powered by wind and solar - replacing coal and gas exports.
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Australian solar capacity now 6GW, to double again by 2020

RenewEconomy - Thu, 2017-04-27 13:15
Solar power capacity has reached 6GW in Australia, but it is just the start, with numbers expected to double by 2020 and rise ten-fold by 2040 as solar becomes the dominant provider of electricity in Australia – and potentially an export fuel as well.
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Hume Coal mine would threaten water and net just $6m in royalties a year for NSW

The Guardian - Thu, 2017-04-27 12:04

Locals told proposed mine in the southern highlands of NSW, part of Sydney’s water catchment, would damage water table in the region for as long as 73 years

A controversial underground coalmine that will threaten the water supply of 71 landowners in NSW’s southern highlands will net the state government just $120m over two decades, locals have been told.

A multinational steelmaker, Korea-based Posco, is seeking approval for an underground coalmine near Berrima in the southern highlands of New South Wales, part of Sydney’s drinking-water catchment.

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First Americans claim sparks controversy

BBC - Thu, 2017-04-27 07:22
A study that claims humans reached the Americas 130,000 years ago, much earlier than has previously been suggested, has run into controversy.
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Builders 'behind UK flooding risk'

BBC - Thu, 2017-04-27 00:40
Government rapped again for failure to tighten flood-prevention rules on new homes
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Baby humpback whales 'whisper' to mums to avoid predators

BBC - Thu, 2017-04-27 00:30
New recordings show newborn humpback whales and mothers "whisper" to each other, to avoid predators.
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California ‘super bloom’ visible from space – video report

The Guardian - Wed, 2017-04-26 23:42

Wildflowers have erupted across California deserts in the past month in a phenomenon known as a ‘super bloom’. After heavy rainfall ended months of drought, the flowers carpeted such vast areas that the transformation was visible from space

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'Fossil' groundwater's modern secret

BBC - Wed, 2017-04-26 23:21
The deepest and oldest waters on Earth are not immune from contamination, warn scientists.
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Satellite Eye on Earth: March 2017 – in pictures

The Guardian - Wed, 2017-04-26 23:19

Mount Etna, India’s ship graveyard and trees in Africa are among the images captured by European Space Agency and Nasa satellites last month

The Mackenzie river system is Canada’s largest watershed, and the 10th largest water basin in the world. The river runs 4,200km (2,600 miles) from the Columbia icefield in the Canadian Rockies to the Arctic Ocean. If your vehicle weighs less than 22,000lb, you can drive the frozen river out to Reindeer Station. The bitterly cold ice road runs for 194km between the remote outposts of Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk. White, snow- and ice-covered waterways of the east channel of the Mackenzie river delta stand out amid green, pine-covered land. The low angle of the sunlight bathes the higher elevations in golden light. The pond- and lake-covered lands around the river are home to caribou, waterfowl, and a number of fish species. Several thousand reindeer travel through this area each year on the way to their calving grounds.

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The government just announced a gamechanger for cycling in England – Sam Jones

The Guardian - Wed, 2017-04-26 20:45

The new cycling and walking investment strategy is the first legislation of its kind to legally bind the government to long-term funding for cycling and walking provision

Unless you’re an avid transport campaigner, it’s likely that among the rush of government announcements made last week, you will have missed one very important one: the publication of the cycling and walking investment strategy (CWIS),

The government’s intention to launch a CWIS was first announced in January 2015. It took more than two years, but we now have the first legislation of its kind in England to bind the government with legal commitments to invest in cycling and walking provision.

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Physics of throwing analysed by scientists

BBC - Wed, 2017-04-26 15:27
Scientists have calculated the optimal strategy for throwing something accurately, even a ball of paper.
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Plunging solar, wind costs means “green” fuel exports could replace coal and gas

RenewEconomy - Wed, 2017-04-26 14:41
Plunging wind and solar costs put "hydrogen" economy at tipping point, with Australia urged to lay groundwork for opportunity to develop "green fuel" exports to replace coal and gas, a market potentially worth $40bn a year. ARENA likely to make it one of its key investment priorities this year.
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South Australia reaches record wind output of 1,540MW

RenewEconomy - Wed, 2017-04-26 14:40
South Australia reaches record wind output of 1,540MW on Anzac Day.
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Milkwort steals the show at Figsbury Ring

The Guardian - Wed, 2017-04-26 14:30

Figsbury Ring, Wiltshire Sewn like gems into the sward, these little blue flowers take shelter in the lee of the earthwork rings

Bluer than the sky, bluer than the sheen on rooks and the lustre of oil beetles, the milkwort flowers are sewn like gems into the sward. Polygala calcarea is the chalk milkwort, with a gentian-blue far brighter than the common milkwort flowers I’m used to seeing on Wenlock Edge. High on Salisbury Plain, open to the winds and shafts of sunlight through distant showers, the little blue flowers take shelter in the lee of earthwork rings, an archaeological monument within the largest remaining area of calcareous grassland in north-west Europe.

Milkwort gets its name not from increasing milk yield in grazing cattle but from herbalists prescribing it to new mothers to aid breastfeeding, although I’m not sure anyone would now. It has also been used as an anti-inflammatory and a hepatoprotector (against liver damage), but perhaps its most important cultural role here was that it was collected at Rogationtide.

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Monash Uni tenders for new wind or solar farm in Australian first

RenewEconomy - Wed, 2017-04-26 14:15
Monash Uni offers long-term contract for 55GWh of new wind or solar in Australia's biggest non-government renewables tender, to date.
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Charging is our priority

RenewEconomy - Wed, 2017-04-26 14:13
Tesla is making charging an even greater priority as they prepare for their first mass-market vehicle and continues to increase our Model S and Model X fleet.
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