Feed aggregator

IEA warns Australia not to miss the importance of solar, although it does suggest that Australia waste more money on CCS.

Solar windows would need to trap enough light to generate power, while letting through enough to keep buildings light. Thankfully, newly developed semitransparent cells offer to do just that. Matthew Wright, Postdoctoral Researcher in Photovoltaic Engineering, UNSW Mushfika Baishakhi Upama, PhD student [Photovoltaics & Renewable Energy Engineering], UNSW Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Origin is earning itself the right to grow by performing better, but the trick will be to sell the interest in APLNG in the next few years, and to replace Eraring with competitive dispatchable renewable generation.

The project will generate revenue to UGL of approximately $170 million and is due to commence in early 2018, with power generation to the grid expected in 2019.

The Hon. Lily D’Ambrosio MP, Victoria’s Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change, today visited ACCIONA’s under-construction Mt Gellibrand wind farm.

The record-breaking n-type mono-crystalline silicon solar cell was fabricated on a large-sized industrial phosphorous-doped Cz Silicon substrate with a low-cost industrial IBC process, featuring conventional tube doping technologies and fully screen-printed metallization.

Winning photos from the Underwater Photographer of the Year competition

Shark diving is helping tourists improve their perception about the largest predatory fish in the world.

The Minister has approved the inclusion of 19 species, transfer of 8 species, removal of 2 species and retention of 3 species in their current category in the EPBC Act list of threatened species. He also found 3 species ineligible for listing.

A car launched by Elon Musk could stay in space for millions of years before hitting Earth or Venus.

Queensland turns to jet-fuel and imports from NSW wind farm as soaring temperatures pushed demand to a new peak, and its big coal generators wilted in the heat. Fortunately, it also had heaps of rooftop solar.

Labor, Greens and environment groups call for urgent review of funding for species conservation

• ‘Absolute scandal’: how does restoring a ship help endangered species?
  

Labor has accused the federal government of overstating its spending on threatened species projects and the Greens have called for an urgent auditor general’s review of all threatened species expenditure by the Department of the Environment and Energy.

It comes after the Guardian revealed the government was claiming projects such as heritage building works at the Old Melbourne Gaol and the Polly Woodside – an old cargo ship in Melbourne’s CBD – had benefits for threatened animals and plants that are unlikely to occur at those sites.

Continue reading...

Quantum computing has taken a step forward with the recent development of a silicon-based programmable quantum processor.

The federal government considered prosecuting Adani's potential environmental negligence over the history of its Australian CEO. Samantha Hepburn, Director of the Centre for Energy and Natural Resources Law, Deakin Law School, Deakin University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Alibaba rolls out a system that analyses pig squeals and coughs to improve pork production.

Shellfish reefs, formed by oysters or mussels in or near estuaries, have declined by up 99% since British colonisation

Marine scientists are lobbying the federal government to ensure protection for Australia’s most endangered – but least known – ocean ecosystem.

Shellfish reefs, formed by millions of oysters or mussels clustering together in or near the mouths of estuaries, have declined by up 99% since British colonisation.

Continue reading...

Climate change and industrial-scale fishing is impacting the krill population with a potentially disastrous impact on larger predators, say scientists

• First images of creatures from Antarctic depths revealed

The Antarctic, one of the world’s last great wildernesses and home to animals such as whales, penguins and leopard seals, is being threatened by the plight of an animal just a few centimetres long, according to scientists.

Researchers and environmental campaigners warn that a combination of climate change and industrial-scale fishing is threatening the krill population in Antarctic waters, with a potentially disastrous impact on larger predators.

Continue reading...

A scientist says the search for alien intelligence has been hit by a shortage of computer hardware.

With over 1,800 plant and animal species endangered, Australia faces a new extinction crisis. Can we reverse this disturbing trend?

In 1996, Osvaldo Wuaru and his family arrived on the outskirts of the vast Munduruku Amazon Territory with a crucial mission: set up a village to hold back the invasion of pariwat (non-indigenous) gold miners. Twenty-one years later, it has all but failed, reports Climate Home News

Named Watch Post (the Portuguese acronym is PV), the village has been swallowed by the heavy equipment of hundreds of illegal gold miners (called garimpeiros). What was once a few huts hidden in the Amazon forest now resembles a bombed battlefield.

Continue reading...