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MPower to sell Lakeland project to free up funds as it embarks on program to build another 30 solar and storage projects on main grid.

The post First solar and storage project on Australia’s main grid to be sold appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Australian mining giant Rio Tinto announced Tuesday it will spend $143 million on an R&D facility to assess the effectiveness of its novel low-carbon ironmaking process, dubbed BioIron, that it says could cut up to 95% of the emissions associated with steelmaking.

The Australian government has a challenge. Having gone big on renewable energy and clean economy announcements, how does it now deliver meaningful outcomes for the regional communities.

The post Capacity Investment Scheme must be about filling gaps in social licence, too appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The collecting module is coming back with the first samples ever taken from that side of the moon.

New state access regime aims to "substantially reduce" the risk new projects will be subject to curtailment and improve certainty for investors and developers.

The post Victoria caps access for solar and wind in new renewable zones, to avoid curtailment and buoy investors appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Insistence on investment purity misses the point and will only lead to a decline in arts sponsorship

In a ranking of climate villains in the fund management industry, Baillie Gifford would surely come a long way down most people’s list. The Edinburgh-based firm preaches long-termism and its specialism is backing technology companies, especially those with kit to accelerate the transition to cleaner energy and transport. It was early into Tesla on the thesis that polluting internal combustion engines are on the way out and Elon Musk had a winning electric design. Another high-profile bet was Northvolt, the Swedish pacesetter in batteries that is now the net zero envy of the rest of Europe.

Few portfolios in the mainstream asset management world are entirely free of fossil fuel assets but Baillie Gifford’s are definitely at the less oily end. As the firm has pointed out repeatedly in recent weeks, only 1% of the £225bn of the assets it manages is invested directly in fossil fuel companies, and the figure is still only 2% if one includes stocks such as supermarkets that sell petrol. That’s versus an industry average of 11%.

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No, it’s not a problem that some renewable power doesn’t make it to the grid. Here’s why Dylan McConnell, Senior Research Associate, Renewable Energy & Energy Systems Analyst, UNSW Sydney Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

UBS Asset Management has launched an exchange-traded commodity (ETC) that gives investors exposure to the EU carbon market.

Major flaws in the design of the newly announced NSW home battery rebate are already taking a toll on industry in the state, as sales dry up in the long wait until November.

The post “It’s going to be devastating:” Crisis talks as battery rebate design threatens to kill sales appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Two new reports look at rapidly emerging storage technologies, including compressed air, redox flow batteries, solar thermal and other heat storage.

The post Long-duration storage – alternative technologies ramping up to fill “missing middle” appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Kilauea, one of the most active volcanoes in the world, has begun erupting in a remote area that last saw an eruption half-century ago, the US Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory said. The eruption is about 1.6 km (1 mile) south of the Kilauea caldera, in an area within Hawaii Volcanoes national park that last erupted in December 1974. The area surrounding the caldera has been closed to the public since 2008 because of other hazards, including ground cracking, instability in the crater wall and rockfalls.

• Hawaii’s Kilauea, one of the most active volcanoes in the world, erupts

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Jim Everett-puralia meenamatta refused to attend court on charges of trespassing over an anti-forestry protest

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• • ‘I’m ready for everything and I don’t care’: the man refusing to turn up at an Australian ‘colonial’ court
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A Hobart magistrate has issued an arrest warrant for an Aboriginal activist who refused to attend court on charges stemming from a protest because he does not consider himself an Australian citizen.

Jim Everett-puralia meenamatta says he wants to highlight the destruction of forests and issues of Indigenous sovereignty.

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Asuncion has reassured voluntary market (VCM) stakeholders with its low risk profile, favourability to carbon markets, and facilitating frameworks, enticing project proponents despite the country’s small size, an international developer told Carbon Pulse in Buenos Aires on Monday.

Dynamic allowance supply from price containment mechanisms could provide flexibility and reduce uncertainties through varying technological outcomes in California, while facility-specific caps could ensure emissions reductions in disadvantaged communities with minimal impact on the market, according to a think tank report.

Analysts lowered their California Carbon Allowance (CCA) price estimates in light of workshop letdowns, but nevertheless foresaw an uptick in values following clarity regarding programme adjustments, and also projected a low auction clear in Washington's carbon market.

A bad forecast for the fruit harvest in Brazil could have knock-on effects on the price of Aussie breakfast beverages and beyond

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Oranges – and all the things we can make from them – are big business. But the industry is facing a severe crisis.

About 50m tonnes of oranges are grown each year, 34% of them in Brazil. Brazil is also the world’s biggest exporter of orange juice by far, producing about 70% of global supply.

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RGGI allowances (RGAs) reached an all-time high last Wednesday before tailing off at the end of the week, as market participants largely look to the upcoming second auction of the year despite expressing varying degrees of confidence in recent historic prices.

Hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding currently back a direct air capture (DAC) project in the US Gulf Coast, but the developers have yet to reach a final decision on storage of captured CO2, while academics and community members heed caution towards industry scale-up in the region.

The Eraring deal means that Australia's biggest coal generator will operate with the same capacity factor as the average solar farm. Baseload is dead, so what does Peter Dutton think he is going to do with a big nuclear plant?

The post Eraring deal signals death of baseload power in Australia, and Dutton’s nuclear fantasy appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Uniquely, an Australian subtropical peatland ecosystem exists that is not only resilient to the frequent bushfires, but actually needs fire to survive. Catherine Yule, Professor of Ecology, University of the Sunshine Coast Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.