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“Nothing can beat it:” The rise and rise of solar and battery storage
Quinbrook's David Scaysbrook says the combination of solar and big battery storage is unbeatable for daytime power and evening peaks.
The post “Nothing can beat it:” The rise and rise of solar and battery storage appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Energy Insiders Podcast: Big solar and even bigger batteries
David Scaysbrook from Quinbrook on why battery storage is such a big thing, Coalition failures, and capacity markets.
The post Energy Insiders Podcast: Big solar and even bigger batteries appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Five reasons why Australia can lead the world in switch from fossils to renewables
Australia is a world leader in the development of a largely renewable energy system. We have the resources, a plan, and the need.
The post Five reasons why Australia can lead the world in switch from fossils to renewables appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Climate change: Heat deaths could triple by 2050
Academics discrediting Australia’s carbon credit system ‘serious people’, says former chief scientist
Prof Ian Chubb, who is leading a review of the controversial scheme, says there are also credible voices defending it
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The former Australian chief scientist charged with investigating the country’s divisive carbon credit system says academics who have described it as a fraud and a sham are “serious people”.
In an interview with Guardian Australia, Prof Ian Chubb said there were also credible voices defending the scheme and he would need to carefully weigh the evidence.
Continue reading...Hydrogen fuel stations to be built between Sydney and Melbourne under $20m plan
NSW and Victorian governments say at least four refuelling stations will be built along Hume Highway
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The New South Wales and Victorian governments will spend $20m on hydrogen refuelling stations along Australia’s busiest freight highway in a push to see more zero-emissions technology used in the heavy-vehicle industry.
In a joint announcement the two governments say they will each spend $10m on grants to manufacture about 25 hydrogen-fuelled trucks and at least four refuelling stations along the 840km Hume Highway between Sydney and Melbourne.
Continue reading...The Guardian view on controlling grey squirrels: a question of balance | Editorial
New methods for tackling their spread hold out hope for more humane management of habitats
As anyone in mainland Britain who has ever attempted to grow berries or nuts – or indeed feed the birds – will know, doing so is tantamount to an opening move in a game of chess with local grey squirrels, a game the squirrels tend to win. Grey squirrels are also partial to the occasional bird’s egg or fledgling, and enjoy stripping and eating the bark of young broadleaf trees, which can either kill the trees or leave them open to infection. This, quite apart from affecting biodiversity and landscape, harms the timber industry. The loss – in damaged timber, lost carbon revenue and tree replacements – is not insignificant: £37m a year in England and Wales.
Greys (Sciurus carolinensis), introduced from North America in 1876, have almost replaced native red squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris) by outcompeting their British counterparts for food and habitat. They are larger and more robust, and immune to squirrelpox, while reds are not. About 3 million grey squirrels now live in the UK; the International Union for Conservation of Nature lists the grey squirrel among the top 100 most harmful invasive species in the world.
Continue reading...M&S to remove ‘best before’ labels from 300 fruit and veg items to cut food waste
The change, to be rolled out this week, will leave customers to judge whether goods are still fine to eat
Marks & Spencer is planning to remove “best before” labels from 300 varieties of fruit and vegetables in its stores to cut food waste.
The change, to be rolled out this week, will rely on customers using their judgment to determine whether goods are still fine to eat. The measure will affect 85% of the supermarket’s fresh produce offering.
Continue reading...Kigali summit to outline strategy for nature conservation in Africa
First continent-wide meeting aims to set out plans to halt and reverse habitat and species loss in protected areas on land and sea
African leaders will gather in the Rwandan capital this week for the first continent-wide meeting to set out plans for the conservation of nature across Africa.
The IUCN Africa Protected Areas Congress (Apac) in Kigali will attract close to 3,000 delegates, including protected area directors from the continent’s 54 countries, youth leaders and Indigenous and community representatives, to discuss the role of protected areas in conserving nature, promoting sustainable development, and safeguarding the continent’s wildlife.
Continue reading...‘Infuriating’: building of Cambridgeshire new town threatens wildlife habitat
Construction of thousands of new homes has sucked away groundwater, killed trees and emptied ponds
Clive Hayden’s family has owned farmland at Larksfield Nursery in Cambridgeshire for about 70 years.
In recent years, the farm in Longstanton was growing tens of thousands of flowers and plants for sale at the New Covent Garden flower market, the colourful and historical wholesaler in the heart of London.
Continue reading...Graph of the Day: Wind output surges to Australian record of more than 7,000MW
Wind output sets record high in Australia's main grid, reaching more than 7,000MW for first time, while South Australia reaches 140 pct renewables.
The post Graph of the Day: Wind output surges to Australian record of more than 7,000MW appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Labor won’t act urgently on climate unless it’s forced to
Labor should be aiming at emissions cuts of 70 to 80% by 2030. There is no shortage of feasible, detailed and immediately beneficial policies to do this. But they won't.
The post Labor won’t act urgently on climate unless it’s forced to appeared first on RenewEconomy.
Shot and left to rot: Tasmania grapples with deer dilemma as invasive pest numbers soar
Environmentalists, farmers and commercial hunters are all calling on the state to end protection of an animal introduced 190 years ago
On a farm in Tasmania’s central midlands, Scott Chorley crouches in the short grass. He fires a single shot. It rings across the flat pasture, hitting a fallow deer clear between the eyes. It’s his 50th for the evening – and almost 400th this year. Every year, Chorley, one man in a team of seven commercial hunters, shoots about 900 deer. He then leaves them to rot.
“I just kill them and leave them on the ground,” he says.
Continue reading...‘Inspiring to see’: scientists show how forests of kelp can potentially be brought back to life
Tasmania’s giant kelp has all but vanished, but worldwide restoration efforts provide hope the precious habitats can be rejuvenated
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The thick underwater forests off Tasmania’s east coast used to be so dense they were marked as shipping hazards on nautical charts. Thriving stands of giant kelp, which grows up to 40 metres high, once provided habitat for fur seals, seahorses, weedy sea dragons, rock lobsters, abalone and fish.
Since the 1960s, Tasmania’s giant kelp has all but vanished. Despite the rapid speed at which the brown algae grows – up to half a metre a day – around 95% has been killed off by warm waters pushed southwards by the east Australian current.
Continue reading...NSW flood plain harvesting rules won’t protect environment, government advisers warn
Officials raised concerns water level targets would not ensure river health or meet needs of downstream communities, documents show
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The Perrottet government has been warned by its own advisers that proposed flood plain harvesting rules will not adequately protect the environment or the needs of downstream communities in the Murray Darling Basin.
Documents obtained through parliament by independent MLC Justin Field show the government received advice that proposed targets meant to ensure river health were too low.
Continue reading...NBS Technical Adviser Carbon Accounting, Shell – London/The Hague/Singapore
Director, Carbon Markets & Nature-Based Solutions, GAIT – Singapore
Heatwave? No, it’s a national emergency, disrupting lives and threatening our health | Will Hutton
Tomorrow, as we seek shelter from a burning sun, climate change will feel all too real. Britain has suffered ever more vicious storms and floods over the past few years but the next couple of days will drive home the menacing discontinuity with our idea of normal, a step change in our collective awareness. The expected heat – temperatures that may exceed 40C warns the Met Office – are not only a record, but life-threatening.
It will start to change the politics of climate change. Until now, the green case has been propelled by the young, the progressive and the environmentally passionate, with the majority accepting the argument but without great heart. It’s OK to be green as long as the costs and changes in our lifestyles are far in the future, and any wind farms aren’t built near us – an opening the climate-sceptic right is exploiting to try to put a halt to what it considers backdoor socialism.
Continue reading...Folded wings: birdlife as colourful collages – in pictures
Sarah Suplina has long been fascinated with the birds flitting around in her back yard in Connecticut. The artist decided to capture them in collage form: painting thick watercolour paper, cutting it with scissors and knives and layering everything together using extra-strong glue. “I want my work to capture the beauty of each bird, along with some of his or her natural surroundings,” she says. As the series evolved, Suplina started looking further afield to create hens and sparrow, parrots and kingfishers. “I have discovered so many different, wonderful birds to create and share. I have just scratched the surface... the sky’s the limit!”
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