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There is an easy federal government fix that would allow companies to play a bigger role in renewables growth. But time is running out to take it up.

The post Companies can speed up the energy transition. We should let them appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Rishi Sunak unveiled funding pot for expanding charging facilities at motorway services in 2020 but it is not yet accepting bids

Almost £1bn meant to help build Britain’s electric vehicle charging network remains unallocated more than three years after it was first announced by Rishi Sunak.

Promised in March 2020 before the first Covid lockdown in Sunak’s early weeks as Boris Johnson’s chancellor, the “rapid charging fund” was meant to support electrical capacity at motorway service stations. It was intended to help fund upgrades to the grid so that more electric cars can be rapidly charged at the same time.

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The chick hatched on a high platform built by conservationists to keep nests safe from foxes which swim to Tumby Island from the mainland

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Birdwatchers from around the world have celebrated the arrival of a rare eastern osprey chick in South Australia.

Fran Solly, secretary of the Friends of Osprey conservation group, says everyone in Tumby Island and Port Lincoln knows about the chick that hatched last Thursday. But the livestream has captivated bird watchers from as far away as the UK, America, South Korea and Russia.

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CleanCo takes stake in up to 372MW wind farm in central Queensland as the state government introduces legislation to enshrine its renewable targets into law.

The post CleanCo lines up another major wind farm as Queensland pushes renewable legislation appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Storing energy in large pumped hydro schemes sounds simple. But engineering and terrain challenges have put Snowy 2.0 well off track – while grid-scale batteries get better and better Bruce Mountain, Director, Victoria Energy Policy Centre, Victoria University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

South Australia has less than 50 breeding pairs of the endangered eastern osprey, and recent surveys point to a rapid decline in the population of the species. Conservation efforts have included setting up high nesting platforms on Tumby Island to keep eggs safe from foxes who swim across from the mainland. Video of the new chick hatching was broadcast across Facebook and YouTube to viewers around the world. Fran Solly, secretary of the Friends of Osprey conservation group, says the arrival of the chick is 'fantastic news, because it means the platform is working'

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• Rare eastern osprey chick hatches in South Australia, captivating birdwatchers around the world

• Australian bird of the year 2023: final top 10 ranking

• And the winner is ... swift parrot announced as the 2023 Australian bird of the year – video

• Surfers and angler combine to rescue osprey caught in fishing line off North Stradbroke Island

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EU nations' updated National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs) are largely inadequate not only to align with the Paris Agreement's 1.5C global warming limit, but also to comply with the bloc's 2030 target to cut emissions by 55%, a coalition of NGOs warned on Tuesday.

The world is shifting rapidly to clean energy but still investing too much in fossil fuels, the IEA says.

Stronger policy support for carbon removals and capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS) technologies is required to scale capacity to meet 2050 net zero goals, according to the International Energy Agency’s flagship energy report, which also forecasts peak fossil fuel demand this decade based on the current outlook.

Australia’s nature repair market bill will not be re-introduced to parliament until 2024 at the earliest, after the senate committee examining the legislation requested another extension to its reporting deadline.

Winning bids in first generation tender in NSW were pitched at little more than half their levellised cost of energy, while the battery project promised a lot more storage.

The post Secrets of success revealed in NSW wind, solar and eight hour battery bids appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The Snowy 2.0 reset report has been comprehensively redacted, offering little insight into the project's doubling of costs.

The post Truth behind Snowy 2.0 cost blowout buried with Florence, Senate Estimates hears appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Federal government opens consultation on Australia’s fifth offshore wind energy development zone, off the north coast of Tasmania in the Bass Strait.

The post New offshore wind zone mapped out off north coast of Tasmania appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Paul Barrett says company working to produce commercial-scale electrolysers could achieve one gigawatt of capacity within years

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The chief executive of an Australian company that builds commercial-scale electrolysers to split water into hydrogen and oxygen will join a business delegation accompanying the prime minister’s four-day official visit to the US to explore clean energy opportunities created by the Biden administration’s US$369bn Inflation Reduction Act.

Paul Barrett, the chief executive of Hysata, says the company expects to ramp up to as much as one gigawatt of capacity annually within years.

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A groundbreaking analysis, the first of its kind to globally count and map different tree leaf types, has revealed that needle-leaf evergreen trees make up the largest share of the world's tree population, but broadleaf evergreen trees contribute the most to fighting climate change.

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Two speculative entities have filed appeals to the Washington Department of Ecology (ECY) after the agency prevented them from participating in past cap-and-invest auctions, a media outlet reported Monday, adding to the department’s growing legal challenges to its WCI-modelled carbon market.

Numerous obstacles are currently preventing US agriculture and forestry sector stakeholders from participating in the voluntary carbon market, though the federal government can take several steps to support the development of the space, according to a Department of Agriculture (USDA) report published Monday.

The Washington Department of Ecology (ECY) on Monday provided an overview of potential alterations to its cap-and-trade system it may request should the agency decide to link with the broader California-Quebec market, including revisions to auction purchase limits, offset eligibility, and electricity emissions reporting.

A treaty promising to plant 100 million native trees across southern and southeastern Brazil and create a self-regulatory carbon market, potentially with sectoral emissions limits, was signed by seven states at an annual meeting in Sao Paulo on Saturday.