Author Archives: Giles Parkinson


About Giles Parkinson

Giles is the founding editor of RenewEconomy.com.au, an Australian-based website that provides news and analysis on cleantech, carbon and climate issues.   Giles is based in Sydney and is watching the (slow, but quickening) transformation of Australia's energy grid with great interest.

Rooftop Solar Eats Away At Network Business Models

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This article originally appeared on RenewEconomy. SP Ausnet, one of the few listed energy network operators in Australia, has given a small but revelatory insight into how rooftop solar and changing consumer patterns are turning the business of delivering electricity on its head. The Victorian-based company, majority-owned by Singapore interests, has three main businesses: a state-wide network transmission business, an electricity distribution division based in the eastern part of the state, and a gas distribution … Read More

Solar – It’s Barely Scratched Surface Of $2 Trillion Market

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This article was first published on RenewEconomy. As operators of utilities desperately clinging to their WWI-vintage business models prepare their Maginot Line defences of altered tariffs and higher connection fees, it might pay them to pull out the periscope and peer over the trenches to see what exactly is about to come their way. Last week, the top executive team from the US-based solar company SunPower held an all-day analysts briefing – their first for a … Read More

Utilities Want Higher Charges To Shade Business Model From Solar

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Credit: SolarWorld Americas

This article first appeared on RenewEconomy. The electricity supply industry has resumed and intensified its efforts to change the tariff system for rooftop solar households, in a bid to protect revenues that are falling and their business models that are eroding because more customers are producing their own electricity. A new discussion paper was released this weekend, “exclusively” to News Ltd newspapers which enthusiastically took up the chance to demonise the cost of renewables once again. … Read More

China Announces 2016 Emissions Cap Proposal!

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Image Credit: Flag of China on Yangtze River via Shutterstock.

This article was originally published on RenewEconomy. China, the world’s biggest polluter, is proposing to set a cap on greenhouse gas emissions as early as 2016 in a move that is being hailed as a potentially transformative step in the fight against climate change. According to news reports from China, the powerful National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has proposed setting absolute caps that would divorce the growth on emissions from growth in the economy, … Read More

Australia’s First Solar Towers Are Not Yet Built, But They Have A Name

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Baluch One?

This article first appeared on RenewEconomy. The construction of what could be Australia’s first stand alone solar thermal power station has not even been agreed, but it has been named. The pro-renewable group Beyond Zero Emissions – which is pushing for the construction of solar towers at Port Augusta to replace the ageing and polluting brown coal generators in that town – is suggesting that the new facility be named after the town’s mayor, Joy … Read More

Rooftop Solar Owners vs Utilities – The Battle Begins

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Solar panel installation via Shutterstock

This article originally appeared on RenewEconomy. You don’t have to go too far into a document prepared by the US-based Edison Electric Institute (EEI) to realise what is at stake for centralised utilities from the threat of rooftop solar. The EEI, a trade group that represents most investor owned utilities in the US, said solar PV and battery storage were two technologies (along with fuel cells and storage from electric vehicles) that could “directly threaten the centralised … Read More

Graph Of The Day: How To Green World’s Largest Grid

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This article was first published on RenewEconomy Today’s graph of the day is not so much a graph as a series of animations, produced by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in the US, to show how the world’s largest electricity grid could be transformed to a high-level renewable system by 2050 – resulting in sharp reductions in greenhouse gases and water consumption. The animations are based  on the NREL RE Futures modeling and show capacity changes, the … Read More

100% Renewable Energy For Australia Not So Costly

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Editor’s note: This article will be added to our “70%, 80%, 99.9%, 100% Renewables — Study Central” page. This article originally appeared on RenewEconomy. An exploratory study into 100% renewable energy scenarios for Australia has concluded that its impact on consumer electricity prices over the next few decades may be no more than the increases in the last few years to support much criticised network upgrades and the introduction of the carbon price. The report … Read More

Solar Energy In The Australian Outback – At 8c/kWh

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This article first appeared on RenewEconomy. An Australian solar thermal technology developer says it can provide concentrated solar thermal energy to outback and remote locations for just 8c/kWh, and hopes to sign for its first two commercial projects within the next few months. Graphite Energy, an Australian company privately owned by an un-named “entrepreneurial family”, has been operating a 3MW solar thermal power plant at Lake Cargelligo, in western NSW, for the last couple of … Read More