A $10 million dollar pilot biomass plant will be constructed in the Western Australian Capital of Perth. Now you may be wondering, how can there be enough pilots in Western Australia to make rendering them down into biofuel worthwhile? But rest assured, in this case the word pilot does not … [continued]
Of all the Australian states, the part of Australia we call South has the most wind and solar capacity per person. Wind power generates electricity equal to about a third of the state’s total consumption and rooftop solar generates about 6%. We don’t have utility-scale solar on account of how … [continued]
China has announced it will reintroduce import tariffs of 6% a tonne on thermal coal used to generate electricity and a 3% a tonne on metallurgical coal used to smelt iron. The tariffs are not new but a return to those that were in place when China first began to … [continued]
Toyama is the coolest prefecture in Japan. If you don’t believe me, just ask any of the octogenarians you meet there. They will tell you that not only does Toyama have the best rice in Japan, it also has the best sushi. What are the odds against that? Well, technically, … [continued]
I’ve just been to a protest here in Adelaide against the current Australian Government’s response to climate change. This rally and 129 others like it across the nation was organised by a group called GetUp! which I’m only just learning about, even though it is quite large and well organised. … [continued]
Snowtown is a small rural community which is famous throughout Australia on account of how it once snowed there. Or possibly the place was simply named after a man called Thomas Snow. Either one. Land nearby is already the location of the imaginatively named wind farm Snowtown I, and is … [continued]
That sound you can’t hear is not the clatter of my keyboard but rather rain coming down on Adelaide as I write this. However, despite the rain falling now, we had fine conditions and plenty of sunshine for the 2013 World Solar Challenge Parade that was held earlier today. I … [continued]
The 2013 World Solar Challenge has a winner! After travelling 3,000 kilometers across the dry heart of Australia using only the power of the sun, the Nuna 7, designed and built by the Nulon Solar Team from the Delft Universty of Technology in the Netherlands, was the first to cross … [continued]
Australia’s brand new second-hand Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, has just taken bold action to prevent the nation’s fixed carbon price from being scrapped by the opposition. He has done this by scrapping it himself. No longer will Australians be haunted by the spectre of a carbon price potentially high enough … [continued]
The Energy Supply Association of Australia, or ESAA, is a group whose membership appears to include just about every company that is involved in the generation or distribution of electricity in Australia. They have just released a very interesting discussion paper called, “Who pays for solar energy?” I think it’s … [continued]
