Category Archives: Renewable energy

Burning imported wood in Drax power plant ‘doesn’t make sense’, says Kwarteng

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Drax has taken £5.6bn in subsidies from energy bill payers but business secretary says practice is ‘not sustainable’

The importing of wood to burn in Drax power station “is not sustainable” and “doesn’t make any sense”, the business and energy secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, told a private meeting of MPs this week.

The remarks are significant as the burning of biomass to produce energy is an important part of the UK government’s net zero strategy and has received £5.6bn in subsidies from energy bill payers over the last decade. Scientists and campaigners have long argued that burning wood to produce electricity is far from green and can even increase the CO2 emissions driving the climate crisis.

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Barcelona school and residents create solar energy community

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Council-supported project beginning on roof of school in Poblenou could grow across the city

A secondary school and a residents’ association have teamed up with Barcelona city council to create a solar energy community with the capacity to grow – rooftop by rooftop – across large areas of the city.

The solar panels on the roof of Quatre Cantons secondary school in the former industrial district of Poblenou supply power to the school and 30 households in the surrounding area.

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EU urges member states to slash gas use by 15% to counter ‘Russian blackmail’

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Call for voluntary cut until March 2023 with binding reduction targets possible when Moscow ‘likely’ halts supplies

The European Union’s executive body has urged member states to slash their gas consumption by 15%, as it warned that a complete shutdown of Russian supplies was “likely”.

The EU has been scrambling to wean itself off Russian gas since the invasion of Ukraine, but is alarmed about a potential energy crisis this winter.

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Green upgrades could cut UK energy bills by £1,800 a year, finds study

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Homeowners can boost property value by average of £10,000, shows research by WWF and ScottishPower

Britons could cut their annual energy bills while slashing their carbon emissions and boosting the price of their home, research has shown.

A study by WWF and ScottishPower has found that installing green technologies could reduce energy bills by up to £1,878 a year and cut home carbon emissions by more than 95% over the lifetime of their installation.

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Halt use of biofuels to ease food crisis, says green group

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RePlanet calls on EU to ditch organic targets and for governments to lift bans on genetically modified crops

Governments should put a moratorium on the use of biofuels and lift bans on genetic modification of crops, a green campaigning group has urged, in the face of a growing global food crisis that threatens to engulf developing nations.

Ending the EU’s requirement for biofuels alone would free up about a fifth of the potential wheat exports from Ukraine, and even more of its maize exports, enough to make a noticeable difference to stretched food supplies, according to analysis by the campaign group RePlanet.

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Breaking from China’s clean energy dominance ‘imperative’, US and Australia say after new climate tech deal

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New agreement to fast-track climate solutions signed as countries underscore need for diversified supply chains

The US and Australia have stressed the importance of breaking the near-complete reliance on China for zero emissions technology supplies while signing a new agreement that promises to accelerate the development of climate solutions.

In a joint press conference in Sydney, the US energy secretary, Jennifer Granholm, and the Australian climate change and energy minister, Chris Bowen, announced a “net zero technology acceleration partnership”, including an initial focus on long-duration energy storage and digitising power grids.

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Fears environment bills could be sidelined amid Tory leadership race

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Campaigners warn crucial legislation must not be abandoned while the UK government is distracted

Crucial environment legislation must not be allowed to be sidelined or abandoned amid the distraction of a Tory leadership race, campaigners have warned.

Ministers openly admit they do not know what is going on with much of the legislation, but those who remain in government are working with skeleton teams to get bills in shape to be passed.

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Australia could see a solar cell ‘renaissance’ if global supply chain is diversified

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International Energy Agency report finds China controls the bulk of world’s PV manufacturing

Australia could start a solar manufacturing “renaissance” and have a rare opportunity to accelerate its transition to renewable energy if it heeds a call by the International Energy Agency to diversify the world’s solar cell supply chain.

A special report by the agency released on Friday found China controls over 80% of parts of the global photovoltaic (PV) solar supply chain, with one out of every seven panels produced worldwide being manufactured by a single factory.

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EV incentives focused on urban centres leave rural Australians stranded with fossil fuels

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Regional residents at risk of being ‘last people in the world’ driving petrol cars due to misconception electric vehicle batteries lack range, study suggests

People living in regional areas are at risk of becoming the “last people in the world” left driving petrol cars because incentives for electric vehicles have been targeted towards city drivers.

Most EVs on the market are likely to have the battery range needed for those living long distances from urban centres, however Australian policy is currently geared only towards encouraging uptake among citydwellers, new research from the Australian National University has found.

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Floating windfarms could be hosted off Cornwall and Wales, crown estate says

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Five ‘areas of search’ in the Celtic Sea could be developed and offered to businesses by 2023

Floating windfarms could be built off the coasts of Cornwall and Pembrokeshire after the Queen’s property manager identified a clutch of sites in the Celtic Sea that could host them.

The crown estate, which generates money for the Treasury and the royal family, has published five “areas of search” that will be narrowed into development plots to host wind power generation.

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Australian company secures $700,000 deal for carbon capture and storage machine

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AspiraDAC device can remove two tonnes of CO2 a year and store it underground using direct air capture technology

A solar-powered and tent-sized Australian prototype machine that can suck CO2 from the air has secured a $700,000 contract to capture and store carbon.

The deal, part of a project backed by corporates including the owners of Google and Facebook, is thought to be the first time an Australian company has secured a deal to remove CO2 using direct air capture (DAC) technology.

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Victoria to demand governments set completion dates for energy transmission projects

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State energy minister, Lily D’Ambrosio, says investors need confidence electricity grid will be ready for renewables

Victoria will demand at the next meeting of federal and state energy ministers that governments set dates for the completion of transmission links to ensure renewable energy projects worth billions of dollars can be connected to the grid on time.

The latest roadmap for updating the National Energy Market, released on Thursday by the Australian Energy Market Operator (Aemo), identified five major new transmission lines requiring urgent action so enough new clean energy and storage capacity is built in time for the expected accelerated exit of ageing coal-fired power plants from the grid.

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Paying coal and gas plants to supply back-up energy a ‘retrograde step’, Clean Energy Council says

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‘It’s the wrong policy debate at the wrong time,’ industry says of capacity mechanism

Australia’s peak renewable industry groups say paying coal and gas plants to remain in the electricity market as back-up capacity would be “a retrograde step”, and a lengthy debate about changes could stall much-needed new investment.

Kane Thornton, the chief executive of the Clean Energy Council, said his organisation had “real concerns” about the proposal by the Energy Security Board for a so-called capacity mechanism to be introduced after 2025. Such a scheme would charge consumers for idle generation or supply to reduce risks of potential power shortages, as experienced across eastern Australia this month.

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US to proceed with production of biofuels despite global food crisis

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Campaigners call to prioritise grain for human consumption over its use as a fuel

The US will press ahead with biofuels production, the deputy secretary for agriculture has said, despite increasing concerns over a global food crisis, and calls from campaigners to prioritise grain for human consumption over its use as a fuel.

Jewel Bronaugh, the deputy secretary of agriculture, said US farmers could continue to produce biofuels without harming food production. “We are keeping food security top of mind, but at the same time we also want to remain steadfast in the support and promotion of biofuel,” she told journalists in London, where she met the UK government to discuss a possible trade deal and cooperation on food issues.

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Silver lining: Australian researchers given $45m to study alternative solar panel materials

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Research to focus on more efficient and durable solar cells, increasing manufacturing capacity and a shift to more abundant and cheaper metals

The Albanese government has extended funding for Australia’s world-leading solar energy scientists as they race to increase panel efficiency and shift to more abundant materials, before constraints on silver and other metals hobble the industry’s growth.

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency will announce on Friday it will grant $45m over the next eight years to the University of NSW-based Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics. Most of the money will be spent within the first five years.

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Queensland budget invests in national parks but ‘does nothing’ for climate crisis, critics say

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Conservationists celebrate $200m fund for expanding national park land but concerns remain over lack of spending on renewables and emissions reduction

Queensland conservationists are celebrating a state budget with unprecedented funding for new national parks, but others are outraged it “does nothing” to address the climate emergency.

On Tuesday, the Palaszczuk government committed $262.5m to protecting more land for nature. That included $200m for expanding the national park estate, a figure the World Wide Fund for Nature described as the largest single investment in national parks acquisition in the state’s history.

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A greener greenhouse: solar panels trialled on Wimbledon berries farm

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Energy crisis has made Kent scheme aimed at unobtrusively building up solar output more timely

Tennis fans tucking into strawberries at Wimbledon this month may find their fruit has an unusual origin – a solar-powered greenhouse.

Transparent panels have been attached to the sides of glasshouses in Kent as part of a trial to build up solar power supplies without using more land.

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Focus on battery storage could be a cost-effective energy goal for Albanese government, report says

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With electricity bills soaring, a national Renewable Electricity Storage Target may be one way of achieving lower emissions – and lower prices

The Albanese government should redirect some of the $20bn earmarked for its Rewiring the Nation plan to support a storage goal that would turbocharge the take-up of batteries and other methods to store power, according to a Victoria Energy Policy Centre report.

The paper, released on Tuesday by the independent group, said the market alone was unlikely to achieve either the bipartisan-supported net zero emissions goal by 2050 nor Labor’s pledge to lift Australia’s current 2030 emissions reduction goal by almost two-thirds. The former would require a 20-fold increase from existing storage levels.

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G7 countries to stop funding fossil fuel development overseas

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Ministers from world’s biggest economies reach agreement that could shift estimated $33bn a year to clean energy sources

The world’s biggest economies are to stop funding any overseas fossil fuel development from the end of this year, in a move likely to choke off some of the investment in “carbon bombs” that are imperilling efforts to meet the world’s climate targets.

The agreement could shift about $33bn (£26bn) a year from fossil fuels to clean energy sources, according to analysts’ estimates.

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Ban on new gas connections will help transition Victoria away from fossil fuels, inquiry finds

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Parliamentary committee also recommends cut-off date for sale of diesel and petrol cars

A Victorian parliamentary committee has recommended the Andrews government consider a ban on gas connections in new homes to help accelerate the state’s transition to renewables.

It also urged Victoria to commit to a cut-off date for the sale of new petrol, diesel and gas-fuelled vehicles.

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