Category Archives: Renewable energy

UK ministers push ahead with discount on bills for households near new pylons

Posted on by

Plans have provoked outrage from communities in areas of Great Britain expected to host new infrastructure

The government is pushing head with a plan to offer those who live near new electricity pylons a discount of £2,500 from their energy bills over the next 10 years to ease the backlash against its clean power plans.

Thousands of households within half a kilometre of new or upgraded electricity infrastructure could each receive up to £250 off their annual energy bill from next year to help speed up the rollout of infrastructure critical to the government’s targets.

Continue reading...

Some electric cars fall short of claimed range by up to 23%, Australian motoring group finds

Posted on by

The Australian Automobile Association tested vehicles from Tesla, BYD, Kia and Smart in bid to give consumers more accurate information

A government-funded program to test the true performance of vehicles has found the driving range of five popular electric cars is between 5% and 23% lower than results from laboratory testing.

The Australian Automobile Association tested vehicles from Tesla, BYD, Kia and Smart – the first EVs to be put through its four-year, federally funded Real World Testing Program to give consumers more accurate information on vehicle performance.

Continue reading...

Countries failing to act on UN climate pledge to triple renewables, thinktank finds

Posted on by

Fossil fuel reliance likely to continue and Cop28 target of limiting global heating to below 1.5C will be missed

Most global governments have failed to act on the 2023 UN pledge to triple the world’s renewable energy capacity by the end of the decade, according to climate analysts.

The failure to act means that on current forecasts the world will fall far short of its clean energy goals, leading to a continued reliance on fossil fuels that is incompatible with the target of limiting global heating to below 1.5C.

Continue reading...

Australia’s surge in household battery installations is ‘off the charts’ as government subsidy program powers up

Posted on by

At current rate, households could have 10,000MW installed in five years – half the nation’s total coal power capacity, expert says

A federal government program that gives a 30% subsidy on home batteries has sparked an “off the charts” surge in installations, with more than 11,500 applications to the scheme in its first three weeks.

Industry analysts said the battery boom was reminiscent of the surge in rooftop solar 15 years ago, and that it was ushering in a second revolution in home electricity.

Continue reading...

China starts building world’s biggest hydropower dam

Posted on by

1.2tn yuan project has broken ground in Tibet, premier says, despite fears of downstream nations India and Bangladesh

Construction of the world’s biggest hydropower megadam has begun, China’s premier has said, calling it the “project of the century”.

The huge structure is being built on the Yarlung Tsangpo river, in Tibetan territory.

Continue reading...

Wallace rejects claim Afghans with ‘tenuous’ links to UK admitted as ex-Tory minister says resettlement scheme was ‘hapless’ – live

Posted on by

Johnny Mercer, former veterans minister, sharply critical of how Afghan resettlement programme handled

In an interview with LBC Ben Wallace, the former Tory defence secretary, hit back at his former ministerial colleague Johnny Mercer rather more forcefully than he did on the Today programme (see 8.09am) over Mercer’s comments about the Afghan resettlement programme.

Tom Swarbrick, the presenter, quoted what Mercer said about how this “whole farcical process has been the most hapless display of ineptitude by successive ministers and officials that I saw in my time in government”.

No, I don’t agree with it. I think my record would show the opposite. It was me and Priti Patel, before the collapse of Kabul, who decided we were going to accelerate bringing people back who were under threat …

People hadn’t come out before. And we made sure that we did this. I think what Johnny, you know, fails to grasp, is quite the massive scale of collapse that happened very quickly in Afghanistan, leaving people at risk, and we had to do our very best.

Continue reading...

Ed Miliband abandons plan to charge less for electricity in Scotland

Posted on by

Energy minister decides against ‘zonal pricing’ backed by Octopus founder but opposed by many other energy firms

Ed Miliband has abandoned plans to charge southern electricity users more than those in Scotland, after senior officials warned it could put off investors and make it more difficult to build renewables.

Sources have told the Guardian that the government has decided not to proceed with the scheme, known as “zonal pricing”, and that the decision will be announced once it has been signed off by the cabinet.

Continue reading...

Australians could cut power bills by 90% if they made their homes more energy efficient, report finds

Posted on by

Debate on how to generate energy ‘important but misses the point’, analyst says, when you can get such savings by using solar, batteries and efficient appliances

The debate over where Australia gets its energy from has played out like a “comic-book death battle between coal and renewables” in recent years, according to Luke Menzel, the chief executive officer of the Energy Efficiency Council.

Discussions over coal versus renewables, the role of gas and the speed of infrastructure rollout to bring renewables online had been “important”, Menzel said. “But there’s a whole other conversation we need to be having. And that’s about how we are using energy.”

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Australian government loans $100m to install EV chargers and solar panels at Bunnings and Officeworks stores

Posted on by

Work to upgrade facilities at Bunnings and Officeworks sites is expected to be completed by the end of this year

Wesfarmers has secured a $100m loan with the government’s Clean Energy Finance Corporation to install more solar panels, batteries and EV chargers at its Bunnings and Officeworks stores.

The chief executive of the CEFC, Ian Learmonth, said he hoped the financing package at the high-profile stores would help create a “ripple effect” through the commercial sector, where the uptake of rooftop solar has been slower than across residential properties.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Continue reading...

Spanish minister rules out cyber-attack as cause of April blackout, after expert report

Posted on by

System failure caused by network’s inability to control grid voltage said to be behind outage in Spain and Portugal

The unprecedented blackout that brought the Iberian peninsula to a standstill at the end of April was caused by surging voltages triggering “a chain reaction of disconnections” that shut down the power network, an expert report commissioned by the Spanish government has found.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday afternoon, the country’s environment minister, Sara Aagesen, ruled out a cyber-attack as the cause of the outage on 28 April, saying it had been down to a “multifactorial” system failure caused by the network’s inability to control grid voltage.

Continue reading...

Denmark rethinking 40-year nuclear power ban amid Europe-wide shift

Posted on by

Government to analyse potential benefits of new generation of reactors

Denmark is reconsidering its 40-year ban on nuclear power in a major policy shift for the renewables-heavy country.

The Danish government will analyse the potential benefits of a new generation of nuclear power technologies after banning traditional nuclear reactors in 1985, its energy minister said.

Continue reading...

Potential role for Chinese firm in key UK windfarm attracts government scrutiny

Posted on by

Exclusive: Decision on whether to work with turbine maker being overseen by ministers after British Steel rescue

Ministers are weighing up proposals for a Chinese company to supply wind turbines for a major offshore windfarm in the North Sea.

The government is in discussions with Green Volt North Sea over whether Mingyang, China’s biggest offshore wind company, should supply the wind turbines. Mingyang has emerged as the preferred manufacturer, but the company has sought advice from ministers on whether to proceed.

Continue reading...

‘Blackouts can happen anywhere’: how power systems worldwide can collapse

Posted on by

After Europe’s biggest blackout in over 20 years, experts warn that while such incidents are rare, no grid is infallible

Europe’s biggest blackout in over 20 years on the Iberian peninsula unleashed hours of chaos for people in Spain, Portugal and parts of France earlier this week. But in the aftermath it has raised a common question for governments across the continent: could the same happen here?

Europe’s political leaders and energy system operators have given assurances that such blackouts are extraordinarily rare, and that European power grids are some of the most stable in the world.

Continue reading...

Blair’s net zero intervention invites scrutiny of his institute’s donors

Posted on by

Labour insider rebukes ‘tech bros’ within Tony Blair Institute as critics question past work with petrostates

In little more than 1,600 words voicing his scepticism over net zero policies, Tony Blair this week propelled himself and his increasingly powerful institute back into the national debate.

In the past eight years, the former prime minister has built a global empire employing more than 900 people across more than 40 countries, providing policy advice to monarchs, presidents and prime ministers.

Continue reading...

Minister warns against blaming Spain’s blackout on renewable energy

Posted on by

Spain’s environment minister Sara Aagesen promises ‘complete audit’ into causes of power outage

Spain’s environment minister has warned against attempts to blame Monday’s unprecedented blackout across the Iberian peninsula on the increasing use of renewable energy, defending the reliability of the national grid and promising a “complete audit” to establish the causes of the outage.

Speaking on Wednesday afternoon as a specially designated committee prepared to meet to investigate the blackout, Sara Aagesen pushed back at opposition parties’ claims that the socialist-led government’s drive to embrace renewable energy had compromised the grid’s stability.

Continue reading...

Equinor considers suing Trump administration over halted US windfarm

Posted on by

Norway’s state energy company’s $2.5bn project off coast of New York was almost a third finished

Norway’s state energy company may take Donald Trump’s administration to court after it ordered an “unprecedented” halt to a $2.5bn (£1.87bn) windfarm project off the coast of New York.

Equinor is considering its legal options after the US interior secretary, Doug Burgum, ordered the company to “immediately halt all construction activities” on an offshore windfarm last month.

Continue reading...

Climate plan based on phasing out fossil fuels doomed to fail, says Tony Blair

Posted on by

Former PM claims net zero policies losing public support and says there should be greater focus on carbon capture

Tony Blair has warned that any strategy based on phasing out fossil fuels in the short term or limiting consumption is doomed to fail.

Calling for a reset of action on climate change, the former prime minister suggested the UK government should focus less on renewables and more on technological solutions such as carbon capture.

Continue reading...

Six things we learned about the future of energy security at UK summit

Posted on by

Critical minerals, nuclear power and the ‘weaponisation’ of energy supplies were discussed at international conference

The UK and the International Energy Agency gathered ministers and high-level officials from 60 countries to Lancaster House in London for two days of talks on the future of energy security this week. The EU was out in force, the US sent a top official, but China stayed away. Here’s what we learned.

Continue reading...

MPs question value of billions in subsidies granted to Drax power plant

Posted on by

Spending watchdog warns £6.5bn in funding may not offer value for public money amid ongoing sustainability concerns

A government spending watchdog has questioned the value of the multi-billion pound subsidies granted to the Drax power plant in North Yorkshire – and said that plans to hand over billions more may not represent value for money.

The government has provided about £22bn of public money to businesses and households that burn biomass pellets as fuel over the past three years, including £6.5bn for the owner of the Drax plant.

Continue reading...

Miliband in blistering attack on Farage’s UK net zero ‘nonsense and lies’

Posted on by

The energy secretary has accused Reform UK’s leader of peddling dangerous falsehoods about renewable power

• Tories and Reform use the steel crisis to knock clean energy. They’re wrong: it will secure all our futures

Ed Miliband has torn into Nigel Farage and the Tories for peddling dangerous “nonsense and lies” by suggesting the UK’s net zero target is responsible for destroying Britain’s businesses, including its steel industry.

Cabinet ministers are determined to fight back against the way Reform UK and the Conservatives have unceremoniously lambasted the climate crisis agenda for what they believe are nakedly political reasons before important local elections next month.

Continue reading...