Future shock. Solar Is The Brightest Energy Option. Renewables Global Status Report. Calling all Renewable Energy Experts!
4 April 2014 The second review period for REN21’s 2014 Global Status Report will begin this Friday April 4th and will run until Wednesday April 16th. This is an open peer review process; your feedback, as well as additional information that you may have, is welcome and will help to strengthen the quality of the Global Status Report. The upcoming review round will focus on: • Global Market Overview – cross-cutting developments and trends in renewable energy in 2013 • Market & Industry Trends by Technology (including bio-energy, geothermal power & heat; hydropower; ocean energy; solar PV; CSP; solar thermal heating & cooling; and wind power). • Investment Trends • Sidebars on related topics To participate, please sign up to the REN21+ Online Review Tool at (Detailed instruction are listed below). Smelters, Wind Turbines and Jobs. Cruising just above the cloud line above western Victoria, the farmland rolls out in tidy checkerboards, dotted with haystacks and sheep.
Fluffy cumulus casts irregular shadows across the landscape, while a dirty grey smudge heralds a spring shower ahead. Apart from the vast brown and green rectangles of cropland, perhaps the most noticeable landmark is a long line of high-voltage electricity towers, suspending thin grey power cables in long spooling droops. They stretch out in linear discipline all the way toward a small town, hugging the coast in the distance ahead.
Our little twin-prop Metroliner bucks and yaws in the breeze, but none of the passengers look too concerned. Suddenly, the engines heighten in pitch and our plane rolls left, showcasing dramatic views of a tall ocean bluff, topped with dozens of lazily spinning wind turbines. Portland is home to the old and the new of Australian energy. Aluminium smelting is incredibly energy intensive. Future Shock - Our New Series On Energy. Turning The Lights On The Energy Industry. We've had two big projects underway at New Matilda in September: our annual fundraising drive and our series investigating the energy industry in Australia, Future Shock.
We've been asking New Matilda readers to get on board and fund the website for another year. Sign up here. How do we generate energy? And how much should it cost? These questions are fundamental for Australia and they're not always easy to answer. The debate is often very technical and dominated by experts. This is why we commissioned Ben Eltham to lead a series looking at how the energy industry works — from power generation to switching on the lights. To get things rolling, Ben and Squirrel Main researched a two-part explainer on the energy industry — from poles and wires, to regulators, distributors and the middle men. When you sign up for an electricity account at home, you're usually given a "green" option, thanks to the federally funded GreenPower scheme.
The coal seam gas boom took many by surprise. The Gas Boom Transforming Chinchilla. Poles, Wires, Regulators and Middle Men. This is part two of Ben Eltham and Squirrel Main's breakdown of the Australian energy sector.
Part one can be found here. Transmission and Distribution Next in the process comes distribution and transmission — the "poles and wires". Again, before the carbon legislation, these businesses had little reason to invest in eco-friendly infrastructure. Take the following chart, which compares the emissions of various network companies in the grid. New Matilda found that ACTEW and Aurora Energy serve about the same number of customers, yet Aurora has nearly double the carbon emissions per customer.
Things are different outside the National Electricity Market. Retail Electricity retailers are those businesses that sell electricity directly to the general public. Think of them as the talent scouts. The economic role of retailers is essentially as middle-men, as Giles Parkinson notes in a trenchant recent article entitled "Electricity retailers: do we really need them? ". But wait — there's more. Your Energy Bill Explained. Coal Seam Gas Boom - or Bust? Independent news, analysis and satire.