Presented by Energy Matters team member Virginia, we take a look at some of the stories from Australia and around the world recently added to our renewable energy news section.
This week, Virginia reports on Australia’s top solar postcodes, a solar powered reactor for creating hydrogen currently undergoing testing, AGL dumps on small-scale solar energy (again) and the development of solar cells thinner than spider silk.
In this episode:
– According to the Clean Energy Council, Dubbo in NSW has emerged as the solar power capital of Australia. The Council’s breakdown of solar use by postcode shows a clear bias towards regional Australia and city suburbs with lower-than-average incomes. 28 percent of households have installed solar power in Dubbo, followed closely by 27.3 percent in Caloundra, Queensland. The data comes from the former Office of the Renewable Energy Regulator, which was amalgamated into the federal government’s Clean Energy Regulator as part of the carbon price plan. Read more.
– University of Delaware Mechanical Engineering Doctoral candidate, Erik Koepf, is working on a reactor that uses highly concentrated sunlight and zinc oxide power to produce hydrogen. Light concentrated to the equivalent of 10,000 suns will be focussed down into the reactor, generating temperatures of over 1,600 degrees Celsius. The addition of the zinc oxide to the water in this heat achieves a reaction which creates hydrogen. Read more.
– AGL’s recent published criticism of solar feed in tariffs was shortly followed by news related to its continued pursuit of gas and coal fired electricity generation.
A report by AGL takes aim at Queensland’s highly popular solar feed in tariff, referring to it as regressive taxation and calls into question small scale solar’s merit order effect. However investment plans include the acquisition of the remainder of Victoria’s Loy Yang A power station and adjacent coal mine. It has also confirmed the Victorian State Government had approved the development of a $600 million dollar gas fired power station at Tarrone, north of Port Fairy. Read more.
– Researchers have developed flexible stretchable polymer-based solar cells on plastic foil substrates thinner than spider silk and able to generate 10 watts per gram. Cooperation between scientists at the Johannes Kepler University Linz in Austria and the University of Tokyo led to the development of the cells.
While not necessarily suitable for traditional solar panels, the development has applications for electronic textiles, synthetic skin and robotics. Read more.
