RET Review Uncertainty Stalls Large Scale Renewables
Australia’s Federal Government has apparently succeeded in its mission to rein in the rollout of large scale renewables – even before its position on the Renewable Energy Target review has been announced. According to figures from Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) reported on The Guardian, the nation’s investment in renewable energy projects has dropped to […]
Giant Solar Powered Clams
Giant clams have been shown to use solar power – and mimicking how they do it could result in better solar panels. Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania and the University of California discovered the iridescent colourings of the giant clam’s mantle margin are used to nurture the growth of symbiotic algae that the clams […]
London’s Iconic Phone Boxes Go Green – Solarbox
The familiar red phone boxes of London have taken a bit of a battering in recent decades, but some will be given new life with a little help from solar power. Originally introduced in 1926, the red phone boxes numbered 73,000 throughout the United Kingdom at their peak in 1980. The rise of the mobile […]
Council Makes Wind/Solar Power Compulsory On New Homes
In a first for Australia, a council has voted to make on-site clean power generation on all new homes and some commercial buildings compulsory. The City of Nedlands in Perth has led the way in turning more of the vast ocean of under-utilised rooftops in Australia’s towns and cities into power generators. In the minutes of […]
SunEdison To Produce Polysilicon At ‘Lowest Cost In The World’
Solar power giant SunEdison, Inc. (NYSE: SUNE), has announced its most advanced polysilicon technology was now in production; which it says will reduce the cost of solar panel polysilicon to less than USD $0.05 per watt peak by 2016. The technology being used is called “high pressure fluidized bed reactor” (HP-FBR) and creates high purity […]
New York City Schools Going Solar
New York City and State government is supporting the installation of solar power systems at two dozen schools in the City with a total of USD $28 million in funding. NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio says the initiative is part of the administration’s new green buildings plan that will triple the amount of solar capacity […]
Solar Workers: ‘Hey Mr. Abbott, Don’t Mess With Our Jobs’
A new campaign launched by the Clean Energy Council puts faces to some of the 13,000 names working in Australia’s solar industry. More than just an impressive statistic, these 13,000 people are like any other – many with families and all have expenses to meet. The important work these people do has helped many Australians […]
Solar Power Could Generate 27% Of The World’s Electricity By 2050
A combination of solar panels and concentrated solar power could be the largest source of electricity globally by 2050, accounting for 27% of world electricity production. Combined, these solar technologies have the potential to avoid 6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year by the middle of the century says the International Energy Agency […]
Renewable Energy Target Campaigns Ramping Up
A major campaign concerning Australia’s Renewable Energy Target is about to begin in marginal seats in Queensland in the lead-up to the state election; among other actions that should also make the Federal Government really sit up, take notice and act accordingly. The Australian Solar Council, the Queensland Council of Unions and Queensland Conservation are […]
Solar Schoolbags Lighting Up African Children’s Lives
Thato Kgatlhanye of South Africa has been named a recipient of the 2014 Anzisha Prize, Africa’s premier youth entrepreneurship award, for her solar schoolbags concept. Thato’s business, Repurpose Schoolbags, up-cycles plastic bags and integrates solar technology that charges during the day and provides light at night. Discarded plastic shopping bags are turned into a retro-reflective […]
