Silicon Valley start-up company SUNRGI, says it has developed a “concentrated photovoltaic” system that uses lenses to magnify sunlight 2000 times, reducing the size of solar arrays and producing more energy in a smaller space. Other concentrated photovoltaic makers magnify sunlight about 500 times. SUNRGI says it can multiply that by four because it has […]

 Speaking notes for The Hon Greg Hunt MP Shadow Minister for Climate Change, Environment and Urban Water Address to the Climate Action Network Australia Conference Developing a Solar Continent 28 April 2008 Sydney   INTRODUCTION: THE CLIMATE CHALLENGE – BIG HISTORY Climate change is real, it is important, it is fundamental. Climate change presents us […]

Payments to Australian households to encourage the installation of solar panels look set to become a reality, as the Federal Opposition unveiled plans for a national feed-in tariff scheme. Feed-in tariffs pay households above the retail rate for electricity generated by solar panels. The Queensland and South Australian state governments have already approved their own […]

Federal Opposition spokesman for Climate Change, Greg Hunt, says the coalition is committed to solar power as an important part of Australia’s energy future. Citing "enormous breakthroughs" in solar energy storage capacity, Mr Hunt says Australia could become the first “solar continent.” "I think the science is moving very quickly," Mr Hunt told ABC Radio. […]

As global markets tighten in the face of the so-called credit crunch, renewable energy industries world-wide are facing tough challenges. Solar energy is the exception. Investment in solar has actually increased, from $1.9 billion in 2007 to $3.2 billion this year. Big banks, insurers and investors – already reeling from massive hits caused by the […]

Ever heard about the Feed-in tariffs? It’s the initiative which turned Germany into a power house of solar energy – even though they get less than half the sun of Australia. South Australia is the first state to offer that innovative incentive, the so-called "feed-in tariff". "If we don’t take action, we don’t have credibility […]

More and more schools realise that solar power is a viable option for their school community to reduce their carbon footprint. For example for 10 months, students at Sydney’s Pittwater High organised raffles and lobbied local businesses and finally raised $85,000 to go solar. "We could no longer sit on our hands and hope that […]

Europeans are switching back to coal. Over the next five years, Italy will increase its reliance on coal to 33 per cent from 14 per cent. Power generated from coal by energy company Enel will rise to 50 per cent. Italy is not alone in its return to coal. Driven by rising demand, record high […]

The Australian Government will provide $3 million for joint activities with Papua New Guinea to help reduce deforestation under the PNG-Australia Forest Carbon Partnership. At the Australia-PNG Ministerial Forum in PNG, Climate Change Minister Penny Wong and Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith announced Australia would aid PNG in its participation in future international forest carbon […]

The US Department of Energy plans to invest up to $50 million over five years, in nine demonstration projects competitively selected to increase efficiency in the nation’s electricity grid. The Renewable and Distributed Systems Integration (RDSI) technologies demonstrated in these projects aim to reduce peak load electricity demand by at least 15 per cent at […]