The Clean Energy Council has today been advised by the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, that the following will apply to the *Solar in Schools program* of $480.6 million. 1. Of the $50,000 per school in Australia, *ALL may be allocated to solar PV, * where the unit is a minimum […]

In an address to the Press Club  on 21st May 2008 Malcolm Turnbull, the Federal shadow treasurer said:  ” This is a Government that says climate change is the greatest long term economic challenge of our times, but presents a Budget with nothing to say about the likely impact and costs of an emissions trading […]

Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett has played down the economic impact on the Australian solar industry arising from the solar rebate means test. Mr Garrett defended the new means test, which denies households earning over $150,000 access to the $8,000 solar rebate. Speaking at a National Business Leaders Forum on Sustainable Development, held in Parliament […]

By means testing the $8,000 solar rebate the Rudd Government has done irreparable damage to Australia’s burgeoning solar industry. To fix it, and at the same time reclaim its tattered climate-friendly credentials, the government must introduce country-wide gross feed-in tariff laws now.

Physicist Bram Hoex and colleagues at Eindhoven University of Technology, together with the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany, have developed a process that improves the energy produced by solar panels by six per cent (in relative terms), a new world record in solar cell efficiency. By using an ultra-thin aluminium oxide layer at the front of […]

One of Australia’s leading online renewable energy companies, Energy Matters, hopes that certain aspects of the Rudd Government’s climate change budget package don’t lead to a trough in the nation’s renewable energy sector. While largely supporting a majority of the initiatives announced in last night’s budget, such as the $10,000 green loans scheme and money […]

  The price of solar photovoltaic (PV) panels is tipped to fall in the next year as the so-called “solar module supply bubble”, which has seen demand exceed supply, bursts. The biggest problem facing the solar electric industry over the last five years has been a shortage of silicon, the most common ingredient in solar […]

Queensland’s Magnetic Island has taken its first step in becoming one of Australia’s “solar suburbs“ under the federal government’s Solar Cities initiative. The home of local resident Lindy King is the first of 500 houses on the island to receive “smart meters” and solar panels installed on rooftops, along with energy-efficient appliances and measuring devices, […]

  The Victorian State Government recently introduced a net metered feed-in tariff. While a start, the initiative is not likely to create a massive uptake of domestic solar systems for Victorian roofs. A gross metered feed-in tariff would be needed to achieve the outcome of more solar powered homes. Briefly, agross metered feed-in tariff  can: […]

The latest Victorian budget’s claim to be environmentally responsible by introducing a solar feed-in tariff has been viewed as “disappointing” by one of Australia’s solar power leaders, Energy Matters. Markus Lambert Communication Manager, Energy Matters said: “Premier Brumby’s budget at a first glance seems to be good for solar power , as it introduces a […]