An Australian solar firm based in the US has claimed to one day solve the nation’s energy crisis by utilising solar hot water technology. They say that by 2025 solar thermal power plants could generate enough electricity to meet almost all of America’s energy needs. The Ausra Incorporated solar thermal plant, located in the Nevada […]

A senior NSW lecturer has accused the Rudd Government of a bias against renewable energy systems like solar power in favour of supporting the coal industry. Dr Mark Diesendorf from the University of NSW’s (UNSW) Institute of Environmental Studies says that funds set up to support both industries suffer from serious imbalance towards the much […]

Apple has lodged a patent for revolutionary new solar technology that could soon see iPods, iPhones and some laptops powered by the sun. The design involves inserting razor-fine silicon solar PV cells inside the device’s LCD screen and converting the light captured into electricity to charge the batteries. Although the surface area of these screens […]

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 […]

What is a feed-in tariff? Why does Australia need one to support our renewable energy industry? May 2008 Australia is now committed to a renewable energy target of 20% by 2020. Currently only a miniscule part of Australia’s energy comes from renewable sources. The Government must deliver a huge increase in Australia’s renewable energy if […]

An international proponent of the world renewable energy industry says that Australia has vast opportunities for growth in the renewable sector, despite spending cuts to climate initiatives in the Federal Budget. Hans-Josef Fell said it was vital that governments put in place laws providing a positive framework for growth in renewable technologies, such as solar, […]

The Federal Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts has issued a clarification in regards to the $100 000 means test imposed in the recent Federal Budget. This clarification followed the cancellation of thousands of orders for solar systems across Australia by working families with two bred winners. The Clean Energy Council the […]

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 […]