The only way to make nuclear power work in Australia is to unplug cheap renewables. Stop exporting electricity from rooftop solar system. Forget feed-in tarrifs. Everyone use baseload nuclear first.
Monster Soup, an 1828 political cartoon by William Heath, shows a woman horrified by a magnified drop of Thames River water.
Wellcome Images via Wikimedia
Small renewable energy systems are replacing dirty diesel generators in remote communities. This study of 20 Australian microgrid feasibility projects reveals widespread benefits.
Peter Martin, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
Energy experts – and even Greenpeace – underestimated solar power’s rapid global growth. As this chart shows, solar’s now set to become the world’s biggest power source within the next decade.
There’s no mention of nuclear in Australia’s latest energy transition roadmap – because our energy market operator can only model power sources legal in Australia.
Chris Briggs, University of Technology Sydney and Ruby Heard, The University of Melbourne
Our new report makes 12 recommendations for how industry, government, educators and First Nations communities can create jobs and fulfilling careers in clean energy.
The sun sets over electric pylons along a solar farm near Weifang in eastern China’s Shandong province in March 2024.
(AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)
The Coalition’s nuclear policy announcement leaves many burning questions. Exactly what kind of reactors will be built? Who will build them? And how much they will cost?
For years, the ‘duck curve’ of low daytime demand due to cheap solar power has challenged energy planners. California is showing the solution is storage.
In a big-target strategy, characterised by a truck load of negativity, as well as laced with a dash of policy adventurism, Peter Dutton is taking the Liberals right back to Tony Abbott’s days.
Even the big oil companies are predicting global demand will decline within decades. With investment in oil exploration projected to decline too, New Zealand should be putting its energy elsewhere.
Environmentalists have long been sceptical of carbon capture and storage, which began in the oil and gas industry. But there’s nothing else like it for storing emissions from industry.
Alan Brent, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington and Catherine Iorns, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
The major benefit of agrivoltaics is that solar panels shelter crops and animals from the heat, while providing more warmth at night. Soils also retain more moisture and some crops grow better.