Rich Bowden is a freelance journalist specialising in working for the green sector. His interests are renewable energy, organic gardening, his family and writing, though not necessarily in that order.
Will solar suffer in the Battle for Bums on Seats?
All solar fans’ eyes were turned to the budget this week as Treasurer Wayne “The Knife” Swan brought down his sixth budget (gee doesn’t time fly Swanny?). So how did solar energy (and renewables in general) fare in the Budget? Did we do OK ? Or was it a case of solar energy being once again the target as cuts are made? [Read more...]
Treasurer Swan’s alleged tools of trade.
As the Federal Budget approaches, renewable energy supporters — including solar power fans — tend to get a bit twitchy. You know the deal folks, Julia “The Ranga Boss Lady” Gillard tells Wayne “The Knife” Swan that we’re not getting enough revenue from the carbon tax and to go find some more.
The Knife then goes through the options: Tax polluters more? Pop round Gina “The Big G” place with the hat asking for more shekels Oliver Twist-style? Try another, fairer, mining tax? [Read more...]
Yet another report released this week backing solar energy as the future for Australian energy needs.
The Centre for Policy Development (CPD) released a landmark study (yes how many times have you heard reports described as “landmark”?) which, on the surface, appears to state the bleedin’ obvious points — at least to SolarQuotes readers anyway — about the energy future of Australia.
Follow the money…
The big news in solar energy this week was the acquisition of Power-One — manufacturers of the fable Aurora Inverters — by the Swiss energy giant the ABB Group for one billion dollars. For those among us who will never see $1,000,000,000, to give you an idea of its worth, its about half of what celebrity Oprah Winfrey charged for her recent Australian appearance. [Read more...]
Belgians living in Flanders are now taxed for owning solar power!
Know how you wake up in a cold sweat after a particularly bad nightmare readers? And I mean really bad dream (no not the one about NSW premier big, bad Barry “Bumper” O’Farrell and the three feed-in tariffs — that’s another story). Sitting bolt upright as your eyes slam awake you look around and calm yourself by saying “Thank [insert deity], it was all a dream”. Well your correspondent had the same visceral reaction when a particularly piece of nasty news reached his inbox this week.
Though, regrettably, the “it was only a dream” part may be questionable. [Read more...]
They are probably not demonstrating against AGLs solar business!
photo credit: flickr - kateausburn
Unless you’ve been living a hermit’s existence with no access to news outlets, the Internet or NSW premier Barry “Bumper” O’Farrell’s rants you’ll have heard the constant chorus “Frack Off!” being directed at the (not-so-green) gas industry led by AGL. The choice insult refers of course to the gas industry’s latest controversial method of extracting gas by fracturing deeply buried rock using a pressurised fluid. [Read more...]
Yes folks, we’ve reached the holy grail.
Always rewarding to bring readers good solar news and this week’s offering is just that. The achievement/milestone/breakthrough (call it what you will) is that the amount of the energy produced by global PV solar power has surpassed the amount of fossil fuel energy needed to make the panels.
It seems fairly certain that a tipping point has been reached, or will be reached in the very near future, say researchers at Stanford University. [Read more...]
Will this summit result in more 100% solar powered pacific nations?
It may have received scant attention in the Australian mainstream, whose attention may have been distracted by aborted leadership coups, football kickoffs et al, but a very important energy summit (including the latest in Pacific solar energy projects) took place in Auckland, New Zealand last week.
Eighteen Pacific nations attended the summit which was hosted by the New Zealand Government with co-sponsors the World Bank, The Asian Development Bank and AusAID. The Pacific Energy Summit explored a range of options for Pacific nations to achieve their energy targets and, perhaps most importantly, how to raise funding for such programs. [Read more...]
Martin “Fossil Fuel” Ferguson has finally switched himself off.
Well the dust has settled on the federal Labor leadership challenge that wasn’t with Julia “The Ranga” Gillard announced the winner after Kevin “The Piker” Rudd refused to show up for battle.
Actually it was less a leadership struggle than a complete shemozzle and the ructions within the Labor Party following the events will be felt for years, if not decades, to come. The immediate result is a host of ministers felt the need to resign their commissions due to their support for the The Nerdy One. You really couldn’t make this up if you tried, though the soap opera holds promise. Matthew Newton as Kevin Rudd? [Read more...]
Is this what Sunwiz’s Solar Intelligence Officers look like?
Sometimes the mind boggles at the sheer scale of the solar energy revolution in Australia. A recent finding by SunWiz, the respected solar industry intelligence providers, has pointed to a potential massive increase in solar power generation in the country.
Putting aside the fact that “solar industry intelligence” brings to mind balaclava-clad, ASIO-style sleuths operating behind the lines on people’s rooftops collecting solar information, the findings are great news. According to the company’s report, the Australian PV market could crack a substantial 10 gigawatts — up from our current 2.5 GW — as early as 2017. [Read more...]
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