Solar Power Blog » Rich Bowden

Solar and the dreaded budget (Part 2)

Rich Bowden — Sun, 19 May 2013 03:35:15 +0000

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 [...]

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The dreaded Budget: How to avoid solar energy cuts

Rich Bowden — Sun, 12 May 2013 23:19:59 +0000

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 [...]

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Think tank: Solar is Australia’s energy future

Rich Bowden — Mon, 06 May 2013 02:51:02 +0000

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 [...]

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Solar energy: has the smart money seen the light?

Rich Bowden — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 06:18:01 +0000

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 [...]

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Retro solar tax: it couldn’t happen here…could it?

Rich Bowden — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 02:15:46 +0000

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 [...]

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From ‘Frack Off’ to ‘Hello Sun’?

Rich Bowden — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 04:17:32 +0000

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 [...]

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Newly crowned as net producer, PV looks to full payback of dirty energy debt

Rich Bowden — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 05:05:57 +0000

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 [...]

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Pacific Energy Summit hears calls for better funding for renewable projects

Rich Bowden — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 05:48:17 +0000

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 [...]

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Will Fergie’s inglorious exit herald a new era for solar power?

Rich Bowden — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 01:09:18 +0000

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 [...]

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Study predicts Australian PV could hit 10 gigawatts by 2017

Rich Bowden — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 05:05:33 +0000

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 [...]

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