Search Results for: nsw

Over 20,000 solar workers expected by 2018 despite Abbott’s efforts

August 11, 2014 2017-10-25T10:01:27 by 23 Comments
panels going on straw house

Hot water panels for SQHQ, proudly installed by some of Australia’s 13,000 solar workers.

Jobs in the Australian solar industry is a topic that doesn’t excite the pro-fossil fuel press and shriekback radio all that much. Instead the headlines and radio waves over renewables are dominated by imagined consequences of the carbon tax and the repetition of outright lies about the consequences of the Renewable Energy Target (RET).

Witness the recent pressure brought to bear as pro-fossil fuel lobbyists attempt to sway the stacked review board with outright mistruths on the benefit of the Renewable Energy Target. Truth has definitely been the first casualty as the war on renewables enters its next, more destructive phase.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Economics Of Solar Tagged With:

The renewable energy debate we had to have

July 14, 2014 2017-10-25T10:02:33 by 4 Comments
solar debate

Tony Abbott and Clive Palmer. Mass Debaters?

For me, the words that best summed up a remarkable week for renewable energy came from SolarQuotes Facebook reader Anthony Fogarty. A veteran of the solar industry, Anthony made the point that the current debate raging in the Australian Senate has seen clean energy being discussed in the mainstream like never before. The unexpected (if flaky) support for green energy by unlikely characters in the Palmer United Party and Ricky Muir — the motoring enthusiast turned senator — has seen the focus put squarely on our clean energy future. Are we now seeing the renewable energy debate we had to have? More importantly, where to from here? [Read more…]

Filed Under: Solar Policy Tagged With: , ,

Tindo Solar’s Support For An Anti-Dumping Investigation Is Bad For The Australian Solar Industry And The Environment

June 11, 2014 2017-07-13T14:49:16 by 16 Comments

tindo-anti-dumping

 

Today I’d like to welcome a new contributor to the SolarQuotes blog – Ronald Brakels. Ronald is technically minded and has a lot of passion for the Australian renewable energy industry, and is not afraid to put his opinion forth. I’m not always going agree with every opinion Ronald holds – but I always enjoy how he articulates those opinions. I think you will too. Over to you Ronald:

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Tindo Solar is Australia’s only solar panel manufacturer and its Adelaide facility employs a total of 25 people. They produce high quality solar panels specially designed for the harsh Australian environment. Finn tells me he has 24 of them on his roof and they are working great. They are panels that I highly recommend.

Or at least, I used to be able to recommend them. I’m not sure I can do that with a clear conscience any more. Why? Because Tindo Solar has embarked on a course of action that I believe may well harm both Australia’s solar industry and the world’s environment. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Solar Policy Tagged With: ,

ARENA’s existence hangs by a thread

May 20, 2014 2017-10-25T10:03:54 by 5 Comments
wind farm and solar panels and a thread being cut

Large scale renewables hanging by a thread thanks to Joe Hockey’s cuts.

Well we knew it was going to be a horror budget didn’t we readers? At least you couldn’t accuse the Abbott administration of not warning us. For weeks we had the drumbeat of fear. The chant that the so-called “age of entitlements” was at an end (except for certain vested interests it seems). The latest “Sloppy” Joe updates leaked to the Murdoch press and (of course) the draconian views of the Audit Commission. So we knew that the story for renewable energy Australia would be bad in the 2014 budget, the question was….how bad?

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Solar Policy Tagged With: , , ,

Who gets the blame for energy poverty in Australia?

May 5, 2014 2017-10-25T10:04:11 by 15 Comments
wind turbine

87% of electricity price rises are nothing to do with renewables. But we still get the blame. Funny that.

Energy poverty in Australia is defined as when more than 10 percent of your household disposable income is spent on energy. It’s a newish problem in our country but one, due to rapidly escalating electricity prices, that we will unfortunately hear a great deal more about in coming years. With the skyrocketing electricity prices that have kicked in around the country, the question (from the point of view of the big energy companies and their politician friends) is not so much “Have we got a massive problem with energy poverty in this country?” as “Who the f!@# can we blame?” [Read more…]

Filed Under: Solar Policy Tagged With: , , ,

Has Finn got it hopelessly wrong on thin film solar?

April 7, 2014 2024-06-05T15:04:24 by 5 Comments
finn in dunce's hat

Should we let him out of the dunce’s corner?

The world record for thin film solar cell efficiency recently announced by First Solar (17 percent thank you very much) has got the solar movers and shakers sitting up and taking notice. Even our very own Finn Peacock was seen nodding his head sagely at the news over his solar-powered coffee last week.

Long a supporter of crystalline solar panels over thin film solar the recent advancements have got Finn thinking he may have been too harsh in the past. For an insight into where Finn’s mind was at on the subject a few years ago, read this hard-hitting 29/12/2011 article.

But has our Finn been completely won over by the world record solar cell efficiency of thin film? Or is it a case of “let’s see shall we?” Never one to miss out on a good, developing solar story with an Aussie twist, your correspondent caught up with Finn at the virtual SQHQ water cooler. With notebook and biro in hand the following interview with Finn was recorded. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Solar Panels Tagged With: , ,

Sky’s the limit for solar cell innovation as new breakthrough aims for 50 percent conversion rate

February 24, 2014 2018-03-19T13:58:55 by 9 Comments
50 percent efficiency

Yes you read that right : 50%

One of our favourite subjects — solar cells and more specifically solar cell innovation and breakthroughs — is covered in this week’s SQHQ spray readers.

I think I’ve mentioned, in a previous rant in these pages, one of the enduring memories I have of seeing the famous environmentalist/author/activist Professor David Suzuki in 2007 was his rhetorical question that kicked off the night: why wasn’t every house in Australia covered in solar panels? [Read more…]

Filed Under: Solar Panels Tagged With: , ,

Where is the world’s largest proposed utility scale solar project?

February 10, 2014 2017-10-25T10:07:07 by 3 Comments
solar panels in a field

How big can a solar farm get?

If you were thrown a curly question, say in a solar-powered themed pub quiz, about which country was proposing to build the world’s largest utility scale solar project, how would you answer?

China may well be your first choice. With the People’s Republic leading the world in driving down the cost of solar through cheaper solar panels and placing great emphasis on developing alternatives to its coal-based economy, you’d think this was a sure bet.

But no. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Big Solar Tagged With:

Has the start of construction of utility scale solar at Nyngan proved ARENA’s worth?

February 3, 2014 2017-10-25T10:07:22 by 7 Comments
utility scale solar

Coming soon to a field in Nyngan.

The start of construction of Australia’s largest utility scale solar project has demonstrated that the country is serious about large-scale solar. However it throws up an uncomfortable truth in the halls of power in Canberra and the cabinet rooms of their state counterparts.

News that construction had started on the country’s largest utility scale solar power project at Nyngan, in country NSW was a breakthrough not just for the local community, but for the country’s solar power sector. The US-based First Solar, which is one of the world’s leaders in supplying thin film solar panels, began the building of the mammoth (for Australia) solar power plant in January. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Big Solar Tagged With: , ,

Solar nark’s worst nightmare: Saudi Arabia solar power project ushers in renewable era

January 27, 2014 2024-10-04T06:18:44 by 56 Comments
oil and solar in the desert

The balance has tipped in favour of solar in Saudi Arabia.

We’ve mentioned before about the huge movement overseas towards a renewable energy future and this includes the home of one-fifth of the world’s proven oil reserves — Saudi Arabia. For many, Saudi Arabia symbolises opulent oil wealth, a desert kingdom so awash in the black stuff that fortunes are measured in billions not millions.

All presided over by the astute al-Saud clan.

Which brings us neatly to this week’s rant. The latest Saudi Arabia solar power project is part of a massive $US100 billion investment in solar energy which will deliver an estimated 41 GW of renewable energy by 2032. According to this 21/1/2014 SMH article, Saudi company Abdul Latif Jameel has teamed up with Spain’s Fotowatio Renewable Ventures in a three-year venture to build solar power plants worth $US130 million each in the desert kingdom and the Gulf region.

This prompts the question: have the oil sheikhs seen the renewable writing on the wall? Or is there one hell of a peak oil crisis on its way, perhaps a lot earlier than we think?

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Big Solar
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