Huh? Energy Prices Are Going Down?
How much of that quarterly cheque you cut to your local electricity supplier is actually paying for the energy you use? According to a new scathing news story from ABC and confirmed with data from the Federal Treasury, under half. Surprisingly, 51% of your monthly payment is, in fact, going to fund the unnecessary rebuilding of a now bloated Australian power grid. [Read more…]
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?
The Poms have come from behind to give us a thrashing.
We Aussies hate to be trumped by another nation in any field of endeavour. Whether on the sporting field, in battle or in the latest scientific innovation, we like to think we always “punch above our weight”.
Imagine our horror then, when we learned of being completely spanked by the land of grey skies and shitty weather in an area we should call our very own: solar PV installations. [Read more…]
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…]
CEO of First Solar reacts to Abbott’s latest speech on energy policy
One recurring, if unfortunate, theme of these pages has been the constant spectre of uncertainty in Australian solar policy. We’ve ranted before about why Australia should be led by more forward thinking pollies in both Canberra and the state capitals but bugger it, when you’re onto a good thing, why not continue?
So here goes, Rant #234 about the paucity of Australian solar policy leadership… [Read more…]
The sweep of Coalition victories throughout the land has been abated with the narrow victory of the incumbent Weatherill government in South Australia but what does this mean for solar power policy?
As the always perceptive Giles Parkinson points out in his regular column for RenewEconomy, there is now some push back from state politicians over solar energy policy throughout the country. This (perhaps) as they understand (a) that the rest of the world is already moving towards a renewable future and (b) most importantly, ordinary Aussies have voted with their rooftops for a solar power policy.
“.. the return of the Jay Weatherill Labor government in Adelaide, the election of Will Hodgman in Tasmania, and the ambition of the ACT Labor government means that there are some counters to the apparently ideologically driven opposition to renewables in the federal government,” said Mr Parkinson. [Read more…]
Thumbs up for Solar? Or not?
Well the big solar news this week was provided by a Big Man. Big Clive to be precise. Yes finally the message of sustainability, affordability and keeping the environment for future generations was played out through the mainstream media. More precisely through Big Clive Palmer’s endorsement of his W.A. Senate PUP candidate’s ringing praise for the 20 percent renewable energy target.
Splattered all over the front pages and on our national broadcaster was the man famous for bloody big holes in the ground, Titanics, grandiose press conferences, collecting mining leases and pouring billions into the formation of his very own lobby group…er political party. [Read more…]
ACT does it again!
So you think Canberra is just a source of hot air when it comes to renewable energy initiatives? Believe far reaching projects like viable community solar power just a dream in the nation’s capital? Do you expect little, or nothing, with Greg “The Human Backflip” Hunt in charge of proceedings?
Think again readers for Canberra has just announced a truly progressive ACT Feed In Tariff policy that will allow more residents access to community solar power, even those without solar panels. [Read more…]
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…]
Oooh La La! What has a French actress got to do with solar panel manufacturing? Read on…
Here at the SQHQ we try to cover solar policy as often as we can in these pages. Let’s face it there’s nothing more enjoyable than covering the sorry policy efforts offered by the chair polishers in state and federal seats of power. With some exceptions (heads up ACT), policy that takes into account the advantages of solar energy in Australia might as well be made by a bunch of backward-looking, chest-thumping, narky neo trogs …. (or am I being too harsh here?). [Read more…]
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