Slap Tomorrow set the pace with its 'wake-up' forum in 2013

Shepparton’s Slap Tomorrow attracted 650 people to a 2013 forum entitled “Climate change - A wake-up Call” and now today the new head of the Australian Energy Market Operators (AEMO) is saying the same thing.

Audrey Zibelman says the notion that major energy industry players can hold on to their old business models is “insane”, and has described last year’s state-wide blackout in South Australia as a “wake-up” call for all in the industry.

Head of the Australian Energy Market
Operators, Audrey Zibelman.

In a speech to the Australian Solar Council conference in Melbourne on Wednesday, and in earlier in-depth interview with RenewEconomy, Zibelman said the pace of change in the energy industry would be rapid, would focus on consumers and their use of rooftop solar and battery storage, and on demand management.

Read the story by Giles Parkinson on RenewEconomy - “AMEO chief says clinging to old energy model is ‘insane’.”

High energy prices? Blame fossil fuel generators, not renewables

It seems that you can ask the Coalition government pretty much any question – about plunging polls, Donald Trump, Cory Bernardi or even the weather – and the answer will always be the same: “We’re focused on electricity prices.”

Fair-weather profits: Queensland’s electricity
system is low on renewables and high on prices.

Great. But what exactly is the Coalition doing about them? On the evidence to date, not a whole lot, apart from blaming renewables for soaring wholesale electricity costs and promoting something called “clean coal,” despite all the evidence pointing to the fact that coal generation is not very clean, and not cheap. 

They are chasing the wrong target. Australia has experienced some extraordinarily high wholesale electricity prices this summer, and most of these price surges have come in states with little large-scale wind or solar.

It is the activities of the fossil fuel generators that are to blame. This is about competition, or the lack of it, and the fossil fuel generators have been going to extraordinary lengths to get rid of competition.

Read the story by Giles Parkinson on Inside Story - “High energy prices? Blame fossil fuel generators, not renewables.”

U.S. study illustrates importance of rooftop solar

A major new study has significantly lifted the potential of rooftop solar PV in the United States, saying rooftop solar alone could provide 40 per cent of all the electricity needs of the world’s biggest economy, and around half if module efficiencies continued to improve.

The study by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory says the estimated potential from rooftop solar has been revised upwards by more than 80 per cent since the last study in 2008, mostly because of improvements of module efficiencies, building availability and solar modelling.

In all, NREL estimates potential rooftop solar installed capacity at 1,118 gigawatts (GW) and generation of 1,432 terawatt-hours (TWh). This would account for 39 per cent of all electricity sales, but could go higher – to around 50 per cent – if higher module efficiencies were taken into account.

Read the story by Giles Parkinson on RenewEconomy - “Rooftop solar could provide nearly half of US electricity demand.”

Transition to renewable energy in Germany is irreversible

The age of fossil fuels is over.

The German minister responsible for that country’s “Energiewende” says it is time that the private sector around the world realized that the age of fossil fuels is over, and his own country’s energy transition is irreversible.

Last week, new data from Bloomberg New Energy Finance suggested that in 2015 – like 2014 – more money was invested in renewable energy generation than in fossil fuels. Some $US329 billion went into clean energy investment in the last year.

But still, enormous amounts not captured by this data appear to be spent searching for new reserves to replenish and expand fossil fuel resources.

Read Giles Parkinson’s story on RenewEconomy - “When will private sector learn that age of fossil fuels is over?”

Australia and Canada dscribed by Le Monde as 'climate dunces'

The influential Parisian newspaper has described 
Australia and Canada as 'climate dunces'.

PARIS: Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull may have convinced himself that the climate policy he is taking to Paris is “ambitious” and “credible”, but he has got a lot of work to do to convince others.

Turnbull has been openly courting ideas to support a zero carbon world – confirming a position from the delegation team revealed by RenewEconomy two weeks ago – but the lack of actual policy detail that supports such claims – and the disconnect between talk and action – is leaving others highly sceptical.

So much so that Australia and Canada were branded “climate dunces” by the influential Le Monde newspaper in a 20-page special published on Saturday, on the eve of the climate talks in Paris.

Read the RenewEconomy story by Giles Parkinson - “Paris, COP21: Australia still branded climate ‘dunce’.”

Solar will be more than half of generation capacity by 2040

by Giles Parkinson

A

Giles Parkinson.

 new forecast by leading analysts Bloomberg New Energy Finance predicts that Australia will have more than 50GW (50,000MW) of solar capacity by 2040, and more than half of all generation capacity will be “behind the meter” and located in households and businesses.

The forecasts by Bloomberg, made at RenewEconomy’s Disruption and the Energy Industry conference in Sydney this week, also included a prediction that household solar capacity would be 2.5 times greater than that of remaining coal-fired generators by 2040.

Read Parkinson’s story - “Australia tipped to have 50GW of solar capacity by 2040”.

Success in Paris will leave $1000 trillion fossil fuel assets stranded

By Giles Parkinson on 25 August 2015

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f you hear a lot of noise about climate policies and climate action over the next few months in the lead up to the Paris climate conference, it is because there is a lot at stake. According to Citigroup analysts: $US100 trillion of potential stranded assets in the fossil fuel industry.

Giles Parkinson.

A new Citigroup report values the fossil fuel reserves that need to be left in the ground if the world is to meet its targets of trying to limit global warming to 2°C – a target that, according to a new Climate Council report, is actually a lot less “safe” for humankind than the science thought it was just 10 years ago.

Nevertheless, that is the stated target of all governments – including Australia’s – and Paris will endeavour to put in place a mechanism that will allow the world to meet that goal.

Read Giles Parkinson’s story - “Citigroup sees $100 trillion of stranded assets if Paris succeeds”.

A fossil fuel free future - when it is all burned

by Giles Parkinson

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ustralian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has said he can imagine a future where the world no longer uses fossil fuels.

Giles Parkinson.

That might seem like a major step forward for a leader who dislikes wind turbines and has cut the renewable energy target, but his vision has one major caveat: He can only see it once every tonne of coal and every molecule of gas has been burned.

Abbott expressed this vision while launching the Agricultural Competitive White Paper in rural Victoria on the weekend, a document that all but ignored the potential impact of climate change on one of Australia’s biggest export industries.

Read Giles Parkinson’s story on Reweconomy - “Abbott imagines a fossil-free future …after it’s all been burnt”.

Renewable energy is unstoppable

by Giles Parkinson of RenewEconomy

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lmost everywhere, and from nearly every corner, we hear the refrain: The solar revolution is coming and it is unstoppable.

There is now general agreement – from analysts, researchers, the industry, market pundits – that energy markets are being transformed, and half our power needs will be self-generated within a few decades.

Unstoppable thought this force may well be, it seems it can certainly be slowed. And recent Australian pricing decisions suggest that the incumbents are doing their level best to make hay, not so much while the sun still shines, but while policy and pricing regulators are happy to keep moving the goal posts to protect revenue streams.

The forecasts seem emphatic. The Australian Energy Market Operator predicts that rooftop solar will amount to 25,000MW by 2025. Bloomberg New Energy Finance predicts 37,000MW by 2040. Investment banking giant UBS suggested, in one “dream” scenario, solar could provide half the world’s power needs by 2050.

Read the Giles Parkinson story - “Solar revolution can’t be stopped, but it can be slowed”.

Considering Abbott's contempt for climate - Parkinson and Vorrath

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iles Parkinson and Sophie Vorrath have written on RenewEconomy about the “10 things we learned …about Abbott’s contempt for climate”.

“April has been an extraordinary month for climate and clean energy policy in Australia. Even more extraordinary than the previous months. As the rest of the world accelerates their individual and collective push towards globally agreed climate targets, Australia is stubbornly refusing to budge, or even to acknowledge that there is an issue at all.

“In the Orwellian world of the Abbott government, coal is good and has a great future, even when analysts call for nearly all reserves to be left in the ground; a cut in the renewable energy target is not a cut at all, it is actually an increase; and spending one-quarter of its carbon budget on just 15 per cent of its target is not so much a failure as a resounding success and a blueprint for the world to follow,” they write.

Australia moves slowly towards solar power as WA tackles "basket case"

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ustralia is “solar-rich” and although we are decades late, the country is now moving closer to solar power.

Writing on Reneweconomy, Giles Parkinson said that West Australian energy minister Mike Nahan had conceded the state’s electricity market faces radical change, with rooftop solar to become ubiquitous on homes and businesses within a matter of years.

“In questions following an eagerly awaited speech in Perth on Tuesday, outlining the first of his government’s major energy market reforms, Nahan said solar, battery storage and off-grid installations would have a big impact on the market,” he writes.

Repairing the WA energy “basket case” is discussed in the story: “WA to go solar – may be the only way out of energy mess”.