Transforming Australia's energy system should not be beyond us

Over the past 100 years, Australia has built a secure, reliable and affordable energy system, based on large, centralised, fossil-fuelled power stations close to the major cities. Over the next 30 years, this system must be transformed to one based almost entirely on widely-distributed, low-emissions energy sources such as solar and wind with complementary storage. This is an unprecedented economic, political, social and technical challenge.

Rapid reductions in the cost of solar power
suggest technology will not be a constraint.

It shouldn’t be beyond us. Australia has abundant primary energy resources and we are a nation of early adopters of technology. Rapid reductions in the cost of solar power and battery storage suggest that technology will not be a constraint in what will be an electric century.

Read the comment by Tony Wood from The Age - “Transforming Australia's energy system should not be beyond us.”

‘Unusually large' cyclone churns through the Antarctic sea ice

An unusually large cyclone has been buffeting the Antarctic coast this week, shifting sea ice that had already been tracking at record-low levels.

A cyclone spins in the Ross Sea off Antarctica.

While the storm in the Ross Sea is unrelated to events formed in the tropics, the cyclone is being watched closely by experts trying to understand how developments in the far south affect the wider climate in the southern hemisphere and beyond.

Read Peter Hannam’s story from today’s Melbourne Age - “‘Unusually large' cyclone churns through the Antarctic sea ice.”