AEMO to model rapid transition to renewables, quicker exit from coal

The Australian Energy Market Operator is to include modelling for a rapid transition to renewables, a quicker exit from coal generation, and even a zero emissions grid as part of its next Integrated System Plan.

The commitment to a “step change” scenario – as it has been tentatively named – has been made by AEMO in a series of workshops and consultations with industry members over the past few weeks to discuss what inputs should be included in its next ISP, which is designed to be the 20-year blueprint for the electricity grid.

Importantly, this call for scenario planning to a more rapid shift to a renewables-dominated grid comes not from climate activists, green groups or renewables advocates, but from the incumbent fossil fuel generators and utilities themselves – who admit that the current planning blueprint does not take into account climate change and the realities of Australia’s ageing coal fleet.

Read the story from RenewEconomy by Giles Parkinson - “AEMO to model rapid transition to renewables, quicker exit from coal."

The Arctic Ocean Is Becoming More Like the Atlantic Ocean

The Arctic is undergoing an astonishingly rapid transition as climate change overwhelms the region.

The Arctic Ocean is becoming more
like the Atlantic, quickly

New research sheds light on the latest example of the changes afoot, showing that parts of the Arctic Ocean are becoming more like the Atlantic. Warm waters are streaming into the ocean north of Scandinavia and Russia, altering ocean productivity and chemistry. That’s making sea ice recede and kickstarting a feedback loop that could make summer ice a thing of the past.

“2015 was a really anomalous year when we had problems finding a suitable ice flow to launch our drifting buoys,”Igor Polyakov, an oceanographer at the University of Alaska who led the new study, said. “(There was) nothing like that in the past, and it became a motivation to our analysis: why was ice in 2015 so rotten? What drives this huge change?”

The findings, published in Science on Thursday, show that while warming air has a role to play, processes are playing out in the ocean itself that are fundamentally altering the region.

Read the Scientific American story by Brian Kahn from Climate Central -  “The Arctic Ocean Is Becoming More Like the Atlantic Ocean.”