Underground line to heat up London homes during winter

The sweltering temperatures on the tube’s Northern line will soon begin keeping homes in Islington, north London, cosy through the colder months, under a scheme to harness the heat from the underground.

A Northern line tube train coming into Kentish Town station.

By the end of the year the project will pipe heat from the underground into hundreds of homes and businesses that are part of a heating scheme in the borough.

The project is one of a growing number of schemes across the UK designed to warm homes using “waste heat” from factories, power plants, rivers and disused mine shafts.

The hunt for alternative sources of renewable heat has gained pace after the government’s pledge to ban gas-fired boilers from new-build homes from 2025.

Read the story from The Guardian by Jillian Ambrose - “Underground line to heat up London homes during winter.”

Climate Crisis – Saving landscapes?

There could be a welcome side effect of carbon credits. 

Will this scheme aimed at fixing the climate crisis also help to save rural and degraded landscapes? 

In recent years, Australian farmers and other landholders have been signing up for 'carbon farming' credits, including being paid not to clear native vegetation on their properties. 

In places like western NSW, it is transforming otherwise degraded and largely unproductive country. A similar scheme of so-called 'reef credits' is proposed for Great Barrier Reef catchments.

Heartlands Conversations presented by The Blue Mountains Music Festival. 17 March 2018.

Listen to Big Ideas on Radio National - “Climate Crisis – Saving landscapes?”

Elon Musk's Tesla and SA Labor reach deal to give solar panels and batteries to 50,000 homes

At least 50,000 homes in SA will be given solar panels and batteries in a scheme by Elon Musk's Tesla and the SA Government to build the world's largest virtual power plant, slashing household power bills in the process.

Elon Musk and Jay Weatherill reach a deal to give
 batteries and solar panels to 50,000 homes.

Under the deal unveiled by Premier Jay Weatherill ahead of the March state election, solar systems and batteries will be supplied and installed free of charge.

The cost of the project will be financed through the sale of electricity, generated by the panels, in what Mr Weatherill said would be the largest project of its kind.

Read the ABC News story by Nick Hansen - “Elon Musk's Tesla and SA Labor reach deal to give solar panels and batteries to 50,000 homes.”

Snowy 2.0' will go ahead but cost increases 50 percent

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's much-hyped 'Snowy 2.0' expansion has been given the green light, however, the scheme will cost at least 50 percent more than first thought and won't be switched on for at least six years.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in a tunnel near the Tumut 2 power station.

The government will now officially proceed with the ambitious plan – nine months after the iconic Snowy Mountains scheme emerged as a solution to the country's fragmented and increasingly unreliable energy network.

Read the story by Bevan Shields in today’s Melbourne Age - “‘Snowy 2.0' will go ahead but cost increases 50 percent.”

Energy policy architect plays down carbon price fears as Malcolm Turnbull calls for end to ‘climate wars’

An architect of the government's new energy policy has played down suggestions the scheme represents a carbon price.

And the lobby group representing electricity wholesalers and retailers, the Australian Energy Council, has provided cautious approval for the Turnbull government's National Energy Guarantee, while warning significant design work was still required and that a carbon price is an inevitable outcome of the scheme.

The council, which represents wholesalers and retailers such as AGL, Energy Australia and Origin Energy, said the proposal was "a considered attempt to deal with the issues of reliability and emissions reduction at least cost”.

On Thursday, Energy Security Board member John Pierce declared that "we are not pricing carbon. What we are pricing is reliability, what we are pricing is the ability for the mechanism to be dispatched.”

Read the story in today’s Melbourne Age by James Massola and Peter Hannam - “Energy policy architect plays down carbon price fears as Malcolm Turnbull calls for end to ‘climate wars’.”