Thursday this week is World EV Day, and ClimateLaunchpad is celebrating an Aussie startup that pairs EV tyre kickers with converts to help the country accelerate its uptake of clean-driving vehicles.

Genex Power’s latest annual report makes inspiring reading, with its plans for repurposing of the Kidston Gold Mine into a renewable energy hub progressing through stages. Its Jemalong solar farm is also delivering to plan — what then of the write down?

It’s not just big companies that are benefiting from digitisation and data analytics. Today sees the rollout of a new optimising algorithmic marvel that easily shows solar PV owners which of a myriad of constantly changing retail energy plans will save them the most on their electricity bill. No need to die wondering!

Debate on independent MP Dr Helen Haines’ Australian Local Power Agency Bill 2021, which seeks to anchor the benefits of renewables projects in their hosting regions, will be informed by Friday’s parliamentary committee hearing of submissions on the proposed legislation. A number of valid discussion points have been raised.

The risks posed to renewable-energy projects by Australia’s uncertain climate change policies and hamstrung regulators, have become a concerning brake on investment. Adjusting settings to reduce those risks would revitalise investor sentiment and vastly reduce the cost of implementing the country’s switch to renewables, says the Clean Energy Investor Group.

Carbon never goes away, says Associate Professor Tianyi Ma, but if industrial carbon-dioxide emissions can be cleanly, renewable catalysed into chemicals and fuels that we need, we can reduce the overall GHG burden on the earth’s atmosphere.

Imperatives meet opportunity. Corporate and utility goals for sustainability are driving a new group of investors to pick up the Australian renewable-energy resource and run with it. A new PwC report outlines how the new investor-developer partnerships could work.

Younger students have been denied an understanding of fundamental physics that would inform their understanding of today’s most pressing scientific problems and how to solve them. A group of scientists has reimagined the classroom as an engaging, enabling hub of investigation and discussion.

The South Australian Greens Party has proposed a tax-and-spend plan for the state that goes against everything the Federal Government advocates, in favour of massive funding of essential services and reducing carbon emissions in the process.

Alan Tudge, Australia’s Minister for Education and Youth, last week announced new grant outcomes under the ARC Future Fellowships scheme. Recipient Professor Anita Ho-Baillie will directly apply her work on perovskite durability and resilience to more cost effectively powering the world’s space endeavours.