Employment

The Western Australian Government has given environmental approval to the first stage of the Asian Renewable Energy Hub, a 15 GW hybrid solar and wind plant. The approval is a massive step forward for the project, which will eventually reach 26 GW, and an even larger step forward for green hydrogen development in Australia for domestic use and export.

Smart Energy is one of Australia’s most creative and fastest growing solar companies, largely thanks to a compassionate business plan which came into its own since the outbreak of covid-19. The various lockdowns and increased electricity bills have driven an accelerated uptick in residential solar and Smart Energy co-founder Elliot Haynes sat down with pv magazine Australia to talk about this unprecedented period.

The iron and steel sector is the ‘world’s largest industrial source of climate pollution.’ This steel mill in Pueblo, Colorado, will be the first in North America to rely on solar power.

Honorary University of New South Wales Associate Professor, Mark Diesendorf, takes the Coalition’s Technology Roadmap apart, revealing just how unsealed the road really is, and why renewables pave the way.

Over 500 separate protests, many of them virtual, took place on Friday as students and young Australians across the country again demonstrated their determination in the face of an inveterate Federal Government. Due to the restrictions of Covid-19, many of the protests took on imaginative shapes.

In a week dominated by the Morrison Government’s announcement of its gas-led strategy for economic recovery, it also committed $250 million to critical transmission infrastructure projects. At the same time TransGrid announced 6,900 MW of renewable investment interest in its New England Transmission Infrastructure project.

The Morrison Government has announced its plans for a gas-led recovery including an ultimatum to the private sector that if it doesn’t prop up the gas sector the Government itself would step in to build a new gas-fired power plant in the Hunter Valley and an expanded Australia Gas Hub in QLD. For many experts the announcement reads more like a suicide note than a recovery strategy.

The Queensland Government has opened the registrations of interest period for its three planned and well-funded Renewable Energy Zones. The Sunshine State is calling on the renewables sector to come forward and lead Queensland’s renewable revolution.

After being ignored by the Federal Government, Queensland has announced a $500 million Renewable Energy Fund for state-owned energy corporations to invest in commercial renewable project and infrastructure, a particular complement to QLD’s three pending Renewable Energy Zones.

Solar Citizens, the Queensland Council of Social Service (QCOSS) and Queensland Conservation Council have come together to propose a $215 million initiative to the Queensland Government which would see 50 MW of solar installed across more than 50,000 social dwellings to help households save on their energy bills in these tough economic times.