Opinion & Analysis

With electricity prices surging to previously unimaginable levels, state and federal energy ministers met on Wednesday to consider how to respond to Australia’s energy crisis.

Australia is in the grips of an energy crisis, with electricity generation prices roughly 115% above the previous highest average wholesale price ever recorded.

Australia’s east coast has been plunged into an energy crisis just as winter takes hold, which will see many people struggle to heat their homes due to soaring gas bills.

For much of the past three decades, Australia has been viewed internationally as a laggard on climate change – and with good reason. Australia was the last of the G20 economies that ratified the Kyoto Protocol and the first to dismantle a national carbon pricing scheme, and often sits near the bottom on global rankings of climate action.

Public concern over climate change was a clear factor in the election of Australia’s new Labor government. Incoming Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has committed to action on the issue, declaring on Saturday night: “Together we can take advantage of the opportunity for Australia to be a renewable energy superpower”.

It’s disappointing that EV adoption policy in Australia has been put on the back-burner this election, writes Des Hang, CEO and co-founder of Carbar. The concern is that action on this issue will be slow regardless of who gets into power, simply because it’s not generating as much buzz as it should during the campaign.

The solar supply chain problems that began last year with high prices and polysilicon shortages are persisting into 2022. But we are already seeing a stark difference from earlier predictions that prices would decline gradually each quarter this year. PV Infolink’s Alan Tu probes the solar market situation and offers insights.

Materials which undergo singlet fission provide an exciting and different pathway for exploiting the full solar spectrum, researchers at the prestigious University of New South Wales explain.

If you’re thinking about buying an electric vehicle, whether due to soaring fuel prices or to lower your greenhouse gas emissions, where you live can make a huge difference to how climate-friendly your car is.

Australia is vying to become a major green hydrogen export industry, particularly in the Asia Pacific, but new research from the Australian National University suggests the opportunity may be overstated.