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Opinion & Analysis

How to cut emissions from transport: ban fossil fuel cars, electrify transport and get people walking and cycling

For the transport sector, which is responsible for half of New Zealand’s energy-related emissions, the commission suggests a sweeping set of changes to electrify the country’s car fleet and to replace imported fuels with local renewable electricity. It’s exciting to see a national-level plan that actually cuts emissions. But it raises two questions: is it feasible, and is it the best or only option?

Are Japan’s upstream players heading for the exit? 

Moves by Japan’s trading houses to de-risk their upstream portfolios make sense. Faced with falling domestic oil and gas demand and an accelerating energy transition, future E&P investment is far less certain. Strategy reviews are switching focus to new growth areas – covering everything from fintech to pork bellies – with the increasingly diverse businesses of Japan’s trading houses challenging upstream for future capital.   

Biden’s Senate majority doesn’t just super-charge US climate action, it blazes a trail for Australia

An aggressive US climate policy rollout could provide a much needed dose of reality to the climate discourse in Canberra. It may also prompt Australia’s major parties to acknowledge the inevitability of a transition to a zero carbon economy.

How Australia can phase out coal power while maintaining energy security

The end of coal-fired generation in Australia is inevitable. Zero marginal cost, zero emissions energy is now a reality. Wind and solar are cheaper sources of new electricity than coal in most cases, putting significant pressure on the profitability of the inflexible, ageing coal generators. The only questions are when coal-fired power stations will close and how well Australia will manage that phasedown.

Why you should join the charge for solar batteries

The sooner you invest in a solar battery the better off you’ll be, says Lightning Solar & Electrical’s George Panayides. After installing hundreds of solar batteries throughout Australia, Panayides says that demand is picking up and the future is bright, but notes that while high prices may inhibit uptake for some, the savings to be made with batteries and VPPs are a sure thing.

South Australia’s road to 100% renewables is paved with infrastructure challenges

South Australia rounded out 2020 with a record-setting day, in which solar and wind supplied 99.6% of demand on the state’s electricity network on Dec. 27. But as solar veteran and Amrock MD Pierre Verlinden explains, there is some serious infrastructure needed if the state is to realise its 100% renewable ambition.

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Battery of the nation + hydrogen export: Can they do both?

In light of the Morrison Government committing another $94 million to Marinus Link, Cornwall Insight Australia Senior Analyst, Jake Dunstan, asks whether Tasmania can do both; support the mainland and develop a renewable hydrogen industry locally.

Solar set to shine in a post-pandemic world

The world is still combating Covid-19, with Europe now impacted by a second wave of the virus. While the market reported delays for a few projects, the impacts on the PV sector remain unclear. But if the world fails to curb the Covid-19’s spread, governments may be forced to reintroduce strict measures, thereby sapping PV demand. PV InfoLink’s Mars Chang expects module demand to hit 126 GW by the end of this year.

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States are leading the way in the climate power shift

It’s 2020, and there has been a shift in the balance of power. Not in the Senate, but between the federal government and the states. All last summer during the bushfires – while the Prime Minister was infamously not holding a hose – it was the premiers and chief ministers who were right beside emergency services leaders, working to keep people safe and informed.

Why module cleaning makes all the difference

The regular cleaning of solar modules results is optimized power output and protects installations against costly failures. There are multiple approaches to module cleaning, both low-and-high tech. Pol Duthoit from SolarCleano sets out the need and the options.

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