Opinion & Analysis

Range anxiety has long been seen as the main obstacle stopping drivers from going electric. But range isn’t the real issue. The average range of a new electric vehicle is more than 450 km, and top models offer more than 700 km per charge. By contrast, the average car is driven about 33 km per day in Australia as of 2020.

An emphatic election victory for the incumbent Labor government means Australia’s rapid shift to renewable energy will continue.

With the increasing pressure to decarbonise the energy system while preserving arable land and biodiversity, agrivoltaics is quickly becoming a vital pathway towards sustainable development. A new report from the IEA PVPS Task 13 lays out a compelling vision for how solar energy and agriculture can not only coexist but thrive together.

In recent years, the world has experienced a significant surge in the number of data centres, resulting in a rise in energy demand, posing both challenges and opportunities for the global energy sector.

With module sizes increasing, labour shortages worsening and workplace safety risks escalating, automation is a necessity.

Around the world, more and more electric vehicles are hitting the road. Last year, more than 17 million battery-electric and hybrid vehicles were sold. Early forecasts suggest this year’s figure might reach 20 million. Nearly 20% of all cars sold today are electric.

A re-elected Albanese government will take the unprecedented step of buying or obtaining options over key critical minerals to protect Australia’s national interest and boost its economic resilience.

When it comes to module durability, we need to think differently, according to research from Austria’s Polymer Competence Center Leoben. Researcher Chiara Barretta reveals study results that saw modules in a tropical environment suffer significant degradation. Even stabiliser materials in the encapsulants had a limited effect.

New data shows Sweden, Australia, Netherlands, Germany and Denmark are the leading countries for per capita solar and wind generation capacity. Furthermore, it reveals global solar capacity has been doubling every three years, and wind every six years, whereas fossil and nuclear capacity and generation have been almost static in recent years.

The global energy transition began at different times for different nation states. Iceland and Costa Rica had natural advantages but Germany took the lead in establishing the formula for every country to embark on an energy transition. What began a quarter of a century ago is now entering the next phase: a select group of nations undergoing an energy transformation.