World

With electric vehicles making up only 3% of the global car market last year, analyst WoodMac says battery packs need to be cheaper and lighter and range anxiety must be addressed to change the habits of drivers.

The coronavirus outbreak in China could raise solar module prices in the near term as manufacturers have already begun experiencing wafer and solar glass shortages. Production rates are also being affected by an extended new year holiday introduced by the authorities as a measure to deal with the virus, and the requirement workers from infected areas quarantine themselves for two weeks.

The internet’s favorite energy company installed 530 megawatt-hours of battery storage in Q4, beating out the previous record, set last quarter, as well as showing continued improvement in solar installations.

Corporations contracted a record amount of wind and solar energy through power purchase agreements in 2019, up more than 40% from the previous year’s record, says a new report from BloombergNEF. The bulk of this purchasing occurred in the U.S. with tech companies and oil and gas majors leading the charge. In Australia, onsite solar projects delivering power to corporations nearly doubled to 1GW.

With solar grade polysilicon prices having plummeted in recent years, cutting down on consumption of the material has not been a priority. But strategies exist and significant savings can be made through deploying thinner wafers that use less silicon, insists a new paper published by MIT and NREL. And as manufacturers are increasingly hitting dead ends on other routes to cost reduction, this option could be back on the table for many.

A new report from Hydrogen Council predicts that the cost of renewable hydrogen production will fall drastically by up to 60% over the coming decade due to the declining costs of renewable electricity generation and the scaling up of electrolyzer manufacturing. Thanks to its optimal renewable resources, Australia will be among the countries most favorably placed to contribute to the development of the hydrogen economy.

Behind Blackrock’s grand exit from coal: Global capital flight from thermal coal and the coal-fired power sector is already at a canter in 2020.

Investment in Australian renewable energy capacity fell 40% in 2019 down from record-breaking levels seen in the year before, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF). Spending on large-scale renewables dropped dramatically due to network woes and long-term policy uncertainty but was ameliorated by the rooftop solar segment’s record growth.

A study from Finland’s Lappeenranta University of Technology has predicted solar and other renewables can provide a global energy jobs revolution – just as four European operations revealed recent struggles.

As the country grapples with devastating bushfires, the number of Australians concerned about climate change has climbed. Almost four-fifths of those surveyed last week said they were concerned about climate change, an increase of five percent from July, according to think-tank The Australia Insitute. The polling comes hot on the heels of the Bureau of Meteorology’s 2019 Annual Climate Statement, showing there is every reason for concern and confirming 2019 was both the warmest and driest year on record for Australia.