Just sayin…
The Australian continent has the highest solar radiation per square metre of any continent in the world. That’s 10,000 times LARGER than our energy consumption!
Geoscience Australia
Tag: Renewable energy
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The Solar Continent?
Source: Geoscience Australia -
Renewable Cities
Over 100 cities now get at least 70% of their electricity from renewable sources such as hydro, geothermal, solar and wind.
This includes Reykjavík, Iceland where geothermal and hydro-power are powering much of the city, and Basel, Switzerland where 100% of renewable power comes from the city’s own energy supply company.
In the US, where some 58 cities and towns have now committed to transition to 100% renewables, cities such as Burlington, Vermont are showing what’s possible with all electricity now coming from wind, solar, hydro, and biomass.
An excellent visualisation here using Flourish.
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Zero Carbon – The Future Called…
In Energy Research & Social Science, John Wiseman from the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute provides a visit from the future. From the abstract:
Looking back from 2050, this article is written in the form of a fictional speech reflecting on the impressive progress made by 2050 towards achieving the global goal of zero net emissions. The speaker also highlights the severe and ongoing ecological damage and human suffering caused by the failure to reduce emissions with sufficient urgency in the first quarter of the 21st Century – and the ongoing challenge of implementing the actions required to bring global temperatures back below 1.5 degrees.
The full article is: The great energy transition of the 21st century: The 2050 Zero-Carbon World Oration
UN: Interactive Map of Pre-2020 Global Ambitions
[ Source: UN – Pre-2020 action by countries – Click to see map] Links
- The great energy transition of the 21st century: The 2050 Zero-Carbon World Oration
- Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute
- Prof. John Wiseman
- The 1.5°C target and coal sector transition: at the limits of societal feasibility, Climate Policy, 18:3, 335-351, DOI: 10.1080/14693062.2017.1386540
- Submissions to Australian Parliamentary Committee on Coal-Fired Power Stations
- UN Paris Agreement 2015
- 2018 Talanoa Dialogue Platform
- Pre-2020 Action by Countries – Interactive Map
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A Google Green
Tipping points are not always obvious, this one may be.
Two announcements this week, juxtaposed. Infrastructure Victoria’s 30-Year Strategy and Google’s move on renewable energy in 2017.
Technology companies now account for about 2% of total Global Carbon emissions, that rivals the aviation industry. Let’s not even consider the amount of fresh water they require, that’s another article…
Consider that in 2015, Google bought 5.7 terawatt hours (TWh) of renewable electricity, a little less than the 7.6TWh generated by all of the UK’s solar panels that year. The majority of the power comes from windfarms in the US. [Source: The Guardian]
Google’s data centres and the offices for its 60,000 staff will be powered entirely by renewable energy from next year, in what the company has called a “landmark moment”.
Google is already the world’s biggest corporate buyer of renewable electricity, last year buying 44% of its power from wind and solar farms. Now it will be 100%, and an executive said it would not rule out investing in nuclear power in the future, too.
Url Hölzle, Senior Vice President of Technical Infrastructure for google said recently:
I’m thrilled to announce that in 2017 Google will reach 100% renewable energy for our global operations — including both our data centers and offices. This is a huge milestone. We were one of the first corporations to create large-scale, long-term contracts to buy renewable energy directly; we signed our first agreement to purchase all the electricity from a 114-megawatt wind farm in Iowa, in 2010. Today, we are the world’s largest corporate buyer of renewable power, with commitments reaching 2.6 gigawatts (2,600 megawatts) of wind and solar energy. That’s bigger than many large utilities and more than twice as much as the 1.21 gigawatts it took to send Marty McFly back in time.
[Source: Environment Google 2016 ] He points out a simple business imperative:
The science tells us that tackling climate change is an urgent global priority. We believe the private sector, in partnership with policy leaders, must take bold steps and that we can do so in a way that leads to growth and opportunity. And we have a responsibility to do so — to our users and the environment.
Links
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MGC and Zayed Future Energy Prize
Impressive.
The Melbourne Girls College won the Zayed Future Energy Prize in the category of Global Schools – Oceania back in January of this year. Seems somewhat ‘unheralded’ but worthy of recognition.
The Zayed Future Energy Prize represents the vision of the Late Founding Father and President of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al Nahyan, who championed environmental stewardship. This annual award celebrates achievements that reflect impact, innovation, long-term vision and leadership in renewable energy and sustainability.
Links:
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LIve Solar Map
An interesting innovation and visualisation from the APVI.
The Institute comprises companies, agencies, individuals and academics with an interest in solar energy research, technology, manufacturing, systems, policies, programs and projects.
Click to see live map The Australian Photovoltaic Institute [APVI] undertakes a range of technical, economic and social research projects on issues relevant to PV. They work with a range of other organisations and all members are encouraged to participate. Their research is used for reports, submissions, seminars, information and education.
One principal research activity of the APVI is to manage Australian participation in the International Energy Agency Photovoltaic Power Systems Program (IEA PVPS, www.iea-pvps.org) and the IEA Solar Heating and Cooling Program (IEA SHC, www.iea-shc.org).
Links
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Solar Grid Parity
Where’s an Australian Solar manufacturing industry when you need one?
Q-Cells In the last week, my family added 4.6kW of solar generation capacity to our roof, with a provision to increase this to over 9kW.
I gather I am not the only person in the world doing this.
According to many sites online Deutsche Bank just released new analyses concluding that the global solar market will become sustainable on its own terms by the end of 2014, no longer needing subsidies to continue performing.
Reports say that the German-based bank said that rooftop solar is looking especially robust, and sees strong demand in solar markets in India, China, Britain, Germany, India, and the United States.
As a result, Deutsche Bank actually increased its forecast for solar demand in 2013 to 30 gigawatts — a 20 percent increase over 2012.
The Deutsche Bank report can be found here.
I gather I am not the only person doing this in Victoria, that is also obvious.
It is interesting to note that total CO2 emissions for Victoria at this stage of 2013 are 9.2% lower than at a similar stage last year. Of course there are numerous reasons/drivers for this, but the figures are interesting, none-the-less.
Source: Climate Group Baselines for emissions:
- 1990: 20% above
- 2000: 7.3% below
Industry
We chose Q-Cells, originally manufactured by the German company but now wholly owned by South Korean Hanwha Q-Cells. Production is in Germany and Malaysia.
Our inverter is the German made SMA Sunny Boy.
