Are Cheap Solar Panels Going To Start A Trade War?
It may be a little while before the dust settles on the U.S. Department of Commerce’s decision to slap a massive 31 percent tariff on China’s top makers of solar panels (more for those about to enter the market) but already big questions are being asked. One of these is: who are the real winners and losers? [Read more…]
Wayne Swan’s budget was good for solar
Debate continues to rage in the press over the last week as to whether or not Treasurer Wayne Swan’s much lauded Budget 2012 is good for the future of solar power in this country. The Treasurer’s delivery and demeanour gave no real hint of the speech being one that could be considered pro or anti renewables and solar pundits have split over what the Budget will mean for the Australian solar industry. [Read more…]
Solar Panels: About to be Big In Japan?
As Japanese anti-nuclear activists celebrate the closing of the country’s final nuclear reactor, making Japan temporarily nuclear free, a power revolution of another sort is set to begin in the Land of the Rising Sun.
While debate rages over whether or not the country should remain permanently nuclear free, rumblings from the country’s once-mighty Ministry of Trade have hinted at the emergence of a renewable-led energy sector. Your correspondent’s memory seems to recall that it was this ministry (also known as METI) which was in the driving seat of planning the great Japanese industrial and export-led economic post-war “miracle,” culminating in the booming success of the 1990s.
PAYG Solar Too?
Have you considered installing a domestic solar system but have been put off by the initial cost? Then the recently-announced unveiling of a radical new pay-as-you-go plan in Australia may be for you.
According to an April 21 report in the Sydney Morning Herald, an American company, Sungevity Inc., has teamed up with Lismore-based solar installer Nickel Energy to set up an Australian subsidiary, Sungevity Australia, which offers free solar panel installation. [Read more…]
Turbo Boost for Solar?
Some major news on a local technological breakthrough for solar cells this week folks. This, as always, gives your columnist the opportunity for some more shameless cheerleading on behalf of Australian solar watchers, in the increasing wasteland of government support for domestic solar systems.
(For help, see Finn’s latest article on how to future proof your PV system from perfidious state and federal governments.)
To begin with the Mexican wave (or Sydney University wave to be more precise) part of the article. An April 18 press release from the university has stated that Associate Professor Tim Schmidt, from the university’s School of Chemistry, has partnered with colleagues from the [Read more…]
Bob Brown – photo credit flickr:james_tCA
As Greens leader Senator Bob Brown bowed gracefully out of politics this week, news of the latest milestone in the construction of Australia’s largest solar farm shows he is leaving Australian politics a far more supportive place for solar energy than he found it.
Despite some sniping from political enemies both in and out of Parliament (including a predictable diatribe from a well-known Opposition wingnut saying that Senator Brown’s legacy will be the carbon tax), opinion from commentators was that he was that rare political animal: an honest representative with a clear vision. This was particularly so on renewable energy. [Read more…]
Well done Dubbo solar power installers!
Sunny in Dubbo
If you read the mainstream press in Australia, you’d think the towns and suburbs with the biggest average take up of solar panels would be the well-to-do inner city suburbs of our major cities. Perhaps Vaucluse, Toorak or the leafy eastern suburbs of Adelaide?
Obviously they’d be more likely where wealth is concentrated right?
Wrong (as you may have guessed by the headline!). In a sign that solar energy is becoming more accessible to mainstream Aussie folk, a recent survey by the Clean Energy Council (CEC) found the central-west NSW city of Dubbo to have the highest average percentage of houses with solar panels.
Will the sun set on Solar Dawn?
Well that didn’t take long did it folks? No sooner had Campbell “Can-Do?” Newman adjusted the height of the premier’s chair following his landslide win in the Sunshine state, than the plug was pulled on one of Queensland’s flagship solar projects. In moves that have become familiar to solar supporters around the nation, solar (and other worthy renewable projects) are usually first to go as new governments look to impress their new electorates.
We mocked up Silex solar’s concentrating solar technology in the SolarQuotes garden using our unwanted Shannon Noll Cds.
Good news stories about the Australian solar industry have been as rare as hen’s teeth lately. With the taking of the cudgels by state governments to the highly successful feed-in tariffs (can someone please explain that again — just one more time!), to the slow sinking of the fed’s Solar Flagships program, to the march out the door of Australian solar manufacturers, its been a grim time for solar fans.
Twin creeks technologies are claiming a cost reduction breakthrough for solar PV
Last week’s column brought you the latest, world-record-breaking achievements of the University of NSW. This week, just to balance the books a little, we thought we’d bring you news of the latest incredible overseas advance in PV cells from overseas — just to prove that solar research is pushing back the boundaries the world over.
The name of the firm is Twin Creeks, which may or may not be a nod to the superb David Lynch-produced TV series of the early nineties (or am I showing my age here?), and the breakthrough is that photovoltaic cells are created using a hydrogen ion particle accelerator. [Read more…]
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