Home Archive by category "Sustainability" (Page 10)

Category Archives: Sustainability

Sheep Cutting Solar Farm’s Maintenance Costs

University of Queensland is saving $50,000 a year in mowing costs at its Gatton campus solar farm by using sheep to keep the vegetation down. In May last year,  the largest solar photovoltaic (PV) research facility in the southern hemisphere was switched on at Gatton. Comprising of more than 37,000 solar panels, the facility covers a fair bit of ground. The ABC reports that to mow the grounds used to take 4 days – and cost a significant chunk of change. Ten sheep were brought in to help cut mowing costs and seem to be enjoying their new digs; a …

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People power is the secret to reliable, clean energy.

Australia’s energy watchdog, the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), has issued a stark warning: more wind and solar power will demand new approaches to avoid interruptions to electricity supply. In its annual Electricity Statement of Opportunities, released this week, AEMO indicated that the overall outlook for reliability has improved. So far, so good. However, South Australia, Victoria, and New South Wales are potentially at greater risk of interruptions within ten years if the current trend of shutting down old coal-fired power stations accelerates, as we can expect from Australia’s efforts to meet national and international climate targets. The threat of power blackouts is reliable …

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Renewable energy fixing the gaps

Renewable energy – South Australia is in the forefront of Australia’s transition to a low carbon economy. The July 2016 experience in that state has raised questions about the effects of high and increasing proportions of renewable energy, gas policies, and the design of the National Electricity Market. An immediate answer is grid-scale batteries, which are being deployed in other developed countries to balance increasing volumes of wind and solar energy as reported by Ross Garnaut. The Australian government’s participation in the December 2015 Paris agreements implicitly commits us to zero net emissions in electricity by the middle of the …

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Solar cell efficiency race is on

Solar cell efficiency: If you haven’t already heard, the solar cell efficiency race is on, and once you’ve dusted off your periodic table, it’s a race as scintillating as any big-ticket derby. The stakes, however, are much, much higher as reported by Ceridwen Dovey. The scientists who are globally acknowledged to be the best at developing solar cells – tweaking them, goading them to perform better at converting sunlight to electricity – have been quietly doing their work for four decades in a laboratory at the University of New South Wales, just up the road from Sydney’s Royal Randwick Racecourse. It’s here …

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Developing reliable renewable energy sources

As the world’s population continues to grow, so does our consumption of natural resources. Many of these resources are non-renewable, so research into renewable sources of energy is vital. Research led by Bournemouth University’s Dr Zulfiqar Khan is tackling this issue through reducing corrosion, improving heat transfer and fluid dynamics, and using nano coatings to enhance surface effiencies in renewable energy systems as reported by Science News. The European Union’s (EU’s) Renewable Energy Directive states that the EU should be producing 20% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020; a challenging target for any country. Dr Khan’s research is …

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Coal won’t solve energy poverty, but renewables will

Last month, a remarkable story emerged out of Kenya. Not one of violence or unrest that the world is becoming used to, but a lighter one: the national power grid was disrupted by a solitary monkey. The unfortunate primate’s precarious exploration of Kenya’s most important electrical source — a hydro power plant operated by the Kenya Electricity Generating Company — resulted in it falling onto a transformer, short circuiting the nation’s power grid, and causing widespread blackouts and disruption in the process as reported by The HP. While the episode exposed the vulnerabilities of Kenya’s national power gird, it also …

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Energy crowdfunding: the new way to boost renewables

Millions of euros have been crowdfunded in four years to finance small and medium renewable energy projects. And there is still potential to be developed It’s a brand new sector: the first steps date back to 2012. Today energy crowdfunding is a way of financing solar panel or wind turbine projects. For some people, like Andrew Yakub, founder of a US solar manufacturing company, it will save the planet. There is already a big annual conference dedicated to the sector, and a European association that brings together the platforms involved in renewable energy. In March 2016, when one of the …

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Lithium stocks boom in Australia’s clean technology sector

The boom in lithium stocks is overshadowing a broader recovery in the Australian clean technology sector as investor interest in renewable energies builds. Several lithium explorers and emerging producers have soared this year amid expectations of rising demand for lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles. Energy-storage technology has become the latest hot sector in renewable energy and sparked renewed interest in global cleantech companies. After years of heavy losses, Australian cleantech stocks are collectively delivering strong returns and outperforming the sharemarket – a remarkable turnaround for a sector that has had many false starts and been battered by regulatory uncertainty. The Australian CleanTech …

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Are these the seven most sustainable cities?

Landmarks around the world went dark for Earth Hour last weekend but many cities are making longer term moves towards sustainability. From Hamburg’s coffee pod ban to São Paulo’s ad-free streets – seven cities taking radical steps. Banning coffee pods and bottled water – Hamburg – The north German city has banned single use coffee pods – which are hard (and sometimes impossible) to recycle – in government buildings and other public institutions such as schools and universities. The measure is part of a wider policy to tackle waste which includes a ban on public officials spending taxpayers money on …

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Expo focuses on sustainability ‘think local buy local’ movement

Several studies have shown that when you buy from an independent, locally owned business, rather than nationally-owned businesses, significantly more of your money is used to make purchases from other local businesses, service providers and farms – continuing to strengthen the economic base of the community. Locally owned businesses can make more local purchases requiring less transportation and generally set up shop in town or city centres as opposed to developing on the fringe. This generally means contributing less to sprawl, congestion, habitat loss and pollution. The Wisconsin Center was a hub of activity Monday as thousands of foodservice professionals …

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