The twentieth century way of life has been made available, largely due to the miracle of cheap energy. The price of energy has been at record lows for the past century and a half.As oil becomes increasingly scarce, it is becoming obvious to everyone, that the rapid economic and industrial growth we have enjoyed for that time is not sustainable.Now, the hunt is on. For renewable sources of energy, for alternative sources of energy, for a way of life that is less dependent on cheap energy.Â
Loan guarantees to help drive shift to 100% renewable energy Sunday 8 August 2010 The Australian Greens today announced a policy for $5 billion worth of loan guarantees for large-scale renewable energy developments, working with an enhanced renewable energy target, a grant scheme and a feed-in tariff to drive Australia’s transformation into a Continue Reading →
Dear NEVILLE,
We won!
Late last night the Coalition announced it won’t be voting for an internet filter that censors the web. This comes after the Government responded to our campaign by deferring the filter until 2012 (with the likelihood that the filter will never come back in its current form).
With independent Senator Nick Xenophon, the Greens and now the Coalition all walking away from the ineffective policy of censoring the internet, there is now no way for the Senate to pass this scheme.
This is your victory. Thank you!
Check out what we did together — and hear about the ongoing global fight here:
http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/SaveTheNet&id=1274
We’ve known all along that a system of internet censorship that missed the vast majority of unwanted content, would encourage the outsourcing of parenting and limit our online freedoms.
And we’ve been joined in these endeavours by our friends at Electronic Frontiers Australia and literally thousands of campaigners in a grassroots movement.
But firewalls, monitoring and governments blocking websites was never just an Australian problem. With our victory comes the realisation that social movements in Iran, China and Burma are still fighting for their political freedoms online. In fact, 30% of the world’s population live in regimes that block access to parts of the internet.
Saudi Arabia and other oil-producing nations stake claim to projected $19bn losses if oil production declines due to global climate deal
An oil field in Shaybah, Saudi Arabia. Photograph: George Steinmetz/ George Steinmetz/Corbis
Saudi Arabia, which has the world’s largest oil reserves and earned nearly $300bn in fossil fuel exports last year, will seek financial compensation for any loss it incurs if and when production declines after a new climate change agreement is reached.
The move, which was confirmed by UN officials at the UN climate talks in Bonn this week, matches demands made by the world’s poorest countries for money to adapt to climate change.
Saudi Arabia and some other Opec oil-producing countries claim that they will have to adapt their economies to a world which uses less oil and say they could lose as much as $19bn a year if countries are forced to cut fossil fuel use. Their argument is that they have only oil and sand as resources and it would be unfair to penalise them. Saudi Arabia first raised the idea of compensation for lost oil revenues at climate talks in Bangkok last year, in the run-up to the Copenhagen climate summit.
London — In its latest analysis, the BTM Report discloses that despite the economic downturn and concerns that the subsidy-backed wind industry may founder with the failure of any significant outcomes at Copenhagen, the sector has continued to confound expectations by posting yet another record result.
Strong growth, record installations
After several years with strong political backing, the mood both of politicians and the public towards renewable energy changed significantly in 2009. First, and most obviously, came the economic downturn; belts were tightened, and investment became harder to find. Later in the year, in the run up to the much anticipated Copenhagen summit, public scepticism about climate change grew in the wake of the ‘Climategate’ leaked emails, and lobbying by various interests to weaken any outcome from the summit.
Wind energy has sometimes appeared to be dependent on such political backing, and often seen as something of a luxury when it comes to finance. Would 2009 turn out to be a year when the growth of the industry slowed down?
The answer from the latest annual BTM report: ‘International Wind Energy Development – World Market Update 2009; Forecast 2010-2014’ is an emphatic ‘no’. This industry benchmark document – produced and published by BTM Consult ApS of Denmark – reports new capacity installed in 2009 grew strongly with record installations of 38 GW worldwide; underlying this were some significant changes to the shape of the global wind industry, particularly with the rapid rise of Chinese manufacturing. Elsewhere, despite the absence of a comprehensive climate deal at Copenhagen, prospects for the industry in several different parts of the world look good, and the BTM report forecasts strong growth for the industry in the next five years and beyond.
Record investment in solar? Record rate of pulling money out of solar! Melbourne, Wednesday 28 July 2010 Far from their advertising slogan of ‘record investments in solar andother renewables’, the Labor government is pulling money out of solarpower at a record rate, the Australian Greens said today. In addition to the $220 million pulled out Continue Reading →
British firm to design mammoth offshore wind turbines with 275m wingspan that produce three times power of standard models
• Interactive: The race to build bigger turbines
The revolutionary 10MW Aerogenerator X, a new breed of mammoth offshore wind turbine in development by British firm Arup. Illustration: Wind Power Limited and Grimshaw
British, American and Norwegian engineers are in a race to design and build the holy grail of wind turbines – giant, 10MW offshore machines twice the size and power of anything seen before – that could transform the global energy market because of their economies of scale.
Today, a revolutionary British design that mimics a spinning sycamore leaf and which was inspired by floating oil platform technology, entered the race. Leading engineering firm Arup is to work with an academic consortium backed by blue-chip companies including Rolls Royce, Shell and BP to create detailed designs for the “Aerogenerator”, a machine that rotates on its axis and would stretch nearly 275m from blade tip to tip. It is thought that the first machines will be built in 2013-14 following two years of testing.