Future nuclear options

There are several new technologies which may transform the nuclear industry, possibly lowering costs and improving flexibility, but such promises have been made for decades and renewables are already proving their worth.

Is nuclear power a solution for Australia?

Nuclear power has again been proposed as a long-term solution for Australia’s energy problems, but the engineering issues and high cost of these plants still mitigates against their adoption.

Supporting the transition

The Net Zero Authority must pursue inclusive and enduring policies that allow the nation to make an energy transformation that is politically and economically acceptable.

Distributed energy resources can cut home energy bills

Backed the right legislation, more rooftop solar and battery storage can lower electricity costs for consumers while distribution network costs, the largest component of household bills, can be cut by reforms to revenue regulation.

Australia’s power problem

Are blackouts really looming by the middle of this decade? An AEMO report warns they might be – but there are plenty of projects on the drawing board that will help ease the squeeze on the grid.

Cracking the hydrogen problem

Researchers have developed a cheaper and more energy-efficient way to make hydrogen directly from seawater, in a critical step towards a truly viable green hydrogen industry.

There lies the rub

A new material designed to harvest up to 400 times more energy from movement than currently possible has potential applications in biomedicine and geospatial monitoring.

How to quit coal

How do nations turn the rhetoric of the transition to clean energy into reality while sustaining economic prosperity and maintaining popular and political support?

An ill wind

Australians may be struggling with high energy costs, but global spikes in energy prices have proved a boon for the nation’s economy.

Running on empty

Many of Australia’s supply chains continue to be tested in the wake of the pandemic and our precarious liquid fuel arrangements offer a case in point.

Dethroning king coal

When will coal power plants close in Australia, what forms of electricity generation will replace them, how much will it cost, and who will pay for the transition?

Energy companies cash in while consumers suffer

Australian electricity customers have overpaid $10 billion to energy network providers pocketing supernormal profits. Coordinated government action is therefore required to urgently improve the regulations governing monopoly electricity networks to reduce growing pressure on consumer’s energy bills.