In Australia it feels natural to look to the skies for our renewable energy needs. We are, after all, the ‘sunburnt country’. But in the race to capture the renewable energy market, it’s been wind, not solar, at the front of the race. Now solar is back in the game in a serious way. So what will be the future of clean energy in Australia? Wind or solar?
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/saturdayextra/stories/2011/3209935.htm
Beyond Zero’s Anthony and Matthew recap four recent interviews on rooftop solar technology - Tindo Solar, Solar Junction, Solarus and Tractile Solar.
The environment barely rated a mention in this week’s budget, and the renewable energy industry was particularly hard hit. Funding cuts and spending deferrals came in at more than half a billion dollars. The National Solar Schools program was wound up. And Labor’s billion dollar promise to modernise the electricity grid to accommodate renewable power looks to be in trouble too.
Hans-Josef Fell is a Member of the German Federal Parliament and Energy Policy Speaker for the German Greens. He wrote the draft Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) which was adopted in 2000 in the face of a strong political opposition.
The adoption of the EEG led directly to the phenomenally successful German feed-in tariff policy. The EEG is the foundation for the technological developments in photovoltaics, biogas, wind power and geothermal energy in Germany, which are admired throughout the world.
The underlying principle of the EEG has now been copied in dozens of countries, as well as most Australian states and territories.