Radiation leaking from Woomera radioactive trash dump – for 16,000 years
Tim Bickmore Fight To Stop Nuclear Waste Dump In Flinders Ranges SA In April 2016 ARPANSA discovered that Radium had leaked from the 10,000 barrels stored at Woomera. http://www.arpansa.gov.au/…/inspections/2016/R16-05292.pdf This means that Radon gas is being released into the environment. Radon is heavy & tends to flow to the lowest point & accumulate. After about 4 days it transforms into a solid & infects the ground surface. As time passes more & more Radon converts to a solid that builds up & continuously increases the radioactivity wherever it may happen to land – which is at the place it arrives at after about 4 days. This will continue to happen for at least 16,000 years. https://www.facebook.com/groups/344452605899556/
While the Australian government slumbers on, business takes lead on climate disasters
With actuaries warning that some properties could become uninsurable in future, land values in some areas would likely plummet.
“The possibility of legal liability heightens risks for companies that aren’t responding”
While the financial sector is now seriously factoring the practical impact of climate change into their plans, many within it fear government is not.
Business takes lead on climate disasters, In the wake of cyclone Debbie, the insurance and banking industries are pushing for better mitigation measures, while the federal government lags behind. By Karen Middleton, Saturday Paper 8 Apr 17, “……..The Cannons and their neighbours join the residents of Murwillumbah, Lismore and other affected areas of NSW and Queensland in surveying the damage from cyclone Debbie, and the storms and flash flooding of its aftermath, and asking what can be done to help communities protect themselves in future.
The same questions are being asked in the boardrooms of corporate Australia – especially but not only in the finance sector – with an increasing emphasis on planning for and guarding against such events, rather than just cleaning up afterwards.
…….The Insurance Council of Australia wants the federal government to focus on mitigation as a priority in the upcoming federal budget.
“Cyclone Debbie and the floods that followed it should be a starting point for state and federal governments to address mitigation,” council spokesman Campbell Fuller said.
In the insurance and superannuation industries, work is being done on the likely longer-term impact of climate change on the frequency and ferocity of these major disasters and how they and other investors – and ultimately governments – should respond.
The big banks have also begun studying the implications of climate change on their risk exposure through mortgages reaching back 30 years. Continue reading
Galilee Blockade grandparent activists occupied office of Qld Dep Premier Jackie Trad.
‘On Tues a large group of Galilee Blockade grandparent activists occupied office of Qld Dep Premier Jackie Trad. Cayman Islands was the theme, Gautam Adani holidaying with a billion dollars of public funds.’
Eleven Hour Occupation.
Three Arrests.
One Message.
Galilee Blockade campaign http://galileeblockade.net/occupying-trad/ http://galileeblockade.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/S1010163.jpg
“Prepared with food, bedding and a camp toilet, the grandparents vowed to occupy the office until Jackie Trad (as Minister for Infrastructure) signed a legal letter stopping our money going to Adani.
NAIF’s own process is clear that the Queensland Labor Government can reject the applications of both Adani and Aurizon. …
“Bill Shorten says he is against taxpayer funds going to Adani.
Wayne Swan says it’s a slush fund for the Liberals and has asked the Auditor-General to investigate.
Jackie Trad has the power to actually stop our money going to Adani but refuses, despite 75% of Australians being against it. …
Direct action can be very fun. The grandparents engaged staff and the general public, often in song.
https://www.facebook.com/GalileeBlockade/videos/1883638468560217/
The grandparents stopped the office closing for the day, taking turns blocking the doorway for almost 5 hours. Again with music! https://www.facebook.com/GalileeBlockade/videos/1883714215219309/
Anne, Richard and John were arrested but released without charge. We broadcast this live on Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/GalileeBlockade/videos/1883853088538755/
“P.S. Activist tip. What does a grandparent activist do when he’s about to be arrested.
Take a selfie and put it on Facebook!” http://galileeblockade.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/3.jpg
New South Wales grid operator gets 6,000MW solar proposals in 2017
Transgrid gets 6,000MW solar proposals in 2017, sees 95% 
renewables by 2050 http://reneweconomy.com.au/transgrid-gets-6000mw-solar-proposals-2017-sees-95-renewables-2050/ By Giles Parkinson on 7 April 2017 Transgrid, the owner and operator of the main transmission line in New South Wales, reports that is has received “enquiries” about more than 6,000MW of large scale solar so far in 2017.The figure, revealed by business development manager Gustavo Bodini at the Large Scale Solar conference hosted by RenewEconomy and Informa earlier this week, is more than a six fold increase over 2016, and highlights the huge interest in solar as it matches wind on costs and beats new gas (and new coal) by a significant margin.
Of course, not all that 6,000MW will be built, or even get to development approval stage, but large scale solar is clearly the energy source of choice at the moment, accounting for at least half of new projects for the renewable energy target – a share that is likely to increase in coming years.
Amy Kean, the renewable energy advocate for the NSW government, showed this slide (on original) at the conference, indicating the amount of large scale solar already installed, under construction, and those in the pipeline and the “stealth” projects, which may well refer to the Transgrid enquiries.
This graph above from Transgrid’s Bodini is the most striking – because it predicts that by 2050, 95 per cent of the demand will be delivered by renewable energy – some 65 per cent from large scale renewables like wind and solar and hydro, and another 30 per cent from “distributed energy”.
That’s why, says Bodini, we need to get out and test new technologies, such as battery storage, to see how they operate and integrate with the grid.
There is some grace. There will be enough synchronous generation, Bodini says, within the whole National Electricity Market by 2030 to provide the inertia required to keep the grid stable. From that point, as more of the legacy coal and gas plants retire, it will be up to new technologies to take over.
The grid of the future, he says, will focus on better ways of managing peak demand, energy efficiency, widespread deployment of distributed generation (mostly solar), network based storage and new market rules to allow this to happen and one that promotes “genuine competition” and protects consumers when there is ineffective competition.
Fossil fuel scare campaign backfires – renewed boom in solar rooftops
February recorded more capacity than November. And now March capacity has shot 16 per cent higher than December.
This has got us thinking at Green Energy Markets that more fundamental and longer term drivers are potentially supporting this increased capacity.
it doesn’t quite work out the way the fossil fuel industry that dreamed up the PR campaign intended. Households and businesses start worrying and think I need to take things into my own hands – and that happens to mean a solar system.
Rooftop solar enjoys second boom as fossil fuel scare campaign backfires, REneweconomy By Tristan Edis on 7 April 2017 It appears the fossil fuel industry’s scare campaign over renewable energy driving up the price of electricity is having the same desired effect that it had back in 2011, when they campaigned against placing a penalty on polluting the atmosphere with global warming gases.
Yep you guessed it – households and businesses are flocking to install solar on their rooftops.
Green Energy Markets’ Solar Report assessment of STC creation data shows that March hit levels of capacity not seen since the days of 45c to 60c premium feed-in tariffs in 201, when there was also an STC rebate that was twice to five times its current level.
All up, we estimate almost 92MW (92,000 kilowatts) of rooftop solar PV capacity created certificates in March………. Continue reading
Australia’s big banks scrutinising business customers for exposure to climate change risks
Climate change: three of Australia’s big four banks reviewing exposure to fossil fuels https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/apr/07/climate-change-three-of-australias-big-four-banks-reviewing-exposure-to-fossil-fuels
Commonwealth, NAB and ANZ are each analysing the financial position of business customers in sectors exposed to climate change, Guardian, Gareth Hutchens, 7 Apr 17, Three of Australia’s big four banks are reviewing their exposure to fossil fuels, including their lending practices to households and farmers, in response to climate change.
The Commonwealth Bank is conducting a “detailed climate policy review” that will be released publicly pending board approval, and NAB has a working group reviewing the risks from global temperatures rising two degrees.
ANZ is conducting portfolio analysis to identify changes in the financial position of business customers in sectors “most exposed” to climate change. It is also working with the Bureau of Meteorology to understand variability in average annual rainfall over recent decades to understand how climate change is affecting Australia’s traditional farming areas.
Executives from the three banks shared this information with the House of Representatives’ standing committee on economics, as part of a review of the four major banks. The revelations, written in response to questions on notice from the committee, were published on the federal parliamentary website on Friday afternoon.
It comes two months after the banking regulator warned climate change posed a material risk to Australia’s financial system, and urged companies to start adapting.
He pointed to the Paris Climate Agreement, ratified by Australia in November, as a significant policy moment for all governments, including Australia’s.
Summerhayes said the Paris Agreement provided an “unmistakable signal” about the future direction of policy and adjustments that companies, markets and economies “will need to make”.
The revelations from CBA and NAB come after ANZ’s chief executive, Shayne Elliott, said last month he was examining the impact of sea level rise and other climate impacts on housing mortgage risk.
Adam Bandt, the Greens’ climate and energy spokesman, has welcomed the revelations. He also questioned why Westpac has not ruled out funding Adani’s giant Carmichael coalmine in Queensland given its competitors’ concerns about climate change.
“Following ANZ’s revelation that sea-level rises might make it tougher to grant a mortgage, CBA and NAB seem to be examining whether to follow suit,” Bandt said. “The penny doesn’t seem to have fully dropped, because banks like Westpac still think they can commit to a two degree target but leave the door open to expanding coal mines.
“Westpac’s refusal to rule out funding Adani is especially concerning; as the bank seems to think it can have its climate cake and eat it too. But the days of dealing with climate change simply by putting a polar bear in your ad are long gone.”
Last year, financial activists Market Forces said Australia’s big four banks could act on their stated ambition to help achieve a 2C warming target simply by giving no new loans to coal projects.
Does Australia REALLY need a radioactive waste facility in outback South Australia?
the biggest unanswered question is whether the planned facility is the best way to manage Australia’s radioactive waste. Extraordinarily, that question has never been asked.
ANSTO [in Sydney] is better placed than a pastoral station or the back paddock of a wheat farm to house this material.
Advantages of storing it at the ANSTO facility include that
- it enjoys assured tenure there;
- has a secured site with a high-level Australian Federal Police presence;
- is currently building new storage capacity;
- has already received reprocessed spent nuclear fuel returns from Europe;
- has the best radiation monitoring and nuclear response capacity in the nation; and
- the fact that the waste is there now answers double handling and transport concerns.
Importantly, the Federal nuclear regulator – Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) – has confirmed there is no regulatory constraint to the waste continuing to be managed at ANSTO “for decades“.
Picking the postcode for a radioactive wasteland https://independentaustralia.net/environment/environment-display/picking-the-postcode-for-a-radioactive-wasteland,10177 Dave Sweeney 5 April 2017, ‘The Federal focus on finding a postcode for a [nuclear waste] facility has been at the expense of independently testing the assumptions behind the need for one.’
ACCORDING to the fridge magnets and stickers in the shop beside the ageing Big Galah sculpture, the small farming town of Kimba in South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula is the half way point on the east-west journey across Australia.
But right now, the local talk is more about half-lives, following the recent decision by Federal Minister for Resources Matt Canavan to further explore two places in the region as possible sites for a national radioactive waste facility.
The search for a place for Australia’s radioactive waste has been in train – and often off the rails – for more than 20 years. Over that time, successive Federal governments have had multiple fights at multiple sites — mainly across South Australia and the Northern Territory. Currently, there are three South Australian sites under consideration.
For the better part of a year, a site near Hawker in the Flinders Ranges has been under examination. The site, on a pastoral station leased by former Liberal senator and long-time nuclear facility supporter Grant Chapman has been strongly contested by many in the wider community. Critical voices include local Adnyamanthanha Traditional Owners, pastoralists and people concerned about the impacts of the region’s steadily growing tourism sector.
Now the inclusion of two parcels of agricultural land at Kimba has seen new tension in a town that has previously been highly divided over the Federal plan.
Last year, two previously nominated Kimba land options were not taken further by then Minister for Resources Josh Frydenberg because of a lack of community support.
However, supporters of a facility have made a new pitch and have found an ear in the new minister.
The planned facility would be in two parts — a repository for the disposal of low-level radioactive waste (LLW) and an above ground store to hold the more serious and problematic long-lived intermediate level waste (ILW). The store would operate for 100 years, at which time a decision would be made about how and where to future manage this long-lived waste, which needs to be isolated from people and the wider environment for thousands of years.
For a project that has had many configurations over many years, there remains considerable uncertainty about the plan.
Part of the series of unanswered questions include:
- final facility design;
- acceptance criteria;
- employment and governance arrangements; and
- longer term plans for managing Australia’s highest level radioactive waste.
ANSTO admits that Federal waste plan is for reactor generated wastes, and that no longterm disposal plan exists
Who’d want to dump Australia’s nuclear waste here? Well, this guy. At Kimba in the heart of the country, a community is divided – in one case literally so – over a plan to deposit the national stockpile of radioactive waste, Guardian, Max Opray, 4 Apr 17 “…..Hefin Griffiths, chief nuclear officer at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, says the facility is needed for the organisation’s gradually accumulating stockpile of radioactive waste at Lucas Heights, where measures are being rolled out to temporarily increase storage space at the 70-hectare site, which is reaching capacity this year.
According to Griffiths, most the waste earmarked for the new facility would be of low-level radioactivity, such as clothes worn by people working in nuclear medicine, or soil now stored at Woomera.
That would only be hazardous for a “short period”, he says, but the intermediate-level waste needs to be 
stored for far longer. “We’ve got reprocessed residues that have come back from France which will remain radioactive for many thousands of years,” he says.
The returned waste consists of 20 canisters containing 170 litres each, generated by the High Flux Australian reactor, which ran for nearly 50 years before being decommissioned in 2007.
Intermediate-level waste will continue to be generated by the Open Pool Australian Lightwater research reactor and the under-development Synroc waste treatment plant.
The proposed nuclear waste management facility would hold this intermediate waste above-ground for a few decades until a longer term solution can be found. Griffiths says another structure along the lines of the $5.3bn deep-storage facility in Finland will eventually need to be built.
As for the facility that would hold the waste in the meantime, Griffiths says only a detailed technical assessment could confirm Kimba’s suitability, but proximity to agricultural land and the 1,700km journey from Lucas Heights would not be insurmountable obstacles.
Craig Wilkins, the chief executive of the Conservation Council of South Australia, argues a study should be undertaken on the prospect of storing the waste at Lucas Heights, close to nuclear experts, rather than “out of sight, out of mind”.
“We also have concerns about how incredibly divisive this process is on communities already doing it tough,” he says. “When you have individual landowners putting it forward to kickstart the local conversation it pits neighbour against neighbour.
“Last time it nearly tore Kimba apart. It is clear from last time there is significant community opposition.”
Successive federal governments over decades have failed to lock down a remote-area site to store nuclear waste because of regional opposition, and in a separate process the SA Labor government has struggled to sell a plan to develop a high-level nuclear waste storage facility, with a citizen’s jury last year resoundingly rejecting the concept.
Kimba was first floated as a potential location by the Liberal federal member for Grey, Rohan Ramsay, who in 2015 volunteered his property near the town before it was rejected owing to perceived conflict of interest………..https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/apr/04/whod-want-to-dump-australias-nuclear-waste-here-well-this-guy?CMP=share_btn_tw
South Australian Liberal Party to launch advertising campaign against Nuclear Royal Commission plan to import nuclear wastes
Off The Record: Orchestra now in baton race to replace young gun, The Advertiser April 1, 2017 “…….Hitting voters with ion fist OUR atomic adventure might be dead and buried, but a series of targeted nuclear strikes are about to be launched by the Liberals.
Having last November torpedoed Premier Jay Weatherill’s half-hearted push for an international nuclear waste dump, the Libs will now attack him for secret plans to put the dump in various sites across the state, Off the Record has learned.
A localised digital and leaflet campaign will accuse Mr Weatherill and his high-level waste dump of risking the destruction of agricultural industry and the environment through toxic nuclear leaks.
The advertising blitz will expand closer to next March’s election.
Regional areas likely to host a dump will be the focus, along with women worried about their children’s futures and those once known as “doctors’ wives” – affluent inner-city Liberal types concerned about the environment and social issues.
Of course, as no site was earmarked by the nuclear royal commission in its final report last May, the Liberals have fertile ground to declare any community could be at risk from the nuclear ogre…… http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/opinion/off-the-record-orchestra-now-in-baton-race-to-replace-young-gun/news-story/22c63df9efeb84f31fe3adf21ca65aa9
World Heritage for Finders Ranges? Sounds good, but doesn’t prevent nuclear waste dumping
The potential location of the proposed National Radioactive Waste Management Facility at Wallerberdina Station near Hawker would have no impact on the World Heritage proposal for the Flinders Ranges.
World Heritage for the Flinders Ranges Natural resources, SA Arid lands Over 600 million years old, the Flinders Ranges is one of Australia’s magnificent landscapes. This diverse landscape is world-renowned for its wealth of natural, cultural, historic and scenic values making it an iconic tourism destination with unparalleled visitor experiences.
Particularly extraordinary are the fossils and geology of the Flinders Ranges, which display the history of our planet and the evolution of life on Earth. Some of this critical evidence spans more than 300 million years and includes the world’s finest example of the Ediacaran explosion of life, when the earliest forms of complex multicellular animal life evolved. It is these outstanding geological and palaeontological forms within the Flinders Ranges that make it an important site to pursue for World Heritage Listing.
Pursuing World Heritage Listing for the Flinders Ranges provides an exciting opportunity to recognise this site on a global scale, to celebrate these outstanding values and create economic benefits for the region. Continue reading
Some enthusiasts for nuclear waste dump at Kimba, but many opponents
The couple [ Megan and Matt Lienert]say the federal government consultation process has only tried to sell the positives. “It’s like they’re here to sell a car,” James says. “Oh, you don’t want it? Here’s some free seat covers.”
Jacinta jumps in: “Here’s $2m to go to the next stage.
“[The federal government provides] the facts from one side, that’s all we’ve got since day dot. They don’t bring anybody here so people can make an informed decision.
Who’d want to dump Australia’s nuclear waste here? Well, this guy At Kimba in the heart of the country, a community is divided – in one case literally so – over a plan to deposit the national stockpile of radioactive waste, Guardian, Max Opray, 4 Apr 17, At a point almost halfway between the east and west coasts of Australia, a mob of emus scamper along the Napandee property fenceline. The mallee scrub out this way appears otherwise deserted, the kind of remote location where one could hide a dead body and get away with it – but what about an entire country’s radioactive waste?
Landowner Jeff Baldock is determined to find out. Speaking in a considered gravelly tone through a bristling grey moustache, the third-generation farmer has an Ian Chappell-esque air about him as he defends the decision to formally nominate his land in Kimba, South Australia, as a site for the federal government’s national radioactive waste management facility. It would serve as a repository for intermediate-level waste from the Lucas Heights nuclear site in New South Wales and low-level waste from across Australia.
“We’ve got five grandkids living here on the properties with us,” he says. “If we thought it was dangerous we wouldn’t do this. If I thought it’d upset our grain or sheep we wouldn’t be doing it.”
If his property is selected, Baldock stands to be paid four times the value of 100 hectares of the land, but he says the real advantage would be providing economic benefit to the thousand or so residents of a struggling agricultural district.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for our town – sorry, our community,” he says. “The antis talk about farmers versus the townies. To me it’s one community.”
It isn’t the first time Baldock has nominated land for consideration. Last year the federal government ruled out another property of his after the assessment process was abandoned because of local resistance. But Baldock says those against the proposal didn’t give it a chance………
In nominating again along with another landowner, Baldock has reopened wounds that were only just starting to heal in a community tightly bound by the challenges of an isolated life in the northern reaches of the Eyre peninsula. Last year Kimba held two of the six possible locations flagged by the government for the nuclear waste site, with one other in SA, and one each in Queensland, NSW and the Northern Territory.
Only one of those, the Barndioota site in SA’s Flinders Ranges, advanced to stage two, but it is meeting considerable resistance from Adnyamathanha traditional owners owing to its proximity to significant Indigenous cultural sites. The return to Kimba suggests the choices are narrowing – or vanishing. In March the resources minister, Matt Canavan, launched the new consultation on Kimba, …….. Continue reading
While coal mining contributes to climate change, climate change is wiping out coal mining revenue!
Cyclone Debbie could wipe $200m of coal revenue, John McCarthy, The Courier-Mail, April 5, 2017 THE State Government could lose up to $200 million from coal royalty revenue after Cyclone Debbie knocked out crucial rail links to the coast.
Australia’s security, like America’s, is threatened in unexpected ways, by climate change
The internal cohesion of many nations is already under great stress, including in the United States, as a result of both a dramatic rise in migration, and changes in weather patterns and water availability.
Throughout Asia, climate change will increase regional instability.
The economic and social implications will be profound, with a major effect on Australia’s export-dominated economy.
Climate threatens Australia’s security in unexpected ways, Brisbane Times, Sherri Goodman, 6 Apr 17, When President Donald Trump became the commander-in-chief of the US Armed Forces, he accepted the responsibility to protect my country against enemies, foreign and domestic. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull shares the same responsibility to protect Australians.
Do these leaders understand that a key component of national security and global stability is climate change and the instability it is already causing around the world? The intersection of these two issues is already striking the world in unexpected ways, as climate change interacts with other pre-existing problems to become an accelerant to instability. The consequences include overwhelming humanitarian crises, forced migrations like those we are witnessing around the Mediterranean, and a breakdown in the human systems that make our societies work. Continue reading
New Queensland homes can have Solar + Tesla battery storage
Solar + Tesla battery storage offered in new-build Queensland homes http://reneweconomy.com.au/solar-tesla-battery-storage-offered-in-new-build-queensland-homes-64366/ By Sophie Vorrath on 5 April 2017 One Step Off The Grid
Another of Australia’s major housing developers, the Melbourne-Based group Metricon, will offer rooftop solar and storage as an optional extra in a range of its new-build homes in Queensland, via a new partnership with local installer and Tesla battery reseller CSR Bradford.
CSR Bradford – whose NSW-based company started in insulation more than 80 years ago, and has since expanded into energy efficiency and solar and storage through Bradford Solar – is an accredited Tesla Powerwall reseller, and has been watching the growth of the battery storage market closely over the past few years.
The deal with Metricon, announced this week, takes the company one step closer to its vision of solar and battery storage being included as a standard feature in all newly built houses in Australia – something the company’s managing director, Anthony Tannous has predicted will be the norm in just a few years’ time.
According to the Metricon website, Queensland customers who upgrade to the builder’s “luxury living” offer will get CSR Bradford’s a 5-6kW Solar ChargePack, which includes solar panels, a SolarEdge inverter and Tesla’s 14kWh Powerall 2 lihtiu-ion battery pack.
As Tesla has itself claimed, the Metricon 5kW offer promise to give the average house of four up to 90 per cent electricity self sufficiency on an average day, while the 6kW solar offer is said to give the average Australian family “little or no reliance on the grid.”
In financial terms, households choosing the Luxury Living” upgrade – which costs $1,999 for a single story home and $4,999 for a double story home – is expected to save the Metricon households $2,100 a year on energy costs.
CSR Bradford has similar packages being offered in Victoria, through Arden Homes, and in New South Wales with Mojo Homes.
“I have a vision that every house built in a few years time will have a battery installed, it just makes so much sense,” Tannous told One Step Off The Grid in an interview last month. “We’ve been working with most of the major builders across Australia and a lot of them are starting to include storage as standard… while others offer it as an upgrade,” he said. “And that will just gain more momentum.”
With big solar, Australia can meet renewable energy target of 33,000GWh by 2020
Arrival of big solar puts renewable energy target back on track, REneweconomy, By Sophie Vorrath on 4 April 2017 Australia is now on track to meet its renewable energy target of 33,000GWh by 2020, Australia’s Clean Energy Regulator has said, driven largely by the current burst of growth in the large-scale solar market.
Jay Hender, the Regulator’s general manager of technical assessment and support, said that while building another 6000MW of installed renewable energy capacity between now and 2020 remained a “significant task”, activity in Australia’s renewables sector was mounting by the week.
“We had a very slow start to 2016, which built up to big action in the last quarter, leading into the beginning of (2017),” Hender told the 2017 Large-Scale Solar Conference co-hosted by RenewEconomy and Informa on Monday. He said that 2,000MW of wind and solar had been committed in 2016, and this trend continued into 2017, with another 1GW of commitments.
“We’re tracking pretty well, I would say, for this point in time.”
Hender pointed to the big uptick in large-scale solar activity, that gained momentum at the end of 2016 and was continuing to do so this year, as a big driver of this progress.
Big solar has become a bigger and bigger portion of new installed capacity, and is currently sitting at around 50:50 with wind, Hender said. “That’s a pretty big change over a short period of time,” he added.
And he said the quieter achievements of Australia’s commercial solar sector – big solar’s “poor little cousin” – was also an increasingly important contributor to the 2020 target.
“(Here) you’ve got large, significant energy consumption during the day, and large roof space,” he said, noting the largely untapped potential of the commercial and industrial solar sector.“In essence there’s been a doubling of the capacity of (commercial solar) projects, year on year, year on year.“You don’t have to be a mathematician to know that … amounts to exponential growth. From big things little thing grow,” he said.
Bloomberg New Energy Finance associate Leonard Quong warned that despite this new build, shortfalls could be expected in LGC deliveries in 2018, keeping LGC prices at near penalty prices and maintaining pressure on politicians about the “cost of renewables”, even though the actual cost of the technology continued to fall…….http://reneweconomy.com.au/arrival-of-big-solar-puts-renewable-energy-target-back-on-track-56713/
1 This month.
PETITION – To: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the Australian Labor Government
Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes – A good documentary on Chernobyl on SBS available On Demand for the next 3 weeks– https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/tv-program/chernobyl-the-lost-tapes/235274195556
19 May – Webinar- Webinar: No Nuclear Weapons in Australia
Start: 2026-05-19 18:00:00 UTC Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney (GMT+10:00)
End: 2026-05-19 19:30:00 UTC Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney (GMT+10:00)
20 May – Webinar – The dangerous world of AUKUS, US, military occupation and suppression of dissent
National Webinar, 20th May, 2026, 6.30pm AEST. Confronting laws restricting/suppressing protest speech and action
Speakers: Former Sen. Rex Patrick, Lawyer Nick Hanna ,Arthur Rorris ,Jorgen Doyle, Sen David Shoebbridge,
Facilitator Kelley Tranter.
of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity
Antinuclear 