Renewables are cheap. So why isn’t your power bill falling?

Steve Tritton/Shutterstock Tony Wood, Grattan InstitutePower prices are set to go up again even though renewables now account for 40% of the electricity in Australia’s main grid – close to quadruple the clean power we had just 15 years ago. How can that be, given renewables are the cheapest form of newly built power generation? This is a fair question. As Australia heads for a federal election campaign likely to focus on the rising cost of living, many of us are wondering when, exactly, cheap renewables will bring cheap power. The simple answer is – not yet. While solar and wind farms produce power at remarkably low cost, they need to be built where it’s sunny or windy. Our existing transmission lines link gas and coal power stations to cities. Connecting renewables to the grid requires expensive new transmission lines, as well as storage for when the wind isn’t blowing or the sun isn’t shining. Notably, Victoria’s mooted price increase of 0.7% was much lower than other states, which would be as high as 8.9% in parts of New South Wales. This is due to Victoria’s influx of renewables – and good connections to other states. Because Victoria can draw cheap wind from South Australia, hydroelectricity from Tasmania or coal power from New South Wales through a good transmission line network, it has kept wholesale prices...

Read More........→March 22, 2025

Second-Ever Elusive Night Parrot Egg Discovered in Australia Where it Had Been ‘Extinct’ for 100 Years

Ngururrpa Ranger Lucinda Gibson gently holding the unfertilised night parrot egg – credit: supplied by Ngururrpa Rangers.Though it was unfertilized and therefore never destined to become an animal, the discovery of a night parrot egg in Western Australia has jolted the nation’s indigenous conservation community into excitement and action.Discovered last September in a vast and remote area called the Kimberly in Western Australia state, it’s hoped the egg can reveal some information about the bird’s breeding habits—of which virtually nothing is known.Adult night parrots are ground-dwelling birds that fly – Photo by Steve MurphyThe night parrot is one of the great natural enigmas left in the world: a parrot that flies but lives in burrows; that’s nocturnal, and virtually unobserved by modern science.Indigenous communities like the Kiwirrkurra and Ngururrpa, on whose lands night parrots have been confirmed to survive, have a sight-unseen relationship with the night parrot, identifying it by its calls across the deserts and drylands of Western Australia and Queensland.In 2013 a wildlife photographer captured video footage of a live bird in Queensland, confirming its existence for the first time in almost a century. Since then, they’ve been identified by their calls in two Indigenous Protected Areas (IPA) managed by the two communities...

Read More........→February 18, 2025

It’s official: Australia’s ocean surface was the hottest on record in 2024

Moninya Roughan, UNSW SydneyAustralia’s sea surface temperatures were the warmest on record last year, according to a snapshot of the nation’s climate which underscores the perilous state of the world’s oceans. The Bureau of Meteorology on Thursday released its annual climate statement for 2024 – the official record of temperature, rainfall, water resources, oceans, atmosphere and notable weather. Among its many alarming findings were that sea surface temperatures were hotter than ever around the continent last year: a whopping 0.89°C above average. Oceans cover more than 70% of Earth’s surface, and their warming is gravely concerning. It causes sea levels to rise, coral to bleach and Earth’s ice sheets to melt faster. Hotter oceans also makes weather on land more extreme and damages the marine life which underpins vital ocean ecosystems. What the snapshot showed Australia’s climate varies from year to year. That’s due to natural phenomena such as the El Niño and La Niña climate drivers, as well as human-induced climate change. The bureau confirmed 2024 was Australia’s second-warmest year since national records began in 1910. The national annual average temperature was 1.46°C warmer than the long-term average (1961–90). Heatwaves struck large parts of Australia early in the year, and...

Read More........→February 13, 2025

To save Australia’s animals, scientists must count how many are left. But what if they’re getting it wrong?

Shutterstock/ Glenda Rees David Lindenmayer, Australian National University; Benjamin Scheele, Australian National University; Elle Bowd, Australian National University, and Maldwyn John Evans, Australian National UniversityHumans are causing enormous damage to the Earth, and about one million plant and animal species are now at risk of extinction. Keeping track of what’s left is vital to conserving biodiversity. Biodiversity monitoring helps document changes in animal and plant populations. It tells us whether interventions, such as controlling feral predators, are working. It also helps experts decide if a species is at risk of extinction. However, long-term biodiversity monitoring can be expensive and time consuming – and it is chronically underfunded. This means monitoring is either not done at all, or only done in a small part of the range of a species. Our new research shows these limitations can produce an inaccurate picture of how a species is faring. This is a problem for conservation efforts, and Australia’s new “nature repair market”. It’s also a problem for Australia’s unique and vulnerable biodiversity. How monitoring works Biodiversity monitoring involves looking for a plant or animal species, or traces of it, and recording what was found, as well as when and where. Depending on the species, scientists...

Read More........→February 05, 2025

In 2025, let’s make it game on – not game over – for our precious natural world

Jakub Maculewicz/Shutterstock Darcy Watchorn, Deakin University and Marissa Parrott, The University of MelbourneIt’s just past midnight in the cool, ancient forests of Tasmania. We’ve spent a long day and night surveying endangered Tasmanian devils. All around, small animals scurry through bushes. A devil calls in the darkness. Microbats swoop and swirl as a spotted-tailed quoll slips through the shadows. Working here is spine-tingling and electric. Weeks later, we’re in a moonlit forest in Victoria. It was logged a few years earlier and burnt by bushfire a few decades before that. The old trees are gone. So too are the quolls, bats and moths that once dwelled in their hollows. Invasive blackberry chokes what remains. The silence is deafening, and devastating. In our work as field biologists, we often desperately wish we saw a place before it was cleared, logged, burnt or overtaken by invasive species. Other times, we hold back tears as we read about the latest environmental catastrophe, overwhelmed by anger and frustration. Perhaps you know this feeling of grief? The new year is a chance to reflect on the past and consider future possibilities. Perhaps we’ll sign up to the gym, spend more time with family, or – perish the thought – finally get to the dentist. But let us also set a New Year’s resolution for nature. Let’s...

Read More........→January 17, 2025

‘Unseen world’: researchers capture fascinating footage of the world’s smallest penguins in a bid to save them

Diane Colombelli-Négrel, Flinders UniversityOn Granite Island off South Australia, a colony of little penguins is fighting to survive. About two decades ago, the penguins numbered 1,600 adults – now there are just 30. It is important for scientists to monitor and study this little penguin colony, to observe their behaviours and stop their numbers from declining. In our latest research project, my colleagues and I captured footage of the penguins over several breeding seasons, as part of a study into their parenting behaviours. It provides a fascinating behind-the-scenes glimpse into the unseen world of these vulnerable birds. So let’s take a look at what Granite Island’s little penguins get up to when humans aren’t watching. Granite Island’s colony of little penguins is fighting to survive. ShutterstockThe world’s tiniest penguin Little penguins (Eudyptula novaehollandiae) are the world’s smallest penguin species. They typically grow to about 35 centimetres and weigh an average 1.2 kilograms. They live in coastal waters in Tasmania and southern Australia – including on Granite Island, about 100 kilometres south of Adelaide. The island is connected to the mainland by a causeway, and draws up to 800,000 visitors a year. The stark decline in little penguin numbers on Granite Island is due to several factors. They include...

Read More........→December 24, 2024

If our hot water heaters ran off daytime solar, we would slash emissions and soak up cheap energy

nikkytok/Shutterstock Baran Yildiz, UNSW Sydney and Hossein Saberi, UNSW SydneyYour hot shower or bath uses 15-30% of your household’s total energy, second only to the heating and cooling of air. More than half of all Australian households rely on electric water heaters with a storage tank. These act like thermal batteries and often store more energy than a home battery. Traditionally, these heaters operated during off-peak hours overnight when power demand was low. This practice also helps maintain stability for coal power stations. But there’s a better option: cheap heating at daytime. More than 40% of freestanding Australian houses now have solar. Switching water heaters to charge during the day can soak up solar power going to waste – known as curtailment – and make sure electricity supply and demand match. In our new real world trial, we put this technique to the test and found it works. The smart meter rollout is complete in Victoria, while other states are following suit. ARVD73/ShutterstockFrom propping up coal to soaking up solar Electric water heaters have traditionally be set to operate off-peak. On your electricity bill, it would be listed as a “controlled load” item. Switching from night to day isn’t as easy as flicking a switch. It’s often hardwired. The solution: use smart meters. Almost all Victorian...

Read More........→November 27, 2024

Australian-German research finds world-first cure for deadly skin disease

Sydney, (IANS): Researchers from Australia and Germany have for the first time cured patients suffering from toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN), a deadly skin disease, said a news release on Monday.An international collaboration, including researchers from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI) in Melbourne and the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Germany, has developed the first-ever cure for TEN in a breakthrough study published in Nature, WEHI said in a news release on Monday.Also known as Lyell's syndrome, TEN is a rare skin disease that causes widespread blistering and detachment of the skin and can lead to dehydration, sepsis, pneumonia and organ failure, Xinhua news agency reported.The potentially deadly condition is triggered by a severe adverse reaction to common medications and has a mortality rate of approximately 30 per cent.The new study identified a hyperactivation of the JAK-STAT signaling pathway - a chain of interactions between proteins in a cell that is involved in processes such as immunity, cell death and tumour formation - as a driver of TEN.By using JAK inhibitors - an existing class of drugs used to treat inflammatory diseases - they were able to treat patients with TEN."Finding a cure for lethal diseases like this is the holy grail of medical research. I am beyond proud of this...

Read More........→November 13, 2024

What is 3-phase power? And how do I know if my house needs it?

Asma Aziz, Edith Cowan UniversityIf you’re building, renovating or planning to install a solar battery, your builder or installer might ask whether you’ve considered upgrading from single-phase to three-phase power. This upgrade often comes with a hefty price tag. So what’s the difference between single-phase and three-phase power, and which one will you need? Understanding your electricity needs Each house service connection has a maximum amount of electricity that can be drawn from the grid at any one time before the main fuse blows. The limit varies, according to whether you have single- or three-phase power. The amount is calculated by multiplying a house’s “amps” and “voltage”. An “amp” is a unit of electric current. Most houses in Australia with single-phase connections have a standard capacity of 63 amps. In New South Wales, the standard is 100 amps. However, some older or rural homes in Australia may still have connections of 32 or 40 amps. Then there’s voltage, which is the pressure that pushes the current through your wiring to power your house. Current and voltage values are determined by the local distribution network service provider, the company that owns and operates the poles and wires. Since 2000, the standard voltage in most areas of Australia has been 230 volts. In Western Australia, it’s 240 volts....

Read More........→October 01, 2024

Crystals hold a secret history of volcanoes – and clues about future eruptions

An eruption at Mt Stromboli in Italy. J Caulfield Teresa Ubide, The University of QueenslandImagine you had a crystal ball that revealed when a volcano would next erupt. For the hundreds of millions of people around the world who live near active volcanoes, it would be an extremely useful device. As it turns out, certain crystals really can help us forecast volcanic eruptions. These crystals are produced in molten rock as it travels from deep inside Earth to the surface. With increasingly sophisticated scientific methods, we can extract a secret history of volcanoes from these crystals – the why, where and when of past eruptions. These historical records can help us interpret if signs of volcano unrest, such as earthquakes tracking the movement of magma towards the surface, may lead to an eruption. So, as I explain in a new column in Nature Geoscience, we are getting closer to having crystal balls (for volcanoes, at least). Volcano crystal balls Magma, the super-hot molten rock which feeds volcanic eruptions, is generated many tens of kilometres below the surface in Earth’s mantle. Lava engulfing houses during the 2021 eruption at La Palma in the Canary Islands. R BalcellsOn its journey up to the surface, magma may get stalled in different reservoirs along the way, and travel to its eventual eruption along a complex...

Read More........→September 19, 2024