VEN Blog

By Emily Bissland ABC South West Vic Topic:Marine Biology Tuesday 18 February IMAGE IN ARTICLE Sponge gardens are colourful and diverse ecosystems deep on the ocean floor. (Supplied: Jarrod Boord) In short: Sea sponges are ancient animals that filter ocean water. Researchers are creating sponge nurseries to revitalise Apollo Marine Park. What’s next? Scientists hope […]

Our resident Stats Guy sings praises about the ever-helpful, two-wheeled contraptions that give us incidental exercise in droves. TD The New Daily Feb 17, 2025, updated Feb 17, 2025 In last week’s column I claimed to have been in a time machine as I spent time on a campground with the demographic setup of the […]

a, Schematics of the system during light-off night operation. b, Schematics of the overall system during light-on day operation. c, The carbon capture unit with chemical CO2 capture and release equations. d, The solar-driven CO2U unit material composition and the relevant reduction and oxidation reactions. RT, room temperature; MFC, mass flow controller; PEI, polyethyleneimine; PET, poly(ethylene terephthalate); EG, ethylene […]

Size doubled by government grant to 185 MW / 370 MWh. Image: Edify Energy LinkedIn Sophie Vorrath Feb 18, 2025 STORAGE in renew economy The Koorangie big battery has started exporting energy to the grid in north-west Victoria, with the project’s developer Edify Energy marking the “exciting milestone” for the 185 megwatt (MW), 370 megawatt-hour […]

https://theconversation.com/farmers-investors-miners-and-parents-how-unconventional-climate-advocates-can-reach-new-audiences-249949 Utilizing lignin and glucose as carbon sources to develop novel materials can remove harmful chemicals in water Date: February 19, 2025 Source: Institute of Science Tokyo Summary: New research has emerged on the development of a novel membrane distillation system and an adsorbent (a substance that can trap chemicals on its surface) for the […]

in The Conversation When you think about climate advocates, you’ll likely picture left-leaning environmentalists who live in cities. This group has contributed to building public support for climate action worldwide, through protests, petitions, lobbying and so on. While a majority of Australians understand that climate change is happening and that humans are the main cause, […]

The Green Steel Economic Fairways Mapper compares the levelised cost of steel, including production and transport to the port. a) Regional changes across Australia b) Example of how to optimise the system to minimise the levelised cost of producing 1 million tonnes per annum c) Breakdown of costs d) Hourly system performance, in terms of […]

Image from Renew Economy Andrew Blakers in Renew Economy Feb 20, 2025 BATTERY COMMENTARY PUMPED HYDRO Pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) provides very cheap energy storage (gigawatt-hours). On the other hand, batteries are cheap for storage power (gigawatts). Hybrid storage comprising PHES plus batteries provides very cheap energy storage AND cheap storage power. Normally, solar […]

in 2 min read•Last Updated on July 25, 2024 in library.fiveable Systems thinking in crisis management takes a holistic view of interconnected elements. It recognizes relationships between stakeholders, organizational structures, and environmental factors. This approach helps identify feedback loops and potential unintended consequences in crisis situations. Applying systems thinking leads to more effective crisis management […]

Image: System Dynamics is the operationalization technique of Systems Thinking and can be used both quantitatively and qualitatively. Causal loop diagrams (CLDs) are the primary tool for using System Dynamics qualitatively. A CLD is a diagram representing the main variables/elements that comprise the system under study and the causal relations that connect these variables/elements. in […]

Consultancy tips new wind and solar cheaper than new coal: BloombergNEF (BNEF) estimates that electricity from new wind and solar projects are cheaper than new coal and gas plants “in almost every market globally”. BNEF estimates the levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) from onshore wind could decline to US$37 per megawatt-hour (MWh) in 2025, with […]

Image: Changes in cropland area due to adoption of improved crop varieties (IV) for periods 1961–1985, 1985–2000, 2000–2015, and 1961–2015. in Baldos et. al. “Adoption of improved crop varieties limited biodiversity losses, terrestrial carbon emissions, and cropland expansion in the tropics.” PNAS. 2025.  Higher-yielding crops designed to boost food security and farmer incomes have had […]

Feb 13, 2025 in Renew Economy Joshua S Hill Singaporean renewable microgrid developer Canopy Power has formed a strategic partnership with Norwegian PV innovator Ocean Sun to accelerate the deployment of floating solar projects across Australia. The two companies plan to introduce Ocean Sun’s patented floating solar technology to the Australian market in an effort […]

How a handful of Australians are selling power from their cars back to the grid Published: February 13, 2025 10.16am AEDT Scott Dwyer in The Conversation Research Director, Energy Futures, University of Technology Sydney Jaime Comberin The Conversation Senior Research Consultant in Energy Futures, University of Technology Sydney Kriti Nagrathin The Conversation Research Principal in […]

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and government delegates will meet in Hangzhou, China, from 24 to 28 February to take a number of foundational decisions that will shape the scope and outcomes of the Seventh Assessment Cycle (AR7). Delegates will discuss the outlines of all three Working Group Reports as well as the […]

Microalgal carbon capture and manufacture (CCM) [43, 47–50]. Microalgae’s efficient CO2 biofixation, carbon conversion and long-term storage into high-value biometabolites offers the grounds for developing products and services for an economically profitable, green and circular economy. in Joan Labara Tirado, Andrei Herdean, Peter J. Ralph. The need for smart microalgal bioprospecting. Natural Products and Bioprospecting, 2025; […]

Growth of literature on climate policy instruments (a). The distribution of papers across instrument types and sectors (b), where bar heights correspond to the number of papers in each sector and widths correspond to the share of mentions of instruments within papers on each sector. From Max Callaghan, Lucy Banisch, Niklas Doebbeling-Hildebrandt, Duncan Edmondson, Christian […]

Sophie Vorrath Feb 13, 2025 POLICY & PLANNING Renew Economy The Australian Greens have had a busy week “Dutton-proofing” the legislation underpinning federal Labor’s flagship renewable energy policies to prevent them being used to support coal, gas or nuclear power in the event of a Coalion election victory this year. The Greens say they have […]

Figure 1: Predicted probability of policy adoption (dark lines, left axes) by policy disposition; the distribution of preferences (gray columns, right axes) in Gilens M, Page BI. Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens. Perspectives on Politics. 2014;12(3):564-581. doi:10.1017/S1537592714001595 17 April 2014 By What in the world? in BBC news The US […]

Image: from article (also below) Jens Blotevogel Naomi Boxall Remediation Technologies, CSIRO in The Conversation February 7, 2025 Lithium-ion batteries are part of everyday life. They power small rechargeable devices such as mobile phones and laptops. They enable electric vehicles. And larger versions store excess renewable energy for later use, supporting the clean energy transition. […]