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China’s energy consumption rose 3.3% last year, the government announced Thursday, in what analysts said likely meant a 3% increase in CO2 emissions fuelled by surging power demand from sectors linked to the nation’s construction boom.

Windlab says connection delays, floods and EPC problems causes "force majeure" on world-first wind, solar, battery park, and warns new connection rules are pushing up costs of renewables.

The post Windlab declares “force majeure” on Kennedy wind, solar battery project appeared first on RenewEconomy.

US President Donald Trump says the talks were positive but "sometimes you have to walk".

Our selection of winning and shortlisted photographs from the 2018 competition

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In his new series Metamorphosis, photographer Jake Mosher composes artworks using hundreds of exposures of highly magnified butterflies’ and moths’ wings

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Emissions for the year to September 2018 up 0.9% as Morrison government attempts a policy pivot on climate

Emissions in Australia are continuing to rise, with the latest increases driven predominantly by an increase in liquefied natural gas production in Western Australia.

Emissions for the year to September 2018 went up 0.9% on the previous year, according to the latest inventory, primarily due to a 19.7% increase in LNG exports, but there were also increases in stationary energy, transport, fugitives, industrial processes and waste sectors.

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60% of the world's meteorites have been found in Antarctica. But what's it like for those who have to look for them?

Biologist Rob Dunn is the David Attenborough of the domestic sphere, uncovering everything from microbes in the shower to spiders in the basement. He goes on safari in the satisfyingly dusty corners of one Copenhagen home

The good news is that I will never be home alone again. The bad news – well, it’s not in fact bad news, but it is slightly unsettling – is that I share my home with at least 5,000 other species: wasps, flies, spiders, silverfish and an exotic bunch of wild bacteria.

All that information is apparently contained in a patch of grey dust I have just swabbed with my right index finger from a door frame in my living room. It’s like a DNA test of my house, says Rob Dunn, a 43-year-old American biologist who has come to my house in Copenhagen to hunt microbial life. He carries no lab gear and his blue crewneck jumper and striped Oxford shirt are hardly the combat suit of an exterminator. But with every discovery we make, with every spider we find lurking in the corner or each swab of dust, he displays an almost childlike sense of excitement. He swears and smiles, even whoops with delight: “This dust sample contains bacteria, your body microbes, your wife’s body microbes, your child’s body microbes. If you smoke weed we would find marijuana DNA in there. Everything is visible, but it’s also present in every breath. Every time you inhale, you inhale that story of your home.”

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Victoria regulator ups solar tariffs for minimum "single rate", but slashes the peak rate for solar exports by more than half.

The post Victoria regulator lifts fixed rooftop solar export tariffs, slashes peak rate appeared first on RenewEconomy.

Victoria’s first waste-to-energy project is going ahead but these projects threaten recycling and could pose health concerns

It’s the controversial scheme that’s attracting attention across the nation but as more waste-to-energy facilities get the green light, critics fear the opportunity to improve Australia’s recycling industry is going up in smoke.

Waste-to-energy, also called bioenergy, has been used in Europe, east Asia and the United States for decades to destroy garbage that would otherwise go to landfill. The trash is burned as feedstock at high temperatures to create fuel, gas or steam that drives a turbine and churns out electricity.

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ASX-listed Australian flow battery maker says it can boost production of its ZMB2 batteries to 30MWh a year, and cut costs by 30% by 2020.

The post Redflow says on track to cut flow battery production costs by one-third appeared first on RenewEconomy.

A daily summary of our news plus bite-sized updates from around the world.

Britain has a new order of insects - thanks to stowaways setting up home in the warmth of a glasshouse.

The first British-led expedition to gather space rocks in the Antarctic returns with 36 objects.

Simec Energy’s Marc Barrington on the Gupta company’s plans for clean energy, the PUB battery at Port Augusta, and trying to make sense of the Coalition energy policy.

The post Energy Insiders Podcast: Simec Energy and ScoMo’s big hydro pump appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The Oregon Court of Appeals on Wednesday upheld the state’s Clean Fuels Program (OCFP) after an industry trade group had argued that a regulatory agency improperly implemented the low-carbon fuel standard several years ago.

France could move to a floating carbon tax linked to oil prices in an attempt to calm unrest and allay consumer concerns, modifying the government's current and highly-divisive approach of fixing a schedule of steep annual rises, President Emmanuel Macron said this week.

NSW Labor says will target at least 50% renewables by 2030, and 100% of state government electricity needs by 2025.

The post NSW Labor aims for “at least” 50% renewables by 2030 appeared first on RenewEconomy.

The first quarterly WCI current vintage auction of 2019 sold out at the higher end of traders' predictions, according to results released Wednesday, despite the absence of embattled California utility Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E).

California regulator ARB gave out more than 2.5 million carbon offsets (CCOs) this week, with forestry projects bringing in nearly the entirety of that amount.