Amongst all the political shenanigans in Australia, it’s good to see the world still powering ahead with solar energy. In the USA, a new plant looks like going ahead, having received a key approval, that will be the world’s largest ever at 1,000 MW – this is the size of a large coal power station. It’s really just a very fancy solar hot water heater, concentrating sun light to then make steam to drive turbines.

Here in Australia we are also getting moving, with AGL recently announcing a $1 billion 420 MW wind farm in Victoria. Of course Telstra is doing its bit with over 10,000 solar powered sites up and running. While there aren’t many 1,000 MW phone boxes around (!), all these initiatives around the world add up. Investment in renewables globally is likely to set a new record this year, having kept high at over $100 billion per year during the financial crisis. So progress is definitely being made.

@admin [+]September 17th, 2010, 14:26