News Portal

Rooftop solar drives out coal, wind and grid-scale solar

Australia’s 3.5 million rooftop solar installations are pumping out so much energy on sunny days that they’re sending wholesale electricity prices into negative territory, forcing large-scale wind and solar farms, as well as coal plants, to reduce generation. Over the past 30 days, rooftops contributed 14.6 per cent to the grid. Bundled together with other renewables such as solar farms, wind and hydro, they generated 42 per cent of the country’s energy over the same period, according to OpenNEM.org.au. Australia could do more to capitalise on rooftop solar, experts say. In South Australia’s electricity market last year, 24 per…

The latest indignity for China’s flawed recovery

China’s disappointing recovery appears to be suffering another indignity. Neighbours whose economic fortunes were supposed to be tied to the heft of the country’s rebound from the pandemic seem to be doing pretty well without it. Far from being pushed into a slump, some bellwethers had a thoroughly respectable year. Bullishness about China was abundant when President Xi Jinping began to dismantle COVID zero at the end of 2022. Credit: AP Singapore, which had been dogged for part of 2023 by fear of recession, finished strongly. South Korea’s economy closed out December with solid momentum. Markets across Asia have been obsessed with…

Rooftop solar drives out coal, wind and grid-scale solar

Australia’s 3.5 million rooftop solar installations are pumping out so much energy on sunny days that they’re sending wholesale electricity prices into negative territory, forcing large-scale wind and solar farms, as well as coal plants, to reduce generation. Over the past 30 days, rooftops contributed 14.6 per cent to the grid. Bundled together with other renewables such as solar farms, wind and hydro, they generated 42 per cent of the country’s energy over the same period, according to OpenNEM.org.au. Australia could do more to capitalise on rooftop solar, experts say. In South Australia’s electricity market last year, 24 per…

Lamb enticing more eateries as livestock glut pushes prices down

Lamb has staged a comeback onto the menus of pubs, clubs and fine dining restaurants as a record volume of the red meat hits the market, driving down prices for diners and grocery shoppers. An oversupply of sheep livestock led to lamb slaughter figures of nearly 647,000 nationally in the week before Christmas, more than 36 per cent higher than the typical numbers of 300,000 to 475,000 a week. Lamb prices per kilogram in the final quarter of 2023 were 17 per cent lower than the same period the year before. Lamb has made a comeback thanks to a record of the volume of the meat nationally. Credit: Nagi Maehashi “One of the things we…

Lamb enticing more eateries as livestock glut pushes prices down

Lamb has staged a comeback onto the menus of pubs, clubs and fine dining restaurants as a record volume of the red meat hits the market, driving down prices for diners and grocery shoppers. An oversupply of sheep livestock led to lamb slaughter figures of nearly 647,000 nationally in the week before Christmas, more than 36 per cent higher than the typical numbers of 300,000 to 475,000 a week. Lamb prices per kilogram in the final quarter of 2023 were 17 per cent lower than the same period the year before. Lamb has made a comeback thanks to a record of the volume of the meat nationally. Credit: Nagi Maehashi “One of the things we…