Innholdsfortegnelse for 173 / Oct-Dec 2025 i Renew Magazine

Back in Renew 169 (just a year ago), we looked at the Mingyang Smart Energy MySE18.X-20MW, a 20MW wind turbine with a rotor up to 292 metres in diameter. Around that time, Siemens Gamesa installed a 21.5MW test turbine, stating they would decide on viability at a later date. Well, the wheels keep turning, and late last year, Chinese manufacturer Dongfang Electric Corporation released their 26MW offshore wind turbine—the world’s largest and highest-output wind turbine. This beast is rated at a massive 26MW and has a hub height of 185 metres and a rotor diameter of 310 metres, giving it a swept area of a huge 75,477m2. It is specifically designed for medium to high wind speed sea areas with wind speeds above 8m/s. The machine is rated to produce…

The Golden Plains Wind Farm, situated in the Golden Plains Shire, Rokewood, around 60km north-west of Geelong, Victoria, will be by far Australia’s largest wind farm once fully operational. The wind farm, once complete, will consist of 215 Vestas V162 6.2MW turbines, spread across multiple land holdings totalling 16,739 hectares. Total capacity of the site is a massive 1.33GW, making it the largest wind farm in Australia (there are larger proposed sites, but they haven’t eventuated yet). Each turbine features a 165 metre diameter rotor and hub heights up to 150 metres. Once complete, the wind farm will generate over 4000GWh of renewable electricity annually—enough energy for more than 765,000 homes—offsetting more than 4.5 million tonnes of CO2 emissions each year. The project is being installed in two stages. Golden…

At the start and end of every school day, many Australian children head to the carpark or street to get picked up. While they’re waiting, they will be breathing in a mix of toxic gases and particle pollution. Why? Because many parents leave their car engines idling while parked. The practice leads to noticeable spikes in pollutants which can trigger asthma attacks and harm student health. Idling is a surprisingly high cause of carbon emissions, too. Previous research suggests Australian drivers leave their cars idling up to 20% of their total travel time, producing as much as 8% of a trip’s emissions. Our new research shows how primary school students from two Melbourne schools made a real difference using a simple, child-led solution: talking about the problem with their parents.…

“The total amount of waste created per person per year has increased by 10kg since 2016/17 and needs to be reduced by about 300kg per person by 2030 for Australia to meet its National Waste Policy Action Plan targets.” Australians produce a lot of waste. More precisely, we produced 2.88 tonnes of waste per person in the 2022/23 financial year, adding up to 75.6 million tonnes of waste between us1. Not only is that number staggeringly high, it’s been on an upward trajectory and has seen Australia rank among the worst-performing nations when it comes to waste reduction2. The total amount of waste created per person per year has increased by 10kg since 2016/17 and needs to be reduced by about 300kg per person by 2030 for Australia to meet…

“If we can make changes now to improve the performance of the house and use less electricity, that’s part of the end game for us.” Carina McNaughton, Hoppers Crossing VIC A solar inverter reaching the end of its operating life was the catalyst for Carina McNaughton to have a serious think about the future of her home energy system. And the federal government’s rebate made investing in her family’s first battery the obvious next step. “I had been umming and ahhing a bit about getting a battery, and I thought now there’s the rebate we might as well get one this time,” Carina says. “So we now have a battery and I am obsessed. It’s fascinating to me. I look at the app all the time to see how much…

Worldwide, passenger vehicle plug-in EV sales this year are likely to reach one quarter of all new cars sold. As such, the passenger car can be said to have well and truly passed the tipping point on its way to full electrification. Australia is a little further behind though, with plug-in EV sales hovering around 13% (9.31% BEV, 3.79% PHEV). One area I haven’t written about much though is the electrification of the world’s bus fleet. With regular defined runs (and in suburban settings, relatively short) and a limited number of types/sizes of buses available (as compared to, say, the plethora of electric SUV types!), they would seem a low-hanging fruit, ripe for electrification. However, two issues have to some degree worked against them. The first is battery cost. To…

Soft plastics recycling back on track, sort of With the collapse of the REDcycle soft plastic scheme in 2022, most soft plastic packaging in Australia has been heading straight to landfill. But that is now changing with the recent opening of a soft plastics recycling facility in NSW. The new facility on the New South Wales Mid North Coast can process up to 14,000 tonnes a year of household soft plastics into pellets and flakes, which can then be used as feedstock by the plastics manufacturing industry to create new plastic products. Owned by iQRenew, the plant has been trialled converting the REDcycle plastics stockpile from NSW, Queensland and Western Australia, which allowed the company to refine the processes. The new plant is a step up from previous efforts, being…

While most of the big batteries so far have been in the eastern states and connected to the NEM (National Electricity Market, see shorturl.at/zYBau) grid, it’s interesting that the largest (currently) in the land is connected to the largest grid on the other side of the country, WA’s South-West Interconnected System. The recently commissions second stage of the Collie Battery adds 341MW of power capacity and 1363MWh of storage capacity to the existing 219MW and 877MWh of stage one, bring the totals to 560MW and 2240MWh, making it the largest capacity battery in the country, beating out the 1680MWh Waratah Super Battery (although the Warratah battery has a power capacity of 850MW). Like most of the big batteries installed so far, the Collie battery is aimed at soaking up excess…

NATHAN SCOLARO: You’ve created a toolkit to help people understand what happens with ageing renewable projects. Who is it for and why is it an important resource? BRIDGET RYAN: We created this toolkit to provide clear, factual information to help landholders, communities and local councils understand what happens when renewable energy projects reach retirement age. A key part of our job is working with regional communities where large scale projects are being built or proposed, and the topic of what happens to renewable projects as they get to the end of their operational life is increasingly coming up. There’s a big information gap on this issue, so we decided to fill it. Renewable energy has been part of Australia’s energy mix for decades and some of the earliest projects have…

Camara Cassin sat on a blanket in the yoga garden at the Shambala music festival, whipped out a notebook, and began to sketch her dream house. Twelve hours later, she’d designed an entire, self-sustaining city that could be built to withstand climate calamity. “I was designing a passive solar house, then that turned into a multiple storey building for thousands of people and then it kept expanding,” said Cassin. “It felt like some sort of ‘download’ from the universe, and by the end I knew turning the vision into a reality would be my life’s purpose.” The ‘download’ may have unfurled over 12 hours, but it had been incubating for decades. “After I had my first daughter, I suddenly realised that humanity wasn’t making any sense. The way we were…

While one in three homes in Australia now has solar, far fewer have any form of energy storage. There has been a slow, steady increase in the number of solar systems installed with storage included, at least until recently, when the federal government battery rebate (known as the Cheaper Home Batteries Program) came into play, combined with considerable reduction in battery prices. Since then, the number of battery installations has ballooned, with over 43,500 new solar/battery installations across the country (at time of writing) since the rebate started in July 2025. The rebate, available for batteries connected to new or existing solar PV systems, provides a discount of around 30% on the upfront cost of installing small-scale battery systems in the range of 5kWh to 100kWh. This has not only…

Natural capital accounting, also called environmental economics, is a method of measuring and reporting on nature. Natural capital accountants look at nature as a collection of assets. They consider the extent of particular geographic areas—for example, the number of hectares in a forest, or the length and breadth of a waterway. Then they ask: • What condition are the assets in? For example: is the soil healthy? Is the water clean? • What services do the assets provide? The services can be anything from water filtration to food production or carbon sequestration. • What benefits do the assets provide the world? Humans love clean air, fresh water, healthy food and beautiful landscapes—and natural capital accountants can measure these benefits. The intrinsic value of nature While some people believe that money…

Back in Renew 162 we looked at Polar Night Energy’s first sand battery installation, a 100kW/8MWh system designed to store thermal energy at temperatures above 500°C for a district heating network in Finland. Well, Polar Night’s latest battery, operating in the district heating system of the Finnish municipality of Pornainen, features a large jump in capacity—it is rated at 1MW/100MWh, and provides enough thermal storage for the entire town for a week in winter or a full month in summer. These thermal batteries are extremely simple, and consist of a large steel cylinder full of sand, heated to temperatures up to 600°C. The 13 metre diameter cylinder stands 15 metres high and is filled with sustainably sourced sand made of crushed soapstone, a byproduct of another local industry. Polar Night…

“You need a reasonably unified strata committee who is on board with your idea. So, my tip is: don’t go too far alone. Have a conversation with your fellow strata committee members early.” When we talk about energy-efficient homes, the conversation often centres on freestanding dwellings—leaving apartment living out of the picture. Many assume retrofitting or electrifying an apartment is too complex to be worth the effort. But that perception is shifting. Across Australia, apartment dwellers are taking practical steps to electrify their homes and buildings. ZapCat is a certified social enterprise that helps Australian households transition to clean energy. They collaborate with local councils to provide personalised recommendations for households, connect residents with vetted installers, help obtain quotes and provide quote reviews if required. They also frequently help apartment…

The Cheaper Home Batteries Program is a federal government rebate which commenced on 1 July 2025. It’s a national rebate scheme providing households with a discount of approximately 30% on eligible home battery installations. The initiative is an extension of the existing Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme (SRES), originally created for solar panel rebates. The subsidy provides approximately $372 per usable kilowatt-hour (kWh) of battery capacity, which means a typical 10kWh battery could attract around $3,700 off the upfront cost. Importantly, the rebate is not means tested. It can be claimed once per household, and is also open to businesses and community groups, with a cap of 50kWh—or a maximum discount of $18,500. Households and businesses that already have a battery can also take advantage of the scheme if they want…

Our century-old weatherboard cottage in the upper Blue Mountains was leaky and expensive to run when my partner and I purchased it in early 2023. While we are both committed to living as sustainably as we can, she was a little skeptical when I said I’d like to electrify it as she loved cooking on a gas cooktop and wasn’t sure if a reverse-cycle air conditioning system could keep our old cottage warm enough in the middle of winter. As we’d just taken on the large financial commitment of a new home, we had to seek carbon- and cost-effective solutions. This is the story of what we’ve managed to achieve in our first year, the decisions we made, as well as some of the surprises and shocks. Urban myths about…