Writer
Giles Parkinson
Giles Parkinson is founder and editor of Renew Economy, and is also the founder of One Step Off The Grid and founder/editor of the EV-focused The Driven. He is the co-host of the weekly Energy Insiders Podcast. Giles has been a journalist for 40 years and is a former business and deputy editor of the Australian Financial Review. You can find him on LinkedIn and on Twitter.
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CSIRO patiently and methodically slaps down Peter Dutton’s nuclear nonsense
Australia’s premier scientific organisation, the CSIRO, has patiently and methodically slapped down the major nuclear talking points promoted by Coalition leader Peter Dutton in its latest GenCost report, which confirms – yet again – that integrated wind and solar are easily the cheapest option. Continue reading »
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“The world’s greatest deceivers”: Andrew Forrest takes aim at Woodside and Exxon
It didn’t take long after Donald Trump and the Republicans swept the polls in the US elections for the Australian fossil fuel industry and its political enablers to do what they like to do best: Celebrate a victory at the expense of the rest of the world. Continue reading »
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World teeters on brink as Trump and cronies prepare to flood the zone with shit
Are you OK? It seems an important question as the unhinged and unrestrained president Donald Trump is swept back into power and the world contemplates the implications for the climate, for civil discourse, for women, for minorities, for society as a whole, and for our children and their children. Continue reading »
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China solar giant Trina seeks approval for biggest battery project in Australia
The Chinese-based solar giant Trina Solar has submitted plans to build what would be the biggest battery storage facility in Australia, at Kemerton in an industrial zone south of Perth. Continue reading »
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Big battery market charges beyond expectations, now the grid just needs more wind and solar
The big battery storage market continues to charge ahead beyond expectations, buoyed by the doubling of planned capacity at what is already Queensland’s biggest battery, and a host of new projects that have taken the sector to levels and dimensions not contemplated even 12 months ago. Continue reading »
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Five things we learned this week from Ted’s Talk and people who actually know stuff
The Ted Talk: Not reading the room? Chutzpah? Or maybe the Opposition energy spokesman Ted O’Brien was simply unaware that he wasn’t speaking to the local town hall meeting, Sky after Dark or the Institute of Public Affairs. Continue reading »
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A town like Alice. How a complex, isolated solar grid could provide blueprint for rest of Australia
Alice Springs is near the very centre of Australia: An iconic town made famous by its isolation, people, and multiple books and movies, and which now finds itself at the forefront of how to transition large isolated grids from fossil fuels to renewable energy. Continue reading »
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South Australia’s world-leading renewable transition is attracting flood of new industry
Will a grid based around wind and solar kill manufacturing and industry? It’s what the naysayers – the Coalition and conservative agitators – want you to believe, but the experience in South Australia, which leads the world in the uptake of wind and solar, proves the opposite. Continue reading »
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AEMO slams Murdoch media campaign that claims renewables are not low cost
The Australian Energy Market Operator has made a rare foray into the mainstream media debate around the green energy transition, saying claims that its cost assessment of renewables does not include transmission and storage are “wrong.” Continue reading »
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Bowen: “It’s too late to avoid the climate emergency”
Australia’s climate and energy minister Chris Bowen says the extreme weather events of recent years, and the heatwaves sweeping the globe in this northern summer, show that the world has already failed to prevent a climate emergency. Continue reading »
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Morrison’s media code could be catastrophic for climate and energy news
Morrison’s government could hardly have wished for a better outcome. The core of their supplicant media is to receive millions to continue their cheering from the sidelines, while independent voices such as RenewEconomy risk being squeezed by these secret deals. Yet big media companies and the competition regulator claim this to be some sort of Continue reading »
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Coal! Coal! Coal! for Australia, as bushfires and denial greet Olympic year (Reneweconomy 13.1.2020)
So much for the great Australian summer holidays. The apocalyptic vision and impacts of the brutal bushfires that have devastated large swathes of the country, and covered much of the rest in choking smoke, is accompanied by an unwanted record. Continue reading »
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South Australia’s stunning renewable energy transition, and what comes next (Renew Economy 5-11-19)
The eyes of the energy world are upon it, but the renewable energy transition in South Australia is probably one of the misunderstood, misreported and under-appreciated achievements of our time. Continue reading »
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Coalition signs off with a budget tailored for climate denial (RenewEconomy, 2.4.19)
The federal Coalition government has delivered its last budget before the May poll, and pretty much finished the way it started in government nearly six years ago: Long term climate and clean energy policies and technologies are ignored, and the focus is on trinkets and handouts. Continue reading »
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Morrison puts lipstick on Tony Abbott’s pig of a climate policy (Renew Economy).
Prime minister Scott Morrison has finally unveiled his climate policy and it is clearly designed to do two things: Placate the core rump of climate deniers and ideologues within his own party and the conservative media, and try to fool enough others that the Coalition is doing something to address a problem it barely admits Continue reading »
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Coalition energy and climate policies hit rock bottom at year’s end
The federal Coalition government has achieved what most would have assumed impossible at the start of 2018: its position on climate and energy policies has worsened and shifted even further to the right. Continue reading »
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Lazard hails “inflection point” as wind, solar costs beat new and old fossils (Renew Economy)
Lazard hails “inflection point” as wind, solar costs beat new and old fossils. Continue reading »
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Coalition’s breathtakingly stupid response to IPCC climate report (RenewEconomy, 09.10.18)
It wasn’t too hard to predict what the Coalition government’s responses to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report would be – you just needed to know where they would be making them. Continue reading »
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Business gives up on Coalition, turns to Labor and states on energy, climate
Here’s the most damning assessment of the Coalition’s energy and climate policy, such as it remains after the crucifixion of Malcolm Turnbull and the elevation of conservatives Scott Morrison as prime minister and Angus Taylor as energy minister: Continue reading »
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Taylor confirms no interest in emissions, but says he’s no climate skeptic (RenewEconomy, 30.08.18)
New energy minister Angus Taylor has confirmed what was largely expected: that he has no interest in emission reductions under the remit handed him by prime minister Scott Morrison, and that his primary focus will be on reducing prices for consumers. Continue reading »
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Morrison names leading anti-wind campaigner as energy minister
New prime minister Scott Morrison has ended the experiment of combining the energy and environment portfolios, and appointed one of the country’s most prominent anti-wind campaigners as energy minister, and a former mining industry lawyer as environment minister. Continue reading »
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GILES PARKINSON & SOPHIE VORRATH “Scoal-Mo” as PM. What does that mean for climate and energy policy? (RenewEconomy, 24.08.18)
It says something about the state of Australia’s politics that the new prime minister, the man who brandished a lump of coal in parliament, is considered a moderate, at least in comparison to the forces he beat to the job. Continue reading »
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Turnbull survives as puppet of right wing, as Australia burns (RenewEconomy, 21.08.18)
At least in 2009, Turnbull left his job as then Opposition leader with his dignity intact.But not now. Continue reading »
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NEG in the air as Nationals go for coal, and Barnaby goes nuts
The timetable for a final decision on the controversial National Energy Guarantee has been thrown into the air amid a renewed push for coal generation by the National Party following the Coalition’s “super-Saturday” by-election defeats last weekend. Continue reading »
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Bad news for coal-huggers: Renewables at 50% by 2030
“King coal to rule for 20 more years” screamed the front page lead headline in The Australian, following the release of the Australian Energy Market Operator’s 20-year blueprint for the future of energy, known as its Integrated System Plan. Continue reading »
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South Australia’s renewable energy future hangs by a thread
It’s an election that is impossible to call. And too important to ignore. Continue reading »
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Weatherill: Why state election will be a referendum on renewables
South Australia Premier Jay Weatherill might not be able to see much daylight between his Labor Party and the rival Liberals and SA Best, but he’s certainly making sure there is a big difference between his energy policy and those of the Opposition and the upstart party of Nick Xenophon. Continue reading »
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SA Labor shoots for 75% renewables, 25% storage target
South Australia’s Labor government has doubled down on its commitment to renewable energy, promising to increase the share of renewables to 75 per cent by 2025 if re-elected at next month’s state poll, and announcing plans to install 750MW of “renewable storage” to go with it. Continue reading »
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Battery storage leaves fossil fuels and regulators in state of intertia
The brain cells are working overtime at the headquarters of network owners, grid operators, generators, and regulators. Australia’s electricity grid is about to make the leap from analogue to digital, and everyone is scrambling to keep up. Continue reading »
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Shorten hails cheap wind and solar, but will he stop Adani
You would have missed it, if you were relying on mainstream media, but Labor leader Bill Shorten did actually mention clean energy and climate policies in his scene-setting speech for 2018, which may well turn out to be an election year. Continue reading »