Peak Energy - Supporting Better Place Australia

Better Place Australia is looking for supporters and is handing out bumper stickers promoting electric vehicles to those who want to take part - "imagine. be part of it.."

Energy Matters - Australian Researchers Help Break Solar Power Conversion Record

Researchers from the University of New South Wales have played the key role in attaining the highest conversion efficiency for solar power, setting a new world record of 43 per cent of sunlight converted into electricity.

Led by Scientia Professor Martin Green, Research Director of the UNSW ARC Photovoltaics Centre of Excellence, the University of New South Wales team with assistance of US groups have demonstrated a multi-cell combination which has set the new benchmark.

The Australian - Unseamly standoff over coal evolution at Newcastle

The increasingly controversial future of the Hunter Valley is inland, beyond even the reaches of the western coalfields. There coal's next generation is defined, as much as anything, by the Hoskisson Seam, a 10 metre strip of coal that runs for 23km at no more than 325m below one of the ridges that fringe the legendary pastoral runs of the Liverpool flood plains.

Hoskisson is one of five of the east-west coal seams that fuel BHP's determination to proceed with the Caroona coal project, about 35km southeast of Gunnedah.

And Caroona is one of two projects that will introduce large-scale underground coalmining to the Gunnedah Basin. The second big exploratory project is called Watermark and was acquired at extraordinary cost ($675 million) last year by the world's second biggest coalminer, Shenhua.

Business Spectator - ACCC probes Caltex-Mobil deal

Business Spectator - Adding fuel to Caltex's fire

It won’t have come as a shock to Caltex that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has some "issues" with its proposed $300 million acquisition of much of Mobil’s retail network.

Anything to do with petrol has historically tended to galvanise the commission and the prospect of further consolidation of the sector was always going to be scrutinised intensely and sceptically. That even Woolworths, Caltex’s largest wholesale customer, appears to have significant reservations about the deal will only have heightened the ACCC’s concerns.

SMH- 'Few checks' made on big projects

ONLY a small proportion of environmental conditions imposed on projects such as the Gorgon gas plant are monitored by authorities, a survey of Australia's biggest companies has found.

Only 24 per cent of respondents said representatives of the federal Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts had checked if they were meeting any environmental conditions after a project was approved. Sixty per cent of the 144 companies which responded to the monitoring question said there was no follow-up while 16 per cent did not know if it had occurred.

GasToday - Cougar raises capital to ignite UCG at Kingaroy

Cougar Energy has raised $8.29 million after the successful completion of a capital raising placement and will largely use the funds to complete the construction and operation of the Kingaroy Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) Project pre-production facility in Queensland.

Mongabay - Oil spill off Australia potential 'disaster' for marine wildlife

Oil is leaking from an offshore drilling rig in the Timor Sea near Australia's Northwest coast. Authorities say it will be weeks before the leak is plugged: they are awaiting the arrival of a drilling rig from Singapore to plug the leak. "This is a potential disaster for turtles, whales, dolphins, sea birds and sea snakes. The oil and gas spill is still not under control and is expected to continue leaking for two months.

Bloomberg - Timor Sea Oil Leak Repair Delayed as Rig’s Tow Ship Loses Power

PTT Exploration & Production Pcl, operator of a project that’s leaking oil and gas off Western Australia, said a rig sent to halt the spill will be delayed by two days after a tow ship lost power.

The West Triton rig is expected to reach the Montara field on Sept. 10, should conditions be favorable, the Bangkok-based company’s Australian unit said in a statement yesterday. The rig was initially expected to arrive at the Timor Sea site tomorrow.

The Age - Call for farmers to adapt dryland practices

n the Murray-Darling, MWH sees the future in various aspects of forestry, using native species, mainly different forms of Mallee eucalypt, for carbon-negative biomass, and even carbon sinks.

Mr Fagan's vision is to plant native vegetation - the Mallee eucalypt - in wind rows that still allow traditional farming, and eventually create a chain of 50 smaller biomass power stations that could be easily integrated into the electricity grid.

Farmers could also look at other product streams, such as eucalyptus oil, from the trees. ''You can take the oil out and still use the wood for biomass,'' he said.

Peak Energy - Mitsubishi, IHI to Join $21 Bln Space Solar Project

Peak Energy - Nuclear decline set to continue, says report

Peak Energy - Matt Simmons On "Oil Spin"

Peak Energy - Iraq aims to increase oil production by up to four times: minister

Peak Energy - Dirty Oil Sands

Peak Energy - Reconnecting with Nature Through Green Architecture

Peak Energy - Eric Giler demonstrates wireless electricity