Energy Efficiency

Can portable, personal cooling devices keep you cool in summer? And what are the potential energy/carbon benefits? I tested two quite different personal air conditioners.

Northern Territory Labor government opens $2m grant scheme to encourage councils to move to better energy efficient infrastructure and reduce costs to consumers and taxpayers.

Teys Australia unveils $42m plan to make one of its NSW facilities completely energy self sufficient via technologies including solar, storage, solid waste digestion and biomass boilers.

Amber Electric is a power retailer that wants its customers to use more power at cheap times, and less power at expensive times. Sound suspicious? Here's how – and why – it works.

Opal Aged Care to install more than 3.4MW solar PV and 28,000 LED lights at 54 properties across NSW, Victoria and Queensland, and cut its grid power consumption by 42%.

Alinta launches "Australia first" geothermal heating and cooling technology – focused on new suburbs and the displacement of energy intensive reverse-cycle air-conditioning.

NSW company Hivve Technology has installed an entirely off-grid modular classroom at a Brisbane high school, which runs entirely on solar and battery storage, at a cost cheaper than connecting to the grid.

CSIRO reveals plans to add further 1MW of rooftop solar at Canberra Black Mountain facility, and another 1.2MW across its sites in Queensland and South Australia.

A cotton farm in regional NSW has halved its annual diesel fuel consumption, with the installation of what's being dubbed Australia’s largest solar hybrid irrigation pump.

Solar Analytics acquires PV-sharing startup, Matter, as it prepares to launch into a second stage of expansion and product development.

SA architecture taps home grown energy storage solution to get around a power supply problem that cropped up in the process of giving a 1916 building a 21st Century makeover.

New report shows taking part in demand response activities could save businesses up to 33 per cent on their power costs – and for very little effort. Used alongside the wholesale purchase of power and a corporate renewable PPA, the benefits to business can be substantial.

Local business and community in coastal town of Port Fairy begin work on developing multi-million dollar, renewables-based smart energy precinct.

CEFC becomes cornerstone investor in Australia's first build-to-rent property fund – a $1bn effort being led and managed by Mirvac. As well targeting Australia's growing rental property market, the project aims to extend the benefits of energy efficient – and even self-sufficient – homes to renters.

Building owners should care about grid integration services because such services save them money, and can provide new sources of revenue.

Strengthening the energy efficiency requirements of Australia’s residential building code could reduce household electricity and gas bills by $18.9bn between now and 2050, a new report has found.