Welcome to eFuture, where you can explore Australia's electricity future through to 2050. eFuture is a snapshot of the complex modelling CSIRO carries out every day to support government and industry as they make decisions about energy investment and policy.
Based on CSIRO's energy sector model, you can select options and instantly view charts showing changes to Australia's future electricity sources, greenhouse gas emissions and the cost of electricity.
With the release of the Australian Government's Energy White Paper (2012), CSIRO is excited to launch eFuture, a way for those interested in energy to explore the future energy scenarios similar to those presented in the Energy White Paper.
We already know that our traditional thermoelectric power sources, namely coal, are having a negative impact on our planet's climate. But, as it turns out, the reverse is also true - research has found that worldwide warming is reducing the amount of cooling water that can be used in coal and nuclear plants, and this is already causing problems for electrical grids in the US and Europe.
Consumers could save up to 10 per cent on power bills thanks to a new energy saving solution designed by two PhD students at the University of Sydney. The MyPower Energy Platform allows users to monitor the power consumption of individual appliances and determines the best times to use them.
This story investigates claims of how Citipower and SP Ausnet used the electricity rules and bureaucracy to turn what should have been a $107 million public investment on an enhancement to the Melbourne CBD electricity network into a $271 million spend.
"By the end of this decade, it estimates that onshore wind will be the cheapest source of energy we have. At an average cost of $90 per megawatt-hour (MWh) and in some cases as cheap as $60/MWh it will be cheaper than coal and cheaper than gas.
By 2030, the cheapest option will be solar PV, which could cost as little as $50/MWh, followed closely by wind and landfill gas."
"The highly anticipated iPhone 5 is finally in millions of people's hands. Within three days of its September 21st launch, Apple had sold a record-breaking five million units. And within a year, analysts project that sales of the iPhone 5 will reach 170 million. The popularity of the new device got us thinking: how much juice does it take each year to charge a next-generation smartphone? And how does the energy consumption of smartphones compare to that of other consumer electronics?
To find out, we got our hands on a new iPhone 5 and also a Samsung Galaxy S III - currently the hottest Android handset - then headed into the Opower Lab for some testing. Here's what we found, and our assessment of what it suggests about the energy impact of our increasingly on-the-go digital lifestyles…"
"People use less energy when they know their use is being monitored, a new US study has found. Among other things the findings suggest ways to increase the success of energy efficiency programs. Behavioural scientist, Dr Daniel Schwartz, from the University of Pennsylvania, and colleagues, report their findings this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."
Welcome to the POWER MATRIX Game - the new, free strategy game. Now available for your browser. Found your POWER MATRIX City and power your world. Play for free now.
"Smartphones, laptops, tablets, digital TV. You may not have considered it, but all those devices require a lot of energy to operate, and gobble it up even when they sit idle. In fact, the iPhone uses more electricity than a refrigerator. A medium-sized, energy star fridge uses 322 kilowatt hours (kWh) each year. The average iPhone? 361."
See the full report at http://goo.gl/FstidW
"Along with being a fun holiday for tricks and treats, Halloween is an opportune time to shine a ghostly light on the evil energy vampires lurking in homes. Those ghoulish fangs - also known as plugs in the wall - suck frightening amounts of electricity all night (and day) long, even when bloodthirsty electronics and appliances are turned off or doing nothing useful.
The chilling truth is that as much as one-tenth of the electricity devoured in our homes vanishes as "standby power" - electricity feeding perpetually plugged-in electronics and appliances even when they're idle for long periods of time, like in the dead of night."
