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Promentor taps into up-to-date research and advancements in energy and solar power in Australia, to provide you with a current snapshot of the industry.
2018 will be a year of advancement, with prominent businessman Elon Musk announcing plans for another large grid-scale storage battery to be installed in South Australia. A solar and battery system will be connected to its existing wind farm near Snowtown, South Australia. At least 50,000 homeowners will be given solar panels and batteries. South Australia’s Energy Minister Tim Koutsantonis is hopeful it will mean good news for bill-payers, telling the ABC that ‘more renewable energy means cheaper power’. (1)
Research by the Sydney Morning Herald presents a sombre view of the current state of energy in the Australian market. (2) Marking 2017 as a ‘volatile’ year driven by some of the highest electricity prices in the world, a future gas shortage, power station closures and strained energy policies. The National Electricity Market, for example, is undergoing an immense transformation, as renewable energy continues to a major area of investment for the future. Already, recent figures have shown growth in this industry. According to the Clean Energy Council, renewable energy use improved from 14.6 per cent in 2015 to 17.3 percent the following year. (3) Over the coming year, the Australia Energy Market Commission has predicted prices for electricity will rise sharply in the first quarter of 2018, before falling by 6.2 per cent each year on average over the next two years. This drop will be due to falling wholesale energy costs in every state except WA, NT and ACT. (4)
Solar power will continue to surge in Australia, with recent trends seeing a rekindling of the energy device’s popularity that surpasses the previous boom in 2012. This comes on top of a wave of large-scale solar farm projects, such as a recent 11 announced in NSW alone, that some commenters believe could help double solar capacity in Australia within a year. (5) The Guardian labelled January 2018 as a ‘record-breaking month’ for rooftop installations, a 69 per cent increase, and the solar energy boom is set to continue. (6)
Footnotes:
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Our insights into energy prompt the question- how can businesses more efficiently conduct their operations? How can they expend their energy better? We look for insight here.
Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time
We hone in on the individual employee with the experience of Steve Wanner, a partner at Ernst & Young that learnt to manage his energy better when working 12- to 14- hour days. Wanner slept poorly, made no time to exercise, and seldom ate healthy meals. Wanner’s experience is not uncommon. Most of us respond to rising demands in the workplace by putting in longer hours, which inevitably takes a toll on us physically, mentally, and emotionally. That leads to declining levels of engagement, increasing levels of distraction, high turnover rates, and soaring medical costs among employees.
Schwartz and McCarthy look at the concept of prioritising a better use of energy, rather than time, in this article. more
Retraining and Reskilling Workers in the Age of Automation
Executives increasingly see investing in retraining and ‘upskilling’ existing workers as an urgent business priority that companies, not governments, must lead on. The world of work faces an epochal transition. By 2030, according a McKinsey Global report, as many as 375 million workers–or roughly 14 percent of the global workforce– may need to switch occupational categories as digitization, automation, and advances in artificial intelligence disrupt the world of work. The kind of skills companies require will shift, with profound implications for the career paths individuals will need to pursue.
Illanes et al. investigate how to build efficiency within a company by retraining staff in response to technological innovations. more
Efficient Business Operations
In light of the recent research provided about the positive outlook for the energy and solar power industry, we provide an invaluable resource on how a business can operate more efficiently by saving energy and materials, reducing and better managing waste. At the foundation of each business is its infrastructure and everyday management systems. Operating more efficient management systems can cut costs and boost business productivity.
Look through Sustainability Victoria’s resource to learn more. more
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We look back at February’s biggest stories and discussions. The supermarket wars continue, with Woolworths the apparent winner in the new year. In America, we see protectionist politics on the rise, while the Dow Jones plummets in light of trade war fears. Enquiries into the state of the banks continue, and the property market sees Sydney house prices falling for the first year since 2012.
Woolworths is totally pummelling Coles in the supermarket wars... more
Trump embraces protectionism, Dow Jones plunges 420 points on trade war fears... more
A focus on responsible lending will uncover huge problems for the banks... more
Sydney house prices fall for the first year since 2012... more
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