Fusion energy breakthrough boosts clean power hopes.

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What's coming up:

• Australia rejects forest biomass in first blow to wood pellet industry.

• Meme of the week.

• Fusion energy breakthrough boosts clean power hopes.

• Quick and Clean weekly bites.

Australia rejects forest biomass in first blow to wood pellet industry

Forest advocates in Australia — the world’s 13th largest economy — say they scored a major environmental victory on December 15 when the ruling Labor Party revised a key regulation, rejecting the renewable energy classification of wood harvested from native forests and burned to make energy. Previously, under the country’s renewable energy policy, woody biomass had been classified as a renewable energy source.

The impact of this regulatory change is perhaps most significant for the setback it may pose to the biomass industry globally, hindering the multibillion-dollar wood pellet industry from getting started Down Under at a time when pellet production is rising in the U.S. Southeast and British Columbia in order to supply growing demand to the EU, UK, and Asia.

Australia, by its decision, is taking a very different course than the European Union, where woody biomass — despite growing public opposition — remains defined as a renewable energy source, is heavily government subsidized as a result, and makes up 60% of the EU’s renewable energy mix. Australia is among the few G20 countries without a thriving biomass industry; at present, it neither produces nor burns wood pellets at any scale.

Meme Of The Week.

Fusion energy breakthrough boosts clean power hopes.

Scientists in the US have just announced a major breakthrough in fusion energy.

The first nuclear fusion experiment to achieve a net energy gain has been carried out by scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Library in California.

This has been described as the holy grail of nuclear fusion research since the 1950s. No group so far has been able to produce more energy than is consumed by the reaction - until now.

"Last week at the Lawrence Livermore National Library, scientists at the National Ignition Facility achieved fusion ignition," US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said at a press conference. "That is creating more energy from fusion reactions than the energy used to start the process. It's the first time it has ever been done in a laboratory anywhere in the world."

"This is one of the most impressive scientific feats of the 21st century," Granholm added.

Undersecretary for nuclear security Jill Hruby said that the US has taken "the first tentative steps towards a clean energy source that could revolutionise the world."

Quick and Clean Weekly Bites.

• The EU has approved a €28 billion German renewable energy scheme. The policy is aimed at rapidly expanding the use of wind and solar power. It is designed to deliver Germany's target to produce 80 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030. Link.

• The EU may ban miniature hotel toiletries and single-use food containers in its battle against wasteful packaging. The proposal is part of the European Green Deal, an EU-wide plan to reach net zero by 2050, separate economic growth from resource use, and promote a circular economy. Link.

• Solar power in Europe has soared by almost 50 percent in 2022, according to a new report from the industry group SolarPower Europe. It reveals that the EU installed a record-breaking 41.4 GW of solar this year - enough to power the equivalent of 12.4 million homes. That is a 47 percent increase from the 28.1 GW installed in 2021. Link.