A US firm Thursday unveiled plans to build a massive one-billion-dollar (667 million US) charging network to power electric cars in Australia as it seeks cleaner and cheaper options to petrol. Better Place, which has built plug-in stations for electric vehicles in Israel and Denmark, has joined forces with Australian power company AGL and finance group Macquarie Capital to create an Australian network. Under the agreement, Macquarie will raise one billion dollars to build electric-vehicle networks in the country's largest cities -- Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane -- while AGL will power the system with renewable energy. "We call it a ubiquitous charging network across the cities," said Better Place chief executive and founder Shai Agassi in Melbourne. "We are investing in Australia's economy and adding jobs while helping the country take a generational leap forward toward oil independence," he said. Under the plan, the three cities will each have a network of between 200,000 and 250,000 charge stations by 2012 where drivers can plug in and power up their electric cars. A US firm Thursday unveiled plans to build a massive one-billion-dollar (667 million US) charging network to power electric cars in Australia as it seeks cleaner and cheaper options to petrol. Better Place, which has built plug-in stations for electric vehicles in Israel and Denmark, has joined forces with Australian power company AGL and finance group Macquarie Capital to create an Australian network. Under the agreement, Macquarie will raise one billion dollars to build electric-vehicle networks in the country's largest cities -- Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane -- while AGL will power the system with renewable energy. "We call it a ubiquitous charging network across the cities," said Better Place chief executive and founder Shai Agassi in Melbourne. "We are investing in Australia's economy and adding jobs while helping the country take a generational leap forward toward oil independence," he said. Under the plan, the three cities will each have a network of between 200,000 and 250,000 charge stations by 2012 where drivers can plug in and power up their electric cars.

A US-based company has successfully tested a revolutionary solar panel, that is expected to cut the costs of photovoltaic solar power generation by more than 50 per cent, and herald a new era of improved efficiency and lower production costs of solar energy globally. The panel, known as the Alubond Solar Collector Panel (SCP), was created by American Building Technologies, a subsidiary of the UAE-based multinational group Mulk Holdings. Commenting on the breakthrough, a spokesman for Mulk said, “We hope the success of this project will lead to an upsurge in the development of more solar energy plants, which will not only lessen the strain on existing energy resources, but also severely reduce the pollution levels that are currently witnessed in power generation.” Original - http://cleantechnica.com/2009/01/19/solar-energy-breakthrough-could-cut-costs-by-more-than-50/

The federal Member for O'Connor, Wilson Tuckey,wants the Commonwealth to spend $10 billion establishing the necessary infrastructure for a tidal power industry in the Kimberlies of Western Australia. Mr Tuckey suggests that tidal energy could provide 10 times the country's current electrical capacity without producing any carbon emissions.