Shanil Samarakoon

Thanks! A huge team effort in Vanuatu (with some support here in Australia).

cc: @paulmunro.bsky.social , @ceemunsw.bsky.social

Launching Fixim Sola: Empowering Vanuatu's remote communities through solar repair training YouTube video by Business Partnerships Platform

A short film from the launch of the Fixim Sola vocational training program on off-grid solar repair in #Vanuatu.

48 participants from Tafea province (5 islands) took part in a 2-week program that covered the fundamentals of #solar + how to perform basic maintenance and #repair operations

cc: @ceemunsw.bsky.social , @paulmunro.bsky.social

Solar repair training empowering remote Vanuatu communities to tackle waste and create jobs Fixim Sola, a new solar repair training course launched last month in Vanuatu’s Tafea Province is giving local communities the tools, skills and confidence to manage solar waste…

On Vanuatu’s outer islands, off-grid solar brings vital lighting, phone-charging and cooling where the grid can’t reach—but what happens these system break down?

'Fixim Sola' is addressing this challenge by building local repair capabilities i.e. training, support & tools.

#repair #solar #offgrid

The right time for real-time? Stakeholder perspectives on the role of temporal matching in renewable energy procurement in Australia Amid mounting stakeholder pressure to decarbonise electricity consumption, corporate renewable electricity (RE) procurement has played a significant r…

Our team at @ceemunsw.bsky.social have a new article on 24/7 Carbon-Free Electricity procurement in Australia.

This research examined diverse stakeholder perspectives on this emerging form of RE procurement, including its scope for decarbonising electricity in Australia #research

Tourists, watercolours and the sad, still Star: sketching the route 35 tram showed me a Melbourne I had never really noticed When you are in a city every day, you start to take things for granted. So, after three years in Melbourne, Josh Nicholas decided to be a tourist

I wrote a thing about drawing and Melbourne www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

The right time for real-time? Stakeholder perspectives on the role of temporal matching in renewable energy procurement in Australia Amid mounting stakeholder pressure to decarbonise electricity consumption, corporate renewable electricity (RE) procurement has played a significant r…

New paper from CEEM researchers exploring stakeholder perspectives on 24/7 Carbon-Free Electricity procurement in Australia has just been published:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... 🔌💡

"While we found interest in 24/7 CFE among some sophisticated buyers and the emerging green hydrogen sector, we argue that 24/7 CFE contracting will likely play a limited role in driving decarbonisation in Australia's electricity sector."

Thanks so much , Dylan. It was great working with you on this project + deeply grateful for all your thoughtful input on this paper.

The right time for real-time? Stakeholder perspectives on the role of temporal matching in renewable energy procurement in Australia Amid mounting stakeholder pressure to decarbonise electricity consumption, corporate renewable electricity (RE) procurement has played a significant r…

📣 New paper from @shanilsam.bsky.social, @miker66.bsky.social, and other colleagues at @ceemunsw.bsky.social on perspectives of 24/7 "real time" RE procurement in Au!

(tl;dr: will likely play a limited role in driving decarbonisation in Australia..)

🔌💡

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

When people say 'politics is too divisive now,' what they really mean is 'I was more comfortable when certain groups suffered quietly.'

Flow Batteries, windships, and a new approach to off-grid solar - ABC listen They're cheaper and safer than their lithium counterparts, they're easier to scale-up, and they can hold power for much longer than conventional batteries, so why aren't flow batteries better known? T...

. @paulmunro.bsky.social outlines our research on off-grid (final 8 mins) #solar repair and e-waste in #Vanuatu, #Zambia and #Malawi.

He discusses the dynamics of the off-grid sector that complicate repair, the challenges communities face on the ground, and the solutions (upstream & downstream).

these are the kind of moves that'll eventually move the needle towards shifting power away from tech oligarchs

Just over a week to go to get your abstracts in (Feb 28th) for our session on "Future energy systems - embracing creativity in energy transformations"at @energygeography.bsky.social . Please share with anyone that might be keen to participate, be it in-person or online.

Details below 👇

We're seeking contributions that engage with creativity and transformation towards future energy systems

250-word abstracts due Mon 24th February

Details:
drive.google.com/file/d/1Lgzz...

2/2

🚨 CfP 🚨
Pleased to be co-hosting an online/hybrid session for RGS-IBG on "Future energy systems-embracing creativity in energy transformations" at this year's @energygeography.bsky.social
conference, with Anna Cain, @paulmunro.bsky.social
, @rex-martin.bsky.social and @miker66.bsky.social
1/2

Behind the green curtain: big oil and the voluntary carbon market - Carbon Market Watch Shell was the world’s largest user of carbon credits in 2024, a year in which fossil fuel companies dominated the voluntary carbon market. This allows Shell was the world’s largest user of carbon cred...

Shell was comfortably the world's largest purchaser of carbon offsets in 2024.

carbonmarketwatch.org/2025/02/12/b...

A blog post on some recent fieldwork in #Zambia.
@mattkearns.bsky.social and I had the opportunity to accompany repair technicians from @solaraid.bsky.social during "Repair Days" for small-scale solar products.

offgridsolarrepair.com/bringing-lig...

Open Letter on Academic Freedom We, the undersigned, write to express our condemnation of the decision by the Education Minister Jason Clare to request the Australian Research Council (ARC) to investigate the Future Fellowship of Ma...

Open letter for academics to sign in support of academic Randa Abdel-Fattah, whose Australian research grant on “Arab/Muslim Australian Social Movements since the 1970s” is being targeted by the Australian Government for political reasons

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Inquiry urges Australian universities to ‘closely align’ with controversial definition of antisemitism Report tabled by Labor MP Josh Burns finds there is an ‘urgent need for reform’ to ensure safety of Jewish students

Very worrying. There is of course a serious problem with anti-semitism in Australian society. But changing the definition of anti-semitism to outlaw protests by university students against the conflict in Gaza will do nothing to stop hatred in our community www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Enough is enough - today I’ll be tabling our Federal bill to protect protest from these kinds of inappropriate restrictions. We will fight for the right to fight for your rights!

We're seeking contributions that engage with creativity and transformation towards future energy systems

250 word abstracts due Mon 24th February

Details:
drive.google.com/file/d/1Lgzz...

Delighted to be co-hosting an online / hybrid session on "Future energy systems-embracing creativity in energy transformations" at this year's @energygeography.bsky.social conference, with Anna Cain, @paulmunro.bsky.social, @shanilsam.bsky.social & @rex-martin.bsky.social of @ceemunsw.bsky.social 1/

🚨 CfP 🚨
Co-hosting an online / hybrid session for RGS-IBG on "Future energy systems-embracing creativity in energy transformations" at this year's @energygeography.bsky.social conference, with Anna Cain, @paulmunro.bsky.social, @shanilsam.bsky.social @miker66.bsky.social 1/2

Farmers are abandoning land worldwide. What should happen to it? Ecologists differ on whether to steer recovery or let nature take its course

Interesting story by @dancharles.bsky.social about what happens when farmers abandon land, and what types of ecosystems come back. (Globally agricultural land is still expanding on a net basis, but it is contracting in some places.)

New(ish) research published in #ERSS with the terrific Yolande Strengers where we propose the concept of 'non-energy feedback' to examine how data not directly about energy still shapes it's use. Specifically we explore sensory, social, material and systemic forms of non-energy feedback 1/2

I put together a starter pack of energy social scientists (distinct from the existing 'climate social science' starter pack). So far it's a small but mighty list. Please collaborate to help build this out!
🔌💡
go.bsky.app/5zMF4Vx