The inaugural Wind Industry Forum in Melbourne was a sellout, with 200 industry professionals attending to hear insights from leading experts. [ + ]

Interested to know how ARENA, the RET Review and the carbon price will affect the PV industry? SunWiz and SolarBusinessServices have released a collaborative report: Australian PV - Market Forecast 2013-2018. [ + ]

Communities living near wind farms have every reason to feel reassured about their safety after the Australian Medical Association (AMA) released a public statement on wind farms and health, the Clean Energy Council says. [ + ]

Communications Alliance has advocated significant regulatory changes that are needed to ensure that the benefits of vectored VDSL2 can be realised if this technology is incorporated into a reworked NBN. [ + ]

Professor Alex Baitch, national president, Engineers Australia, will be speaking at the upcoming ACI Connect conference, to be held in Melbourne on 9 and 10 April. [ + ]

Australia's new engineering conference, ACI Connect, to be held in Melbourne on 9 and 10 April, has attracted a high-quality list of speakers and trainers. The 25% early bird conference discount closes this coming Friday, 21 March. [ + ]

Apprentices are the lifeblood of the electrical contracting industry. It is therefore imperative that our younger generation are equipped with the tools and knowledge necessary to make informed decisions about the career pathways available to them within our industry. [ + ]

Power outages are becoming more frequent across Australia and New Zealand, increasing from 94 reported outages in 2012 to 162 in 2013. These are among the findings contained in the Australian and New Zealand Blackout Tracer Annual report for 2013. [ + ]

The Clean Energy Council has hit back at claims that cutting the Victorian Energy Efficiency Target (VEET) would reduce household electricity bills, calling them "wrong and short-sighted". [ + ]

The Royal Commission into the Home Insulation Program’s second round of hearings has begun in Brisbane. The National Electrical and Communications Association (NECA) has welcomed the investigation. [ + ]

The recent start of construction on the first of two large-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) power plants in outback New South Wales shows the importance of renewable energy targets and funding. [ + ]

Finance is now available for energy-efficiency retrofits of commercial property. Significant additional Environmental Upgrade Agreement finance is available through an agreement between the CEFC and National Australia Bank. [ + ]

Educational programs are helping to increase awareness of the dangers of counterfeit products and providing the tools needed to make informed purchasing decisions, key learnings that will help increase electrical safety, according to the Independent Electrical Contractors (IEC) and Eaton's joint survey of IEC members. [ + ]

LEDs are expected to have captured up to 90% of the lighting market by 2020, with LED retrofit lamps for use in standard bulb fittings likely to overtake traditional energy-saving bulbs for the first time from 2015. [ + ]

Good literacy and numeracy skills are essential for anyone wanting to become an electrician. The National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA), therefore, welcomes the government's commitment to raising the bar in this regard and endorses their focus on the Trades pathway for people striving for a career in the electrical industry. [ + ]