Events

Over 90% of Australia’s fuel is imported – something recent geopolitical events have illustrated is a serious vulnerability. This issue was the focus of an emergency fuel security summit held yesterday in Sydney. The event was attended by a number of industry leaders and independent members and candidates who put forward solutions to tackle the devolving situation.

The question of overly complicated, time-consuming permitting processes again raised its head at a two-day online event held by the Global Solar Council to examine how to accelerate deployment of photovoltaics.

Western Australia’s Minister for Hydrogen Industry, Alannah MacTiernan, said her state plans to be producing 10 GW of green hydrogen in the next decade, with aspirations of getting to 200 GW by 2040. A parade of other state ministers followed MacTiernan addressing the Australian Hydrogen Conference, each eager to assert that their region will become the country’s hydrogen capital.

Larry Marshall, Chief Executive of the CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, told Australia’s Hydrogen Conference that he was “highly optimistic” about Australia’s future, saying the country is currently at the “forefront” of hydrogen – a position not often held by our island state and one we must “dig our teeth into.”

A $50,000 development grant will be awarded to the winner of this year’s national ClimateLaunchpad competition, which aims launch early-stage cleantech startups into the market.

Vanessa Nakate shocked organisers of the Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue by delivering a speech highlighting how she and a fellow youth activist had to submit their presentations for approval in advance of the event and were banned from criticising any of the politicians involved.

Chris Bowen, who was appointed Labor’s Minister for Climate Change and Energy after a reshuffle in January, told pv magazine Australia he’s keen to make job creation his core focus, framing renewable investment as a Covid recovery solution rather than the end of Australia’s historic coal mining industry, which has dominated Federal narrative.

Immediately on the back of the first fully-virtual solar industry event in the Australia market, the Smart Energy Council has announced its second ‘3D Virtual’ conference and exhibition – scheduled for March 3-4 2021.

Yesterday I received a call from the people at pv magazine who were preparing for the ‘Virtual Roundtables Europe 2020’ event on this week in Germany – i.e. Tuesday evening (now!) and Wednesday evening ‘NEM time’. I’m told the event will be recorded, with the recording available later to those who have registered, so get your skates on if interested.

One of the major annual conferences for the Australian renewable energy industry has been called off for 2020 due to the impacts of Covid-19.