Finance

The 5 MW Mobilong Solar Farm will run on a fully merchant offtake arrangement over its 30-year lifetime.

New research released this week by The Australia Institute shows that ‘time of use pricing’ (ToU) facilitated by smart meters is likely to drive up household energy costs by $429 a year on top of already high prices. Analysis of national electricity market data suggests that demand for electricity in Australia is very inelastic, which makes ToU more likely to increase the profits of electricity companies than to assist consumers. Households with solar PV and batteries, however, are best suited to cope with this type of pricing. 

While Spain, Sweden, Ukraine and Brazil attracted more funds than last year, China’s transition to an auction-based procurement system and slow performance overall in Europe saw worldwide backing decrease. BloombergNEF does expect investments to ramp up in the second half, however.

Australia’s first large-scale project to use pumped hydro to store solar generated power, the Kidston facility in north Queensland, has landed a $610 million loan from the Federal Government’s the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF).

On the back of a combination of its industry-leading solar program and energy efficiencies, Vicinity Centers has announced a zero net carbon target by 2030 for its 34 shopping centers.

With a glut of solar capacity having come online this year, cheaper financing would help keep some of that momentum but policymakers cannot be persuaded of the economic benefits of clean energy unless state-owned utility EVN opens up.

Under the right conditions, solar batteries are economically beneficial for South Australian homeowners and can pay for themselves off within the warranty period, a new research finds.

Australian super funds have called out for “comprehensive” and “long term” energy policy to be put in place in order to unlock investment in the electricity sector. The Industry Super Funds (ISA) and the Group Super Fund made the call in its Modernising Electricity Sectors report, released earlier this month.

Applications are now open for the Queensland government’s $15 million Hydrogen Industry Development Fund, which will support sustainable and renewable hydrogen projects across the state.

Octopus Energy Investments, the UK’s largest investor in utility scale solar, which set up an office in Melbourne last year, has rebranded itself as Octopus Renewables as the £3 billion (AU$5.3 billion) global fund manager looks to throw its considerable weight behind the global energy transition to renewables.