Finance

Atlassian CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes’ family fund Grok Ventures is among the initial investors in Canberra-based Infradebt’s Energy Transition Fund. The fund will finance six to eight grid-scale battery projects with a total capacity of up to 2 GW.

CATL’s new lithium pricing structure gives Chinese original equipment manufacturers (OEM) an effective discount of more than 20%. It is making the move to win more orders amid a slowdown in the electric-vehicle market and the ongoing efforts of cell manufacturers to secure raw materials.

Victoria will offer private landowners $200,000 (USD 134,400) for every kilometre of land over which they allow transmission lines to be installed as the state government looks to accelerate the development of new transmission infrastructure deemed critical to the future security of the energy grid.

The Brookfield-led North American consortium courting Origin Energy has finally come back with a revised bid for the company, valued at roughly $18.2 billion (USD 12.5 billion). The offer is only fractionally lower than the initial bid, which came as a relief for the market, and has been endorsed by Origin’s board.

Australian graphite miner turn integrated lithium battery company, Magnis Energy Technologies, has signed a significant offtake deal with electric vehicle giant Tesla. The agreement comes the same month the company quietly dropped its plan to build a 18 GWh lithium-ion battery factory in Townsville, northern Queensland.

International oil giant Shell has provided New South Wales startup MGA Thermal with “gamechanger” funding to accelerate the completion of a commercial-scale pilot plant designed to demonstrate the role the company’s energy storage technology could play in the Australian energy market.

Western Australian clean energy developer Infinite Green Energy will partner with South Korean industrial conglomerate Samsung C&T to develop and build a commercial-scale green hydrogen project that will leverage the existing 11 MW Northam Solar Farm east of Perth.

Malaysian oil and gas giant Petronas’ clean energy business Gentari has finalised its acquisition of Wirsol Energy’s Australian renewables assets, including 422 MW of operational capacity across solar and storage facilities, and 765 MW of potential capacity under development.

Australian startup Relectrify aims to scale up the adoption of its highly efficient and cost-effective battery storage technology after attracting financial backing from a group of international heavyweights including Japanese car giant Toyota’s venture capital firm.

The Western Australian Government has launched a new $15 million (USD 10.3 million) grant program to expand electric vehicle charging infrastructure throughout the state and accelerate the uptake of zero emission vehicles.