Markets

Rio Tinto set to invest approximately $1 billion over the next five years as the mining giant looks to deliver on its new climate change goals and particularly its 2050 net zero emissions target.

You’ll recall that in 2019, an Australian National University Study identified 22,000 potential pumped-hydro energy storage sites across Australia. Altura Group, is proposing development of three east-coast sites that are also close to strong transmission connections, abundant renewable resources and load centres.

Australia’s distributed energy resources — rooftop solar, batteries, smart devices — have become a force to be reckoned with, and AEMO has opened its DER Register to help integrate consumer assets into what is expected to become the world’s most sophisticated two-way energy market.

The Berejiklian government has launched a pilot program that will allow eligible Hunter residents to access interest-free loans for battery and solar-battery systems.

South Australia is seeing a surge of small-scale utility solar as the niche, particularly around the 5MW mark, can fly under the radar of much of the electricity network’s congestion woes. The newly completed Mannum Solar Farm Project is one such example.

The 16-greenhouse Focola project has been developed by French renewables developer Akuo and local utility company Enercal Energies Nouvelles on the Pacific Ocean territory.

The Australian network rule maker has ignored the plea of some of the biggest solar and wind project owners in Australia to change the way marginal loss factors (MLFs) are calculated. While it has acknowledged that transmission has failed to keep up the pace with renewable energy investment, it did not come up with any suggestion on what should be done to ameliorate the problem.

The traditional coal and gas hub of Gladston is turning into a green hydrogen mecca with two new ambitious projects in the pipeline. The city has been selected to host a gigawatt-scale green hydrogen and ammonia development and a gas injection facility to blend renewable hydrogen into its natural gas network.

Norwegian giant Equinor is the latest oil and gas company to abandon controversial plans to drill in the Great Australian Bight, following in the backtracks of BP, Chevron and Karoon Energy.

‘First Solar, at its core, is a technology and module manufacturing company,’ said Mark Widmar, chief executive of the U.S. company.