Markets

The Australian government’s green bank intends to move beyond solar and wind investment over the coming year and put its capital to work in the nascent green hydrogen industry and grid projects.

Australia’s leading solar industry event will not take place in 2020. The organisers of the All-Energy Australia show announced the decision today, noting that the decision was made “with everyone’s health and safety as our number one priority.”

The Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility (ACCA), a shareholder advocacy group, has filed a Shareholder Resolution to AGL Energy calling for the expedited closure of its Bayswater and Loy Yang A coal-fired power stations. ACCA says that AGL’s own modelling contradicts both its climate commitment and its fiduciary responsibility.

The Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) is calling for submissions on proposed rule changes that would address the integration of distributed energy resources, including enabling export charges as a pricing tool.

The Clean Energy Finance Corporation is set to become the cornerstone investor in a BNP Paribas’ issuance $140 million in new Australian green bonds through its Australian Climate Transition Index, an index for investors to parse the companies that will survive and thrive into a decarbonised future from those who will decay and die.

The Schools Virtual Power Plant pilot project, part of the WA Government’s $66.3 million investment in solar and batteries in its WA Recovery Plan from the impacts of Covid-19, will see ten schools transformed into VPPs. The two year trial is expected to bring reduced electricity bills to schools, improved grid stability, and increased solar uptake in the local community.

The Anglo-Dutch power company will buy Perth-based environmental specialist Select Carbon as part of a broader ambition to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 or sooner.

Having bagged large orders in the U.S. and Australia, Indian multinational engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services provider Sterling and Wilson Solar is bidding for tenders in new regions, Europe among them. Kannan Krishnan, S&W’s chief operations officer for solar in India and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation area, speaks to pv magazine about the impact of Covid-19 on the solar EPC business and the company’s expansion plans.

With the disruption of Covid-19 highlighting the climatic impact of the aviation industry, a recent report from the CSIRO funded by Boeing shows that hydrogen fuel’s technological momentum could see clean hydrogen used in airports by as early as 2025, and a full transition from conventional jet fuel by 2050.

The oil and gas giant has announced it will build 500 MW of renewable energy projects to power some of its global facilities under the four-year agreement with Canada’s Algonquin Power & Utilities.