Markets & Policy

The Clean Energy Finance Corporation has made its first investment via the Australian government’s $20 billion (USD 12.67 billion) Rewiring the Nation Fund, committing $100 million to support the build-out of renewable generation, long-duration storage and grid infrastructure in New South Wales.

Through the first nine months of 2023, $45.56 billion (USD 28.9 billion) of venture capital, public market, and debt financing was injected into solar, says a report from Mercom Capital Group.

Aspiring renewable energy developer ACE Power will partner with the clean energy arm of Japanese energy giant Osaka Gas to jointly develop a portfolio of Australian solar and battery projects with a total capacity of more than 500 MW.

Queensland state-owned CleanCo has opened an expression of interest process to add 3 GW of wind and solar generation to its portfolio “to support our customers to achieve their sustainability goals, and to advance Queensland’s energy transformation”.

A green hydrogen collective that includes Australia’s Fortescue is set to share in more than $11 billion (USD 7 billion) of United States government funding as the Biden administration seeks to accelerate the commercial-scale production and deployment of low-cost, renewable hydrogen.

Solar panel producer Maxeon Solar Technologies will lay off 750 employees by the end of the year as the company reels from reduced shipments from its largest distributed generation (DG) customer in North America and an ‘industry-wide demand slowdown’ in global DG markets.

Australia’s vast distances make the supply of electricity via traditional grids expensive and even dangerous. With demand growing for agricultural goods produced with low-carbon emissions, solar and energy storage is being embraced even by skeptical farmers.

South Korean steelmaker Posco and French renewables giant Engie are investigating the feasibility of establishing a large-scale renewable hydrogen project in Western Australia that would provide fuel for a green iron venture planned for the state’s Pilbara region.

Fortescue is pressing ahead with the development of a 70,000-tonne green hydrogen production facility at Gibson Island in Queensland, tapping North American hydrogen technology company Plug Power to supply 550 MW of electrolysers for the proposed project.

New South Wales electricity distributor Endeavour Energy will upgrade the meters of thousands of customers throughout the state as part of a trial that aims to manage peak energy demand, provide participants with access to innovative energy services, and lower network costs for consumers.