Markets & Policy

The Clean Energy Finance Corporation, effectively the federal government’s green bank, has been allocated a further $500 million (USD 332 million) to invest in the commercialisation of renewable energy, energy efficiency and other technology innovations.

Calls for the Albanese government to adopt a Renewable Energy Storage Target are growing, with an alliance of organisations visiting Australia’s Parliament to lobby for the move.

Dutch company Photon Energy Group has acquired its first utility scale solar and battery project, opting for a venture 500 kilometres northwest of Sydney which it says will become a “prototype” for its European portfolio.

Cofounder of Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners, David Scaysbrook, says the US Inflation Reduction Act can make Australia a green energy superpower – but not in the way we expect. The policy will fundamentally undercut Australia’s competitiveness exporting green hydrogen, but offers giant opportunities for critical materials. Scaysbrook also expects Australia’s 2023 to be lean in terms of renewable investment, especially when it comes to “vanilla” projects.

Germany has decided to build its first green ammonia import terminal in Hamburg, in collaboration with Air Products. Egypt, meanwhile, has signed $128 billion of hydrogen framework agreements.

Singapore-headquartered infrastructure developer Equis has announced plans to construct a 1,200 MW/2.4 GWh battery in Victoria that it claims will be the largest battery energy storage system yet developed in Australia and Asia.

A trio of New South Wales councils have signed a renewable energy supply deal with energy retailer Flow Power that will underpin the development at least two new solar projects totalling more than 8 MW of PV in the state’s South Coast region.

The booming uptake of home PV systems has steered Western Australia to a new peak for instantaneous renewable energy share, with clean energy – including rooftop and large-scale solar – providing a record 81% of the total electricity generated in the state’s wholesale electricity market.

As Longi and other solar manufacturers kick off massive growth in hydrogen generation capacity, expect large price decreases resulting from steep learning curves, echoing the rapid advances experienced by the solar power industry since the 1970s.

Australian independent power producer ReNu Energy has signed a deal with the developers of a proposed 3.5 GW solar-plus-storage facility in Indonesia to explore the potential large-scale production of green hydrogen for supply into Southeast Asia and beyond.