Markets & Policy

This week has been disastrous for Australia’s carbon market, with cascading criticisms of the federal government’s Emissions Reduction Fund coming to light, including the former chair of its integrity commission labelling it an “environmental and taxpayer fraud” and its own participants publishing an open letter to the minister saying its changes are jeopardising Australia’s pathway to net zero.

The Australian arm of U.K.-based global fund manager Octopus Group and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation have added another renewable energy project to their joint venture’s portfolio, announcing they will work with the founders of the Blind Creek Solar Farm near Bungendore in regional New South Wales to deliver the 300MW agri-solar and battery project.

Rystad Energy has joined BloombergNEF with a significant forecast for grey and blue hydrogen off the back of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. According to the analysts, the impact of the war has sent prices of fossil fuel-tied forms of hydrogen production surging, leaving the gradual but consistent downward price trend of green hydrogen now looking remarkably competitive.

Developed by researchers in Spain, the battery uses renewable electricity to melt low-cost metals such as silicon or ferrosilicon alloys to produce and store latent heat, which is in turn used by a thermophovoltaic generator to produce power. According to its creators, the device may store electricity at a cost of €10 per kilowatt-hour (AU$14.6/kWh) for a 10MWh system.

The New South Wales Government is advancing its plan to build the “biggest network battery in the southern hemisphere” by 2025 as it looks to shore up a reliable energy supply ahead of the impending closure of the coal-fired Eraring Power Station.

Australia has one of the highest per-capita rooftop solar PV installation rates in the world with more than 16GW installed across more than 3 million households but the head of Australian research at U.S.-based analyst Bloomberg New Energy Finance has forecast a drop off in new installations in 2022.

Pumped hydro energy storage is ideally positioned to support reliability and reduce volatility in the energy market as Australia shifts from fossil fuels towards renewable power with former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull labelling the technology the “ultimate long-duration storage” solution.

Analyst Wood Mackenzie has predicted soaring demand for electric vehicle devices will ensure supply will not keep pace with demand until some point in 2023.

The first Model Y electric cars have rolled off the assembly line at the US electric car manufacturer’s first European factory.

The extensive power outages experienced in Western Australia last Christmas were a result of extreme weather rather than human failure, an independent review has found. The report’s author, AEMC’s Michelle Shepherd, notes such instances will likely become increasingly frequent with climate change.