Markets & Policy

The Australian Energy Market Commission has again rejected requests from transmission network operators TransGrid and ElectraNet to allow for a change of rules governing financing arrangements for large-scale transmission projects considered critical for Australia’s shift to 100% renewables.

Tasmanian Labor believes Premier Peter Gutwein and his Liberal Party have dropped the ball on solar in a big way. Tasmanian Labor Leader Rebecca White is therefore promising $20 million to fund loans for residential and commercial solar and battery storage installations, as well as solar for state schools and social housing.

The latest set of clean energy statistics compiled by the International Renewable Energy Agency signal a changing of the guard when it comes to clean power, with legacy hydropower facilities overtaken by new intermittent renewables.

BloombergNEF’s latest modelling has found that solar PV is the key driver behind an accelerating cost decline in green hydrogen. The forecast shows green hydrogen’s cost declining by 85% by 2050, undercutting natural gas as well as both blue and grey hydrogen production.

Australia’s only lithium mine outside of Western Australia, Core Lithium’s Finniss Lithium Project, has produced “battery grade” lithium hydroxide, which it hopes will place it at the “forefront” of lithium production for the global renewable energy and EV markets.

Facebook has revealed plans to buy electricity from a 5 MW floating solar array in the Straits of Johor. The project will sell power through a virtual power purchase agreement.

Sinopec wants to build 1,000 hydrogen refueling stations by 2025. Ways2H is building a facility in the Tokyo area that will convert daily 1 ton of dried sewage sludge into 40-50 kilograms of hydrogen for fuel cell mobility and power generation. Ørsted wants to deploy two renewable hydrogen production facilities for a total of 1 GW by 2030. Wacker Chemie is planning to produce green hydrogen and renewable methanol at its German site.

The Chinese manufacturer has unveiled a low-voltage battery with a modular design and a high-voltage storage system which is claimed to have a one-hour, ultra-rapid charge rate.

Evoenergy has blamed the Australian Capital Territory’s renewable energy targets for its proposed price hike, which would see average residential customers pay around 40% more for network charges, amounting to around $280 per year.

Former prime minister Malcom Turnbull has been dumped from his role as chair of the New South Wales climate change advisory body by the Berejiklian government.