Markets & Policy

The Korean solar manufacturer has lodged a lawsuit with the Federal Court of Australia against Chinese panel makers Jinko and Longi following similar allegations in the U.S. and Germany.

The Northern Territory has announced a one-off $2 million program energy efficiency and sustainability funding pool with grants now open to local government councils for a range of projects, including energy storage and renewable energy systems.

The Sydney-based publicly listed renewables developer has completed the acquisition of the 50 MW Jemalong solar PV project in New South Wales. It has also commenced refinancing of a 50 MW solar projects that forms part of its landmark Kidston renewable energy hub, Australia’s first large-scale project to use pumped hydro to store solar generated power.

After reporting a $45 million loss in its half year results, the troubled renewable energy developer has suffered a new blow. The Western Australia government has terminated the $16 million financial assistance agreement for the Albany wave energy project, noting that unexpected proposal to change Federal Government’s R&D tax incentive scheme contributed to destabilization of the company’s financial position. 

Renewable energy had a 64.8% share of electricity generation, according to solar research institute Fraunhofer ISE. The achievement was mainly due to strong production from wind facilities.

In response to the energy sector’s transition from coal to renewables and distributed energy resources, Western Australia’s Labor government says it has started drafting a strategy to deliver a cleaner and more resilient energy supply for decades to come. Coming off the back of the strategy launch, WA’s environment watchdog has announced new and expanding mining and oil and gas projects would face much tougher scrutiny around their emissions. The WA government has moved to distance itself from the proposed emissions rules.

Australia’s two upcoming elections — in NSW this month and Federally in May — have brought to light the extreme contrasts that exist in Australian politics around the value of renewable energy, the indispensibility of coal to Australia’s economy and how the country might alleviate the high energy prices consumers are dealing with. Here are two recently presented views from each end of the political spectrum.

The electric carmaker has signed 12-month credit agreements with three of China’s ‘Big Four’ lenders as well as the development bank for Shanghai as it aims to get its lower-priced Model 3s rolling off the production line by the end of the year.

17 liable entities have failed to meet more or equal to 10% of their renewable energy target obligations, including major electricity retailers – Alinta, Lumo Energy, Simply Energy and EnergyAustralia. This has pushed the surrender rate to a record shortfall of 13.9% of total liability. Tristan Edis, Director Analysis and Advisory at Green Energy Markets, explains why retailers decide to carry obligations forward, and how the precipitous fall in the LGC value reflects on customer electricity bills and merchant projects.

Up to 1000 landlords and their tenants have the chance to team up and cut power bills and emissions under a trial scheme in Bundaberg, Townsville and Gladstone. To participate in the $4 million program, both property owners and tenants need to be on board, as installing a PV system would entail a rent increase only to be offset by power bill savings.