Policy

Australia has slipped from fifth to sixth place in EY’s biannual RECAI, citing “political upheaval” and the appointment of Angus Taylor as federal energy minister. The 52nd edition of the index, released today, has seen little movement among the top 10 countries, with Germany, the UK and Australia all falling one position.

While it has seen a major shift in business and the financial markets with industry seizing the opportunities offered by decarbonization, the Australian government’s green bank has reported a record year of investment in 2017-18 with a total of $2.3 billion allocated for clean energy projects. The CEFC expects to stay on this investment trajectory in the year ahead, signaling potential asset recycling.

Chinese module manufacturer Trina Solar has launched its “all-in-one“ kit in Australia targeting the rooftop solar segment. Its expectations of the Aussie market are high, as the company continues to pursue overseas expansion to ride out the China government policy shake-up.

Looking to set the direction for a smart energy future, the New South Wales government has launched the Emerging Energy Program. As part of the scheme, funding will be provided to support the commercialization of new low-emissions, large-scale power generation and storage projects, as well as underpin feasibility studies to help get new projects off the ground.

By 2021, solar will become one of the most dominant power sources over peak daytime periods, accounting for around a quarter of the National Electricity Market’s power, shows new analysis by Green Energy Markets. The report underlines that solar is currently reducing expensive demand peaks, and is not close to exceeding demand as certain media reports have suggested.

While there has been no concrete result of the COAG Energy Council meeting on Friday, a clear message was sent that climate change will not be considered as part of the country’s energy policy. The energy ministers remain locked in stalemate until December, when decisions will be made on a reliability obligation and national default offer for power.

Despite political hurdles in key markets including China, India and Japan, Asia-Pacific remains highly active. This year, 59 GW of solar is expected to be installed and due to further system price declines, a phase-out of subsidy schemes can be offset.

Energy Minister Angus Taylor has said there are no plans to change the Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme (SRES), despite the ACCC recommendations to wind it down nine years early.

The NSW government has announced a $15 million solar scheme, which will put free solar PV systems on up to 3,400 low-income households provided they forgo their energy rebate.

For renewables to claim a more sizable share of the global energy mix, the adoption of energy storage would need to pick up pace and the rapidly increasing size of the EV fleet will offer a scalable way to ramp up such access, says Fitch Solutions.