Policy

Darren Miller, co-founder of Sydney-based solar focused electricity company Mojo Power, has been appointed as the new Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA).

The National Energy Guarantee (NEG) has been stripped of emissions reductions. The unlikely has happened less than one week after Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull claimed an overwhelming victory for the policy in the coalition party room.

The Victorian government has announced a massive investment in renewable energy that will bring rooftop solar to 650,000 homes over ten years. The systems will help Victorians save around $890 a year on their power bills with half price solar panels at no up-front cost.

After passing through the Federal Coalition party room, Australian states and territory governments have agreed to the release an ‘exposure draft’ of the legislation that will enable the National Energy Guarantee (NEG). Whether it will pass House of Representatives is another matter.

The National Energy Guarantee (NEG) has stumbled, battered and bruised, into today’s coalition party room meeting. It’s hard to imagine it surviving many more rounds in the energy policy boxing ring. While it’s received support from a wide range of businesses and industry bodies engaged with the energy sector, including the Clean Energy Council, a ‘better than nothing’ NEG is looking like a right mess.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has briefed the National Party MPs on its recommendation to prematurely wind down taxpayer-funded incentives for sub-100kW solar systems by 2021.

While the global PV market is set to record its weakest Q3 demand since 2015, the Australian market will finish the year strong across all segments. GTM Research made the finding in its latest Global Demand Monitor, noting that oversupply and falling prices will result in a decline of modules, as a percentage of total utility scale developer cost, from 34% to 28% in Australia this year.

Mixed messages have emerged from today’s COAG Energy Ministers’ meeting today, after what was meant to have been a decisive meeting for the National Energy Guarantee (NEG) policy measure. Fundamental opposition from some Labor states remain, however an agreement to release the draft legislation was reached – after it passes the test of the coalition party room.

Amid the intense discussion surrounding the National Energy Guarantee’s promise to cut power bills by $550 a year, Australia’s biggest power producer has reported its full year profit almost trebled, and its underlying profit rose by nearly a third.

Federal Labor leader Bill Shorten has chosen a visit to UNSW’s solar research facility to push for “fair dinkum” negotiations between the Federal Government and the states over the NEG tomorrow. Labor may look to secure a higher NEG emissions reduction target in the Senate, after passing the lower house.