Policy

New Zealand’s government this week unveiled its plan to cut emissions and fund the clean energy transition, featuring policies like a ‘scrap and replace’ scheme to incentivise electric vehicles and funding for electrifying industry. The NZ$2.9 billion (AU$2.6 billion) plan has received mixed reviews, with Greenpeace saying it has overlooked the country’s most glaring problem.

As part of the Smart Energy Conference held in Sydney last week, the Smart Energy Council’s Scott Hamilton ran a session on Australia’s hypothetical energy landscape in 2030. This is how panelists Simon Holmes á Court, Jane Caro, Richard Denniss, Karrina Nolan and Professor Iain MacGill think we’ll be living at the decade’s close.

US$3.1 billion (AU$4.4 billion) is available to increase production of American-made batteries, with a separate US$60 million (AU$85 million) to support second-life applications for used EV batteries, along with development of processes for recycling materials back into the battery supply chain.

An estimated 13,000 rooftop solar PV customers in Australia’s far north face having their feed-in tariff for solar power exported to the grid slashed by more than half with the Northern Territory government revealing plans to usher in changes to the existing scheme from 1 July.

The Greens are proposing to electrify an entire Australian town and a suburb in a major city, including providing electric vehicles for households, the party’s leader Adam Bandt has revealed. The proposed pilot, which would be enabled by a $235 million fund, was inspired by Australian Saul Griffith’s ‘electrify everything’ campaign.

Solar companies are reporting widespread staff shortages leading to false price points around the value of installers. Scott Mason, general manager of Platinum Solar Designs, says the shortages aren’t simply part of Australia’s broader skills scarcity, but rather are endemic to the solar industry and linked to a regulatory system which is pushing down the quality of installations.

The latest update to the Solar Energy Industries Association’s (SEIA) survey for solar workers and companies shows drastic outcomes for the industry if tariffs are imposed on countries under investigation.

Over 90% of Australia’s fuel is imported – something recent geopolitical events have illustrated is a serious vulnerability. This issue was the focus of an emergency fuel security summit held yesterday in Sydney. The event was attended by a number of industry leaders and independent members and candidates who put forward solutions to tackle the devolving situation.

Nitin Gupta, chief executive officer and co-founder, Attero Recycling, speaks to pv magazine about the supply chain concerns for lithium battery storage manufacturing in India, current battery recycling scenario and Attero’s capacity.

Australia’s Macquarie is leading a consortium that has reportedly tabled a €2.5 billion ($3.65 billion) bid for a clean energy business formed by French private equity houses InfraVia and Eurazeo.