Policy

The Brookfield consortium looking to acquire Origin Energy has lodged its merger application with the ACCC, arguing the takeover is in the national interest since it will accelerate Australia’s decarbonisation. The application also flags investment figures as high as $30 billion (USD 20 billion), up from the $20 billion previously flagged.

Queensland has laid out an ambitious vision for the state’s energy future, releasing draft legislation that calls for an additional 22 GW of new wind and solar projects by 2035, supported by at least 12 GW of storage, firming and dispatchable technologies including grid-scale batteries and pumped hydro storage.

South Australia’s electricity transmission network operator ElectraNet has outlined a $2 billion-plus (USD 1.3 billion) pipeline of transmission projects as it seeks to keep pace with a “rapid” energy transformation that could lead to a doubling of the state’s electricity usage by the end of the decade.

A global race is underway to capture the manufacturing market for clean energy technologies. While lady lucky has certainly shone on Australia, competition is fierce, experts say.

The Victorian government has signed off on a preferred development plan for the contentious VNI West transmission project that will connect the Victorian and New South Wales electricity grids and promises to unlock upwards of 3.4 GW of new renewable generation capacity.

The rise of rooftop solar in Victoria will see all new inverters installed under the state government’s solar and battery rebate programs soon required to be technically capable of remotely updating and enacting dynamic export limits to allow network companies to manage the export of rooftop solar back in to the grid.

The numbers behind headlines of billion dollar cost blowouts and delays to New South Wales’ energy transformation appear foggy at best, with unexamined sources seemingly leading to widespread misreporting.

Australia and India will establish a Green Hydrogen Taskforce, with prime ministers today agreeing to the Taskforce’s terms of reference. The meeting strengthens ties between India and Australia in relation to renewable energy ambitions and manufacturing, with plans extending to critical mineral and solar manufacturing.

Australia’s energy ministers have agreed to provide $3 million (USD 2 million) to the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) to ensure new renewable projects are connect to the grid before next summer.

The Energy Security Board has been scrapped with Australia’s federal, state and territory energy ministers opting to replace it with a new “fit-for-purpose” advisory panel that is better able to meet the challenges of the energy transformation taking place in the national electricity market.