Policy

The first round of funding for the Australian Renewable Energy Agency’s Future Fuels Fund is now open to applicants. The first round will look to expand the fast charging network for battery electric vehicles in Australia’s major population centres in an effort to encourage the individual and fleet transition to electric vehicles.

The developer said it installed and commissioned seven solar rooftops in just three months despite Covid-19 travel restrictions.

Western Australian Opposition Leader Zak Kirkup has unveiled an ambitious new energy policy in the lead up to the state election, announcing a $400 million jobs and renewable energy plan which would see coal phased out along with big investments in solar, wind and hydrogen.

At present, China accounts for almost 75% of global lithium-ion battery manufacturing capacity and this share is set to increase through the short term with its build-out of new facilities. And although the US and Europe are enacting policies to encourage domestic battery production, there has been a distinct lack of support for investment in the supply and refining of the raw materials to achieve this. In China, the opposite holds true. 

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency is funding Jemena to the tune of $1.6 million toward a new trial in which various electricity networks in Victoria, ACT, and Tasmania will manage residential EV charging to better prepare the grid for a time when mass charging will take place at peak periods.

The tide of clean energy facilities planned under the city’s next five-year strategy was revealed by Hong Kong-listed polysilicon maker Xinte Energy, which has signed a framework agreement to construct 200,000 tons of manufacturing capacity near Inner Mongolia’s largest city.

“Australians should be able to choose the type of car they drive,” said the Federal Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction, Angus Taylor on Friday when he released a national plan to reduce carbon emissions from Australia’s road transport sector — a plan without a target, without incentives, and with relatively meagre investment in bringing about essential change.

Wood Mackenzie has called on policymakers to revise the Renewable Energy Target with more ambitious goals and, concordantly, large-scale investment in grid flexibility to ensure new renewables can join the grid. If we don’t act in this pivotal moment, WoodMac believes we will be left holding stranded assets.

Canadian behemoth Atco has purchased the rights to develop the 325 MW Central West Pumped Storage Hydro Project in Central West New South Wales and credits the investment to policy certainty from the NSW Government. As a significant firming agent the project is ideally placed in the state’s proposed Central West-Orana Renewable Energy Zone

The Japanese brand will continue to sell third-party-made modules under its brand in its home market, as it already does overseas, but in-house PV wafer, cell and module production will halt by the end of fiscal year 2022.