Policy

Ratings agency ICRA has estimated Indian green hydrogen will cost that much if produced at sites featuring clean energy generation capacity and electrolysers. That is between US$0.5–$1 per kilogram cheaper than in locations where the two systems are not co-located, with the saving possible due to a reduction in open-access, intra-state grid charges.

Over the weekend, Angus Taylor effectively handed over billions to carbon credit aggregation companies born of the increased price of Australia’s carbon credits – without any clear reasoning. This “weird” decision, as Bruce Mountain called it, stumped many but the Australia Institute told pv magazine Australia it’s just one of many moves the Morrison government has made to increase the supply of carbon credits and depress their price – a strategy which seems curiously misaligned with the scheme’s stated purpose of reducing emissions.

With Australia’s unstoppable clean energy transition picking up pace, the question of jobs and how to reskill fossil fuel workforces is again at centre stage. Over the weekend, the Victorian government announced an initiative to encourage women to enter the male-dominated industry, while the federal government announced it would begin delivering reports on energy sector jobs to avoid skills shortages.

Risen Energy has extended the product warranty on its Australian residential modules from 15 to 25 years. The news comes just weeks after SunPower Maxeon pushed the Australian market by increasing its new warranties to 40 years.

With senators having called for plantation-wide solar powered pumping projects, funded by public money, the country’s National Irrigation Administration has agreed and said it wants to embrace floating solar facilities too.

With 90% of world economies committed to net zero targets, the disruptive nature of the energy transition is becoming clear. Climate targets require us to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030, phase out coal by 2040, end fossil fuel subsidies, and ensure support for a just transition. While hydrogen is sure to be a key technology in this energy transition, the exact role it will play is not yet clear, reports Felicia Jackson.

With the owners of Australia’s coal-fired generator fleet fast tracking the closure of the ageing infrastructure, the New South Wales government has unveiled a new corridor for transmission lines that could help it almost quadruple the size of the planned Central-West Orana Renewable Energy Zone.

Climatic trends, extreme conditions and sea level rise are already hitting many of Australia’s ecosystems, industries and cities hard. As climate change intensifies, we are now seeing cascading and compounding impacts and risks, including where extreme events coincide. These are placing even greater pressure on our ability to respond.

China’s largest state-owned grid operator and power utility plans to deploy the world’s biggest battery fleet and almost quadruple its pumped hydro storage by 2030, thus supporting the nation’s switch to renewable energy sources.

The deployment of standalone power systems in the National Electricity Market is expected to accelerate after the Australian Energy Market Commission this week published new rules allowing distributors to install the renewables-based technology in the five market jurisdictions.