Opinion & Analysis

Australia has a new National Battery Strategy, unveiled as a key part of the federal government’s Future Made in Australia agenda. The vision is for this country to be making batteries with secure supply chains by 2035.

In the budget last week, the federal government was keen to talk about its efforts to turn Australia into a renewable superpower under the umbrella of the Future Made in Australia policies.

For years, the electricity sector has been the poster child for emissions cuts in Australia. The sector achieved a stunning 26% drop in emissions over the past 15 years, while other sectors have hardly budged. The share of renewable energy has gone from 7.5% to more than 30% in that time.

The Future Gas Strategy released by Federal Resources Minister Madeleine King is a massive misstep in the context of the strides the Albanese government has been making in pivoting to our economic future as renewables powered zero-emissions trade and investment leader.

Australia is in critical need of robust planning of distributed battery energy storage systems to increase network flexibility alongside the development of new generation resources and transmission infrastructure.

This article shares some insights about curtailment for semi-scheduled solar and wind farms in the National Electricity Market and is a more in-depth follow-on to an earlier article about the issue.

Despite a rapidly evolving electric vehicle market, myths that they are unsuited to Australian roads have persisted. According to the Electric Vehicle Council, there remains a misconception that EVs are unsuited to Australian conditions due to low battery ranges, the landscape and the country’s immature EV charging infrastructure.

As Australia’s rapid renewable energy rollout continues, so too does debate over land use. Nationals Leader David Littleproud, for example, claimed regional areas had reached “saturation point” and cannot cope with more wind and solar farms and transmission lines.

China’s energy landscape is undergoing a staggering transformation propelled by its leadership in cleantech innovation, declining costs in renewable energy technologies and a massive acceleration of its renewables build out, underpinned by central policy support that sees decarbonisation as a key economic goal.

In 2023 solar photovoltaics and wind comprised about 80% of global net generation capacity additions. Four times as much new solar and wind electricity generation capacity was installed in 2023 as compared with all other electricity sources combined.