Canada

A 325 MW/2,600 MWh pumped hydro project planned for the New South Wales central west faces an indefinite delay with developer Atco announcing it will hold off on the next stage of the regulatory approvals process until the state government’s policy frameworks “are close to being able to support financial investment decisions for large-scale infrastructure.”

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.

Canadian-headquartered clean energy firm Amp Energy has secured the rights to develop a green hydrogen project with up to 5 GW of electrolyser capacity on the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia. Amp has signed an agreement with iron ore miner Iron Road which owns the coastal site, including the Cape Hardy Port Precinct.

A $18.7 billion (USD 12.5 billion) takeover deal for Origin Energy has been struck with a consortium led by Canadian giant Brookfield. Brookfield’s vision for Origin involves spending “at least” $20 billion to build new renewables and storage, using Origin and its customer base as a vehicle for transition.

Canadian investment giant Brookfield will acquire the remaining 50% stake in Spain-based renewables developer X-Elio from its joint venture partner, investment firm KKR. X-Elio has more than 500 MW of projects in development in Australia and the move from Brookfield, which is also currently looking to takeover Origin Energy, a major Australian “gentailer,” extends the ambitious company’s hold in Australia.

Canada-headquartered Solmax will seek to build its presence in the Australian utility scale solar sector having developed a reflective membrane which it claims can increase the energy yield of a bifacial PV project by between 5% and 20%, depending on the plant configuration.

The Brookfield-led North American consortium courting Origin Energy has finally come back with a revised bid for the company, valued at roughly $18.2 billion (USD 12.5 billion). The offer is only fractionally lower than the initial bid, which came as a relief for the market, and has been endorsed by Origin’s board.

The European Commission has presented the final version of its new rules for green hydrogen, with looser requirements to qualify hydrogen as “green.”

Australia’s Origin Energy is the target of an $18.4 billion (USD 11.3 billion) takeover bid by a consortium led by Canadian investment giant Brookfield Asset Management which plans to divide the business and invest another $20 billion by 2030 to support the gen-tailer’s transition to clean energy.

Combining satellite images of Australian rooftops with those of real-time cloud cover to create accurate forecasts of distributed solar output for suburbs and perhaps even whole regions and states is the focus of a new Australian startup, Solstice AI. “We’re kind of at a point now where there’s so much solar that it’s causing all these issues but, if we can forecast it, many of these issues can be alleviated or managed much better,” the company’s cofounder and CEO, Julian de Hoog, tellspv magazine Australia.