Oceania

San Francisco has now joined other US cities in banning natural gas in new homes. The move is in stark contrast to the direction of energy policy in Australia, where the Morrison government seems stuck in reverse: spruiking a gas-led economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Victorian government on Tuesday announced a $797 million energy efficiency package to accelerate the rollout of rooftop solar and batteries around the state. The package will also deliver home energy upgrades to over 250,0000 households, set new home and rental energy standards, and offer immediate bill relief to people facing hardship during the pandemic.

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has committed $2.9 million to a new electric vehicle charging trial with plans to install around 250 homes with either smart charging software or vehicle-to-grid (V2G) systems to better understand the technology.

For the last few months, while her city lay dormant in lockdown, Nastaran Meftahi has been tucked away developing a machine learning model to predict where the most promise for next-generation organic solar cells is held.

Brisbane-based global EV charging powerhouse Tritium has unveiled a scalable solution which will give peace of mind to network operators and governments the world over. The solution, launched in tandem with the next-gen RTM75 DC Fast Charger, knocks down one of the few remaining obstacles to large scale EV charger uptake.

Following on from Social Energy’s launch in Australia late last year, the UK company has teamed up with SolaX to offer a rather appetising feed-in-tariff deal to go with a combined solar and energy storage system.

Two new reports have sought to extinguish the floundering gas myth once and for all, showing the federal government’s “gas-fired recovery” plan will benefit neither Australia’s manufacturing industry nor domestic users.

Steel giant BlueScope is backing the NSW Government’s ambitious renewable infrastructure plan through a $20 million investment into the development of a Renewable Manufacturing Zone at its Port Kembla site in the Illawarra. The investment seeks to encourage innovation in the renewable sector and work towards the Government’s goal of constructing the state’s Renewable Energy Zones with local materials.

Danish investment firm Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners has given its partnership to Hydrogen Renewables Australia as it looks to develop the 5,000 Mw Murchison Renewable Hydrogen Project near Kalbarri in Western Australia. The project looks to utilise Australia’s best wind and solar resources to produce hydrogen fuel for export to nations such as Japan and Korea.

AustralianSuper, the country’s largest superannuation fund, has followed up from its dumping of shares in Whitehaven Coal with a commitment to a net zero carbon emissions investment portfolio by 2050. The fund, a major global investor, is as yet only a minor investor in the renewable energy sector, but that looks like it will soon change.