Oceania

In a scandal that has Energy Minister Angus Taylor on the ropes and looking like a Labor Party punching bag to anyone with access to common sense and basic arithmetic, the NSW Police have launched an investigation into allegations a City of Sydney document was altered by Taylor’s office and supplied to News Corp.

Evergen is looking to boost its growth in Australia and expand overseas as it opens a major capital raising campaign to private and wholesale investors on VentureCrowd.

The Kidston solar-pumped hydro project is back on its feet after Japanese utility J-Power and Genex Power renegotiated their deal with the extension of funding provided by the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility Board earlier this month. The project had been thrown off-course after a shock decision by EnergyAustralia not to finalise a purchase agreement.

Under the business-as-usual scenario, Western Australia could use up its Paris-Agreement 1.5°C compatible carbon budget within 12 years but a massive ramping up of renewable energy capacity would unlock significant economic opportunities for the state, finds a report by Berlin-based science and policy institute Climate Analytics.

The University of Wollongong’s Sustainable Buildings Research Centre has become the first building in Australia to achieve full marks under the world’s toughest sustainability standard for buildings, the Living Building Challenge. With 468 solar panels to support net-zero energy, an onsite rainwater system to enable net-zero water performance, and use of environmentally safe and reused building materials, the building is a demonstration of the value of the research the SBRC team carries out. 

“With bushfires raging across the country, AGM season in full swing and increasing pressure on big business to clean up their act in the light of the climate crisis,” Greenpeace says the moment is right to encourage corporate commitment to 100% renewables.

Tesla’s new electric ute, the Cybertruck, may not be the most beautiful of vehicles, but that doesn’t seem to have cost it any attention. The unveiling almost broke the Internet, and a couple windows really did break in the process.

The coastal town of Onslow in the Pilbara has had its much-anticipated standalone solar farm and battery completed this week, making it one of Australia’s largest distributed energy resource microgrids.

South Australia has won this year’s state and territory renewables race, with the Australian Capital Territory and Tasmania hot on its heels. As the state governments continue to step up action on climate change, the Federal Government is acting as an obstacle to investment, finds the Climate Council.

With the number of electric vehicles on Australian roads probably just scraping 6,000, Infrastructure Partners Australia says now is the perfect time to apply a road-use charge to EVs, to ensure all drivers are pulling their weight and the quality of Australian roads can be maintained.