We conduct public interest financial analysis on the most profound economic transformation since the industrial revolution: the transition from fossil fuels to clean energy.

Data Centres Australia also took shots at the idea that these facilities could be curtailed during grid peaks, infeasible because “cloud and AI inferencing workloads require continuous availability”. Ditto for more stringent requirements for embodied emissions and efficiency, water use restrictions (“the bottleneck sits with water utilities, not operators”), and any requirements for transparently disclosing what is happening inside the data centres (“differentiating AI from non-AI workloads is technically problematic”). Tim Buckley, the director of Climate Energy Finance (one of the signatories of the principles), fired back at DCA head Belinda Dennett: “A lobbyist for private vested interests singing for your supper and trying to get involved after the event and in doing so, undermining the much-needed community interests your members require to build social licence and government approvals.” Read more

The widening conflict in the Gulf has exposed Australia’s extreme reliance on imported oil. With minimal fuel reserves and a $12 billion annual diesel subsidy to mining, energy security has become a national security emergency. The last several days have underscored the existential risk Australia runs by remaining addicted to imported fossil fuels. On 28 February, the US and Israel launched a preemptive war against Iran. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed. The conflict is now widening regionally, impacting energy markets worldwide. Yet the Australian government provides a $12 billion annual subsidy to keep us addicted to imported diesel, undermining our clean energy-powered Future Made In Australia, energy security and decarbonisation objectives. Read more

Nevertheless, the numbers show investment in new projects is “running laps around the targets required for Australia to hit its net zero targets”, says Climate Energy Finance director Tim Buckley. “The best way to get Australian energy prices trending down sustainably is to get more net new supply of generation online ahead of demand growth,” he said on LinkedIn. “Rooftop solar and 250,000 [behind the meter] batteries really help solve this challenge, but we need a lot more utility scale projects – scale and speed!” Read more