CEF joined The call for a ten-year $100 billion Australian Renewables Industry Package to respond to the US IRA, endorsed by partners including the Australian Conservation Foundation, Australian Council of Trade Unions, Climate Action Network Australia, First Nations Clean Energy Network, New Energy Nexus, Rewiring Australia and the Smart Energy Council. Read more

Tim Buckley has a menu of “no regrets” investments in renewables that NSW Energy Minister Sharpe and the Treasurer Mookhey should consider regardless of Eraring. They include: backing with front-loaded finance and accelerated planning approvals 1200MW of utility scale renewables and 1200MW of distributed (customer-owned) renewables each year until 2030; accelerating the rollout of rooftop solar and batteries in public housing and schools across NSW; accelerating the frequency and ambition of Renewable Energy Zones auctions; cajoling NSW transmission and distribution companies to use tech company Neara to identify existing spare grid capacity for new renewables to be plugged in (it reckons there’s room for 10,000MW); and accelerating electrification for rentals and behind-the-meter batteries. Read more

CEF welcomes and applauds the politically courageous announcement by the Minns government in NSW today that it will increase the state’s coal royalties to generate a total of $2.7 billion for NSW over four years from 2024. Read more

A story by the political editor of Australian Community Media for the Canberra Times with Tim Buckley as the sole spokesperson, detailing the concept and benefits of “orchestration” of distributed and consumer energy resources. Read more

As Tim Buckley says, AEMO’s new Electricity Statement of Opportunities demonstrates yet again that state and federal governments must move to expedite planned transmission projects, utility and distributed renewable energy generation, and storage, and that notably, any risks to supply can be adequately addressed by renewable energy transition initiatives currently underway. Read more

Tim Buckley says Origin is simply bowing to the inevitable by shutting Eraring seven years ahead of schedule in August 2025. He says not only is Eraring one of the most exposed power plants to volatile coal prices — if not the most — it is also among the hardest hit by the influx of renewable energy on the system. This is because Eraring — like all ageing coal-fired power plants — needs to run more or less flat out around the clock. But amid a flood of green power — particularly during the middle of the day when solar output was highest — it was having to run despite the daily cratering of prices. “If I go and flood the NSW market with a shedload of solar, that’s going to gut Eraring, it’s going to gut Bayswater because they have zero flexibility,” Buckley says. It was not designed to be flexible. Read more

Tim Buckley from Climate Energy Finance says using taxpayer subsidies to extend the life of Eraring would be “a massive retrograde step,” when what is needed is the exact opposite – an accelerated transition to firmed renewables. Read more

An extended interview with Tim Buckley on the Utopia Now! podcast covering why finance is important for mitigating the ecological and climate crisis, how the green energy transition is going, whether we are decarbonising fast enough, and government capture by fossil fuel interests amongst other topics. Read more

On the first anniversary of the game-changing US Inflation Reduction that has turbocharged energy transition there and triggered a global race to the top, Tim Buckley and Blair Palese review its top 5 impacts and the top 5 actions Australia should take to respond. Read more

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Tim Buckley speaks at the Australian National Manufacturing Summit noting that while the federal government has plans to value add to get more out of the country’s rich endowment of in-demand minerals, “Australia’s critical minerals strategy has lovely words but $500 million doesn’t cut it,” in the context of massive accelerating public capital commitments to energy transition by our trade partners and competitors. Read more

Tim Buckley said reconfiguring the transmission grid would increase reliability and is key for decarbonisation and a shift away from fossil fuel commodity volatility. Read more