A $51 million, 10 megawatt (MW) electrolyser is planned for North East Water’s local wastewater plant in Wodonga, one of the largest proposed for Australia, and will feed green hydrogen into the local gas network at a blend of up to 10 per cent. Tim Buckley says gas companies are substituting high emission, low cost gas for low emission, high cost green hydrogen and it’s a low value use of the hydrogen. Read more

With the world racing ahead with huge subsidies attracting massive capital inflows, the $500m commitment in the new federal Critical Minerals Strategy released this week is a drop in the ocean, and fails to take advantage of Australia’s unique position in the energy transition as a potential critical minerals value-adding superpower. Read more

Australia has the potential to secure its position as a world leader in value-added critical minerals supply that underpins the energy transition. However, while the new Australian Critical Minerals Strategy 2023-2030 released by the federal government this week rightly foregrounds leveraging international supply and value chain partnerships, the new funding of $500m to NAIF fails to invest in Australia’s minerals boom at a scale commensurate with the opportunity – and is an inadequate response to the capital investments of our partners and competitors in the global decarbonisation race, such as the US IRA. Read more

Tim Buckley breaks down the statement by AEMO CEO Daniel Westerman today that we are not moving fast enough on decarbonisation of the grid; and speaks to the federal government’s Critical Minerals Strategy released today that announced a $500m commitment to minerals processing – a disappointing underinvestment in Australia’s once in a century opportunity to leverage our massive reserves and lead globally on value-added energy transition materials. Read more

Tim Buckley said he is “not surprised” to see a mining company continue its business in Russia despite its invasion of Ukraine. “It’s all about the money. In the coal industry in a good year, you can make a fortune. China doesn’t want to be dependent on Australia’s coal. We are 55 per cent of the world’s coking coal export. Therefore, China will happily buy from Russia.” Read more

Tim Buckley writes that it’s about time NSW reflected QLD’s progressive coal royalty regime which has just delivered a stunning dividend to the people of the state. Read more

The Monthly daily newsletter questions the federal governments support for Middle Arm as renewables burgeon, citing CEF’s Solar Pivot report and its call for the teasurer to introduced solar module manufacturing tax incentives to onshore production and create jobs. Read more

Tim Buckley details the global solar boom which is pushing down prices, and increasing manufacturing and installations on an unprecedented scale, foreshadowing a dramatic acceleration of the transition from fossil fuels to clean energy and bringing hope for climate. Read more

Tim Buckley believes the world may be at a watershed moment for energy transition, with solar manufacturing, installs and capacity booming globally. He notes that in one quarter of one year China built, in solar alone, as much energy capacity as has been created in the entire history of Australia’s National Energy Market. Read more

Janaline Oh of Diplomats for Climate Action and Tim Buckley argue that to take full advantage of the opportunities afforded by Australia’s wealth of renewable energy and critical minerals, we must mobilise our own considerable domestic public financial capital to support national decarbonisation objectives, so as to de-risk and “crowd in” private investment, presenting 5 key reforms to do this. Read more

As the Treasurer announces that APRA will be required to bring climate risks into its considerations, Tim Buckley says “We also need the right APRA benchmarks to align our massive superannuation investment pool with the massive transition opportunities staring Australia in the face.” Read more

“The reason the OCE is forecasting our LNG, coking coal and thermal coal as structurally challenged is that lower prices means their value is going to halve in the next three to four years,” says Tim Buckley. Read more