Speaking at the Renewables and Critical Minerals Superpower webinar hosted by the Smart Energy Council on Tuesday, Tim Buckley outlined the fierce competition flooding into the clean energy space, especially around manufacturing. Read more

“We have been a dig and ship country for 50 years,” says Tim Buckley. “Fifty per cent of the entire world’s lithium supply came from Australia last year. We have the opportunity to play at world scale, as we do in iron ore, as we do in gold, and as we do in thermal coal” but we must do more to value-add by processing onshore. Read more

“America has announced 40 gigawatts of new solar module manufacturing capacity in the last six months, on the back of the Inflation Reduction Act – a six-fold expansion [in] American solar module manufacturing capacity. China has announced 294 gigawatts of new solar module manufacturing capacity in just the last three months, all of which will be commissioned within the next two years, if not sooner,” says Buckley. “The IEA says China accounted for 65 per cent of global clean tech manufacturing factory expansions in the first three months of this year.” Read more

Tim Buckley: ” A halving of installed solar costs by 2030 will accelerate the energy transition and progressively unwind the fossil fuel cost of living crisis inflicted in 2022/23, and create a medium term deflationary tailwind to offset the rising interest rate cycle hitting households in 2023.” Read more

Tim Buckley said, “We expect that this could well be the peak in absolute electricity and gas prices at the retail level. There is a massive lag in the system in passing through the 2022 hyperinflation of fossil fuel commodity prices, which in turn squeezed up electricity prices to record Australian highs. It is really important for Australian consumers to understand that unlike inflationary fossil fuels, renewables are progressively deflationary, even including firming costs. For example, we expect solar module prices to decline by ten per cent per year over the rest of this decade, re-engaging the decade long trend seen since 2010.” Read more

Tim Buckley on ABC Melbourne 774 talking about the Australian Energy Regulator’s projections on the forthcoming energy price rises, noting that the pain will ease as zero emissions low cost renewables begin to dominate. Read more

Tim Buckley on ABC NewsRadio breaks down why energy prices are about to rise, noting that without the federal intervention last year to cap prices the increase would be double the expected ~20-25% Read more

As CEF China energy policy analyst Xuyang Dong writes, renewables are now leading China’s newly added power capacity for the first time, even as new coal power plants continue to come online. During the first quarter of 2023, China added a record 50 GW of RE capacity. Read more

Tim Buckley described the US-Australia Climate and Energy Compact announced this week as a critically-important development in the context of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which is turbocharging the energy transformation in the US with upwards of $800 billion of federal investment in clean energy initiatives and attracting a massive influx of global capital to the US, opening up huge investment opportunities for Australian companies. Read more

Tim Buckley shares his insights on the new US-Australia Climate Critical Minerals and Clean Energy Transformation Compact. He views this as a geopolitical statement of global significance for Australia, demonstrating strategic intent to collaborate on critical minerals, climate, and clean energy., also emphasising the importance of Congress ratifying President Biden’s commitment for the agreement to be realised. Read more

Tim Buckley said he doubted Snowy Hydro could abandon the project given the amount of money already spent.But he said the project’s handling had so far been a “fiasco” and made a mockery of the initial rosy cost and construction time estimates. “It is going to cost an absolute bomb — at least five times what Turnbull announced. It’s all taxpayer money. The question is, how far have they gone? Is it too late to withdraw? I would’ve thought it is.” Read more

Tim Buckley says the new US-Australia Climate, Critical Minerals and Clean Energy Transformation Compact agreed by US President Biden and PM Albanese provides a landmark policy statement of strategic intent, formalising collaboration and coordination of policies and investments to expand and diversify the clean energy and critical minerals supply chains that underpin global decarbonisation. Read more