Climate Energy Finance Director Tim Buckley says the announcing of the Capacity Investment Scheme is a “very significant move” by Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen as it “doubles” on grid capacity of renewables. The targets 82 per cent of Australia’s electricity generation to come from renewables by 2030, along with their targets for a reduction in emissions by 43 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030. Mr Bowen announced the scheme on Thursday which will underwrite 32 gigawatts of new electricity, which consists of 9 gigawatts of storage and 23 gigawatts of variable renewable energy generation. “We, at the moment, have about 32 gigawatts of renewables on grid, in Australia, today and this policy will effectively double that on grid capacity over the next four or five years,” Mr Buckley told Sky News Australia. “That capacity will be brought onstream progressively over the next two, three, four years. “In one initiative, a doubling of the renewable energy capacity on grid in Australia.” Read more

Renewable energy advocates such as Tim Buckley, director of thinktank Climate Energy Finance, hailed the scheme’s expansion as “exactly the kind of bold, landmark federal policy and investment ambition we need to rapidly transform Australia’s energy market whilst ensuring grid reliability and energy affordability”. “It will help facilitate the mothballing of polluting coal clunkers such as Origin Energy’s Eraring power station in New South Wales, Australia’s biggest, scheduled for 2025, while enabling stand-by capacity to ensure supply,” he said. Read more

Tim Buckley, director of Climate Energy Finance, speaks to pv magazine about the current steep trajectory of solar module prices. He estimates that PV panels prices will end up dropping by 40% this year and predicts the closure of old technology and sub-scale solar manufacturing facilities, both in China and globally. Buckley also noted the likely new climate accord by Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden, might see a formal call for a tripling of renewables capacity globally by 2030. “At a time of massive capital investment cost blowouts, to be able to invest in deflationary solar is a massive global boon that will provide cost of living pressure relief as well as improved energy security,” he sai Read more

The government is expanding its Capacity Investment Scheme (CIS) to drive the development of new renewable energy projects. “This policy alone will add effectively double that on-grid capacity over the next four or five years now,” said Tim Buckley, director of Climate Energy Finance. Read more

Tim Buckley, director at Climate Energy Finance, discusses the key issues at stake for the upcoming Origin Energy’s shareholders vote. He speaks with Bloomberg’s Haidi Stroud-Watts on “Bloomberg Daybreak: Australia.” Tim told Bloomberg that it is very important for Australia to drive the decarbonisation transformation of our economy at speed and scale required. That requires hundreds of billions of dollars of investment, hence why he supports Brookfield’s bid for Origin as they have the capital to drive the decarbonisation and is willing to do so. Read more

CEF Tim Buckley and Annemarie Jonson wrote: Energy minister Chris Bowen’s boost to the Capacity investment Scheme (CIS) is a game-changer, expanding federal investment to underwrite a massive target of 32GW of new storage and renewable infrastructure, a huge step-change in national decarbonisation ambition and to be roundly applauded. This is exactly the kind of bold, landmark federal policy and investment ambition we need to rapidly transform Australia’s energy market whilst ensuring grid reliability and restoring energy affordability. Read more

Tim Buckley, director of Climate Energy Finance and former stockbroker, agrees with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission that the public benefit from Brookfield’s ambitious plan outweighs competition concerns raised by its ownership of Victorian poles and wires business AusNet Services. “At the end of the day, we do have an energy crisis, a cost of living crisis and a climate crisis. And all three of them can be solved by unlocking a huge amount of capital at speed and scale in alignment with building new capacity,” Buckley tells The Australian Financial Review. Read more

Oped written by CEF’s China Energy Policy Analyst Xuyang Dong and Ember’s climate strategy advisor Chris Wright on China’s recent methane emissions reduction action plan. China’s recent methane action plan is a game-changer in the global effort to combat emissions. With commitments in its 2026-2030 Five-Year Plan, China is taking a lead in the methane reduction race. This announcement underscores Australia’s lag in implementing a clear methane action plan, despite being a significant emitter. As COP28 approaches, the diplomatic significance and China’s track record of exceeding targets highlight the urgent need for global methane reduction. Read more

Treasurer Jim Chalmers warned Australia could fail to meet its emissions targets without drastic change, and green refining of minerals before shipping overseas could be part of the solution. Tim Buckley told ABC that we need to get out of the mentality of Australia’s traditional dig-and-ship model. Now is the perfect opportunity to permanently rebuild manufacturing and refining capacity onshore. And we need to move faster with more ambition. We should build out capacity within the coming decade instead of 2050, before other countries have already established their own supply chains, or we will permanently miss out. Read more

Tim Buckley told ABC TV that we need to find alternatives to our dig and ship model, eg. do more value-adding refining of our resources onshore. By doing so, Australia can help our trade partners by exporting embodied decarbonisation. Buckley also said Jim Chalmers’ major address on Australia’s green energy and energy transition materials opportunity was overly cautious, and Australia’s response to the IRA should be tailored by Australia’s context and the huge scale of opportunity we have here to lead the world. Read more

The Albanese government has dumped plans to release a comprehensive US-style green energy industrial policy this year. Instead of meeting a pledge in last May’s budget to develop a plan before Christmas, Labor ministers are now working to a revised timeline that would see a more comprehensive response to Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) around the 2024 budget, in about six months. Tim Buckley told AFR that “they need to provide a policy framework. At the end of the day, when America throws $1 trillion on the table in subsidies, and you’re competing against China, when you leave it to the free market you miss out.”“We need to get more projects off the ground, faster.” “The government is moving in the right direction but not fast enough, and they don’t have the political mandate to act with the courage they really need.” Read more

Victoria’s State Electricity Commission (SEC) has been reintroduced in a move that is hoped will crowd-in investment into renewables in the state. Tim Buckley told FS Sustainability that some are concerned that public capital may crowd out private capital. “The key challenge that the SEC has to actually work to crowd in private capital,” Buckley said. “I think that risk is real, but it’s more than outweighed by the benefits to the people of Victoria.” He sees renewables as a “solution to the cost-of-living crisis, the energy crisis and the climate crisis… More competition means more supply and lower prices.” Read more