Media

Tim Buckley joined the Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade) and Renewable Energy Council Asia-Pacific (RECAP) delegation to China. Read more

Highlights – ACCELERATING RENEWABLES DRIVES NEM ELECTRICITY PRICE DEFLATION Amazing to see electricity price DEFLATION being delivered in Australia in the middle of the latest fossil fuel war, with its resulting hyperinflation of global fossil fuel prices. The Australian Energy Regulator has released its final Default Market Offer (DMO) starting 1 July 2026. Residential flat rate standing offer prices will fall by between 3-5% in NSW and by 7.2% in South East Queensland compared to last year, while South Australian households will have a modest increase of 1.4%. Small businesses will see reductions across all three regions, with prices decreasing by 7-12% in South Australia, 10-14% in South East Queensland, and 9.0-21% in NSW. Earlier this week the Essential Services Commission delivered a further reduction in the Victorian Default Offer; FY2026–27 will be on average 5% lower than last year for households. For small businesses the price is down on average 6%. A major contributing factor is the record high investments into clean energy by Australia’s public – with over 400k home battery installs totalling >11GWh achieved in just 11 months, supporting the 3GW pa of rooftop solar installs. Read more

Tim Buckley from Climate and Energy Finance joins to discuss the good, bad and the ugly from the federal budget, how to fix the Capacity Investment Scheme, and other news. Read more

Main Story: Our Clean Energy Finance Report: Green Metal Statecraft: Policy, Investment and Technology Trends in the Green Iron Evolution Highlights – The SEC Sydney conference – Fuel Tax Credit reform – The Cheaper Home Batteries Program and Accelerating capital deployments – More RE share => lower energy prices Lowlights – The Albanese government has ruled out a 25% LNG export levy, very disappointing – We did secure an East Coast Gas reservation of 20% of production from 1 July 2027. Good and bad, it helps reduce energy cost inflation for sure, but it also means the hurdle for electrification and decarbonisation is harder, given methane is cheaper. Read more

Highlights The Business Leaders Forum at Boao, China – China’s stated position remains one of full commitment to electrification and decarbonisation. PRRT Reform – The ACTU continues to call for a flat 25% tax on Australian LNG to replace the The Petroleum Resource Rent Tax, with the objective of capturing windfall profits and generating tax revenues of up to $10bn to fund energy poverty relief across Australia. Accelerating Capital Deployments – Treasurer Chalmers’ Single Front Door pilot is now operational. Main Story – CEF Op-Ed in The Energy: Lessons for Australia from the Global Energy Crisis Read more

Highlights – Draft AER Default Market Offer Brilliant to see the Australian Energy Regulator has today flagged draft default market offer (DMO) electricity pricing down ⬇️ 1% to ⏬ 10% for residential consumers, and between ⬇️ 8% to ⏬ 21% for small business consumers The DMO sets an efficiently priced safety-net for households and small businesses on standing offer electricity plans and acts as a reference price to help consumers compare market offers. This is the draft ruling, with the final ruling released May 2026 for effect for the 12 months starting 1 July 2026. This is consistent with Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO)’s quarterly energy dynamics highlighting Australia hit a record high 51% RenewableEnergy share in the 4QCY2025, and wholesale electricity prices fell by >40% yoy as a result. Read more

The war in the Middle East has sent Australia’s fuel prices soaring. And people are worried that if the battle between the US-Israel and Iran continues for another month – Australia may have to begin rationing fuel. Already, drivers are panic buying, stockpiling and some country petrol stations are running dry. Global oil supplies are under threat as Iran attacks tankers in the Strait of Hormuz. Read more

Highlights The Clean Energy Council’s 4Q2025 report shows a rebound in large-scale renewable and storage investment across Australia, with record commissioning and strong financial activity. Five generation projects (1.2 GW) and five storage projects (1.1 GW) reached FID, while 2.1 GW of generation and 1.9 GW / 4.9 GWh of storage became operational, surpassing Q3 2025 records. The pipeline remains strong with 81 generation (13 GW) and 75 storage projects (13 GW / 35 GWh) under construction or financially committed. NSW awarded six major 8-hour battery contracts, including the 300 MW / 3,500 MWh Great Western BESS, and launched additional tenders to expand firmed renewables and accelerate zero-emissions generation. Read more

Tim Buckley, Director of Climate Energy Finance, notes that the energy transition is reshaping global power, elevating China through sustained clean energy investment. Australia, strategically located in the Asian century with over $300 billion in annual trade with China, can act as a bridge between East and West—deploying low-cost renewables, adding value to critical minerals, and exporting to global partners. Achieving net zero requires $500 billion by 2035, mostly private capital, catalysed by government de-risking. Strengthening the Safeguard Mechanism with clearer, rising carbon price signals will provide investor certainty and accelerate Australia’s clean energy future. Read more

Big themes 2026 – From Grant McDowell In 2025 we discussed the rise and rise of China. In 2026 I think we’ll see the rise and rise of the middle powers. New world disorder is opening up opportunities for China to collaborate with the middle powers, and beyond. China has learned from the mistakes of the Belt Road Initiative and seeking to collaborate. China’s EVs are displacing over one million barrels of oil demand a day. The middle powers are moving from molecules to electrons for clean electricity and transport. Middle powers are tired of being lumbered with decades long expensive fossil generators are now leaning into many small and cheap. See Ethiopia’s ban on petrol and diesel vehicle imports. Carbon trajectory – EU CBAM helps set a new market for world trade and carbon polluting countries. So once again we’ll be following the work of Ember and Lauri Myllyirta. And our conversations will naturally include Australia. I’ll be watching our energy transformation closely as we face a chicken and egg problem. As coal generation is extended investors are reluctant to back utility scale wind and solar projects. Which then allows the coal generation to extend. Utility scale batteries will play a role, however wind generation is key and every effort should be made to deploy, deploy, deploy. Read more

In the latest Energypreneurs episode with Tim Buckley, the discussion explores why Australia’s energy transition is outperforming expectations: ☀️ 50.2% renewables across the grid — without instability 🔋 World-leading battery uptake (1,000 installs per day) 📉 Wholesale power prices down ~28% year-on-year ⚡ How batteries reduce curtailment and defer grid costs 🤝 Why equity matters — ensuring renters benefit too Tim Buckley’s takeaway is clear: renewables, batteries, and smart policy together deliver cheaper, more resilient power. Read more

BESS deployments booming Batteries are the biggest disruptive force in global energy markets in 2025. Australia becomes world’s third-largest utility battery market. Rho Motion reports Grid-scale BESS market saw 12.7GWh of new capacity enter operations globally in October 2025, +29% y-o-y. Meanwhile, global YTD deployments have reached 156GWh, +38% yoy. China led new operational capacity with 8.8GWh of utility scale BESS added in the Oct 2025 month – double what Australia will do this year – including one giga-scale vanadium flow battery. Read more