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There is no need to use taxpayer fund to keep Australia’s biggest coal power plant open beyond its planned closure date in 2025 as the state of NSW has made “massive progress” on new renewable energy and battery capacity, according to think tank Climate Energy Finance. Read more

Tim Buckley tells AusBiz there is no reliability gap surrounding the closure of Aus’ biggest coal plant, Eraring in NSW. He points to a report by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) presented to the NSW Energy Minister which shows no need for public subsidies to keep the plant open. Read more

In Canberra Times and across 100+. mastheads, CEF’s new report detailing the pipeline of firmed renewables that means Australia’s biggest coal power station, Eraring, can close down on schedule in 2025 with no electricity supply reliability gap. Read more

Climate Energy Finance’ Tim Buckley,: “The NSW government’s decision on whether to extend the life of Eraring coal fired power plant, Australia’s biggest, beyond its planned closure date of August 2025 at taxpayers’ expense, ostensibly to ensure supply, will be a hot button issue this year and has national implications for energy transition.” He estimates the cost of keeping all four Eraring units operating for another two years would be $300m to $400m. “There is no reason why the government would pay that subsidy” when “there is more than enough firmed renewables capacity in the pipeline” of development in NSW to offset Eraring’s closure. Read more

A surge in renewable energy generation and battery storage projects will allow Eraring power station to close in mid-2025, a new analysis says. The report The Lights Will Stay On: NSW Electricity Plan 2024-2030, produced by think tank Climate Energy Finance, shows an unprecedented number of clean energy projects have come online over the past six months. Read more

A report from a climate finance think-tank says there’s now an even stronger case for closing Australia’s largest coal-fired power station as scheduled next year, thanks to more renewable energy and a growth in battery storage capacity. Read more

Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) quietly released the Energy Security Target Monitor Report it had delivered privately to NSW climate and energy minister Penny Sharpe in October, showing that Australia’s biggest coal power clunker, Eraring, can close on time and there will be no gap in electricity supply. OUr new report, released today – The Lights will Stay On – confirms this, as we map the brilliant momentum in the state on utility scale firmed renewables and consumer energy resources (CER). There is no case for paying hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to keep the ailing, polluting behemoth chugging on. Read more

Analysis of the 2024-30 power sector by the Climate Energy Finance director Tim Buckley found NSW will have enough capacity to cover the exit of the 2,880-megawatt Eraring station now set for closure by owner Origin Energy in August 2025. “There is no reason why the taxpayer should be on the hook for multiples of hundreds of millions of dollars to keep Eraring open,” Buckley said, adding he had become “materially more confident” after a burst of federal and state moves at the end of 2023 to support more storage and large-scale renewables projects. Read more

Climate Energy Finance Director Tim Buckley said the dismantling of DeGrussa came as no surprise with the end of mine life “absolutely well known” when they solar hybrid power system was commissioned. “There is no surprise there,” he said, adding that in spite of its short lifespan, the DeGrussa power project has been a “brilliant success.” Read more

Climate Energy Finance Director Tim Buckley said the dismantling came as no surprise with the end of mine life “absolutely well known” when they solar hybrid power system was commissioned. “There is no surprise there,” he said, adding that in spite of its short lifespan, the DeGrussa power project has been a “brilliant success.” Buckley said the project, which attracted $20.9 million (USD 13.7 million) in funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) and $15 million in debt finance from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC), was part of the “step change that took solar from being a potential technology to being now integral to the transformation and decarbonisation of the Australian electricity system.” Read more

Climate Energy Finance director Tim Buckley says that shows just how emissions intensive oil and gas projects are, but also indicates a lack of industrialisation in Australia. “Barossa is a carbon factory with LNG as a byproduct,” he says. “But when we talk about Scope 1 emissions facilities of more than 100,000 mtCO2e/year, we don’t have a lot of them because Australia is a ‘dig and ship’ country. The majority of these facilities are fossil fuel exports anyway.” Read more

ANALYSIS: New int’l corporate Scope 3 emissions reporting laws highlight different regional aims for climate finance Read more