Media

With polysilicon prices dropping a third since 2021, Climate Energy Finance calculates Australians could soon start to benefit from cheaper solar panels as a dive in raw material costs and a “boom” in global output delivers annual solar electricity price falls of 10% for the rest of the decade, and a halving by 2030. Read more

CEF’s new Solar Pivot report sees unprecedented trade and investment opportunities, in the order of hundreds of billions of dollars, for Australia to “ship sunshine”, embodying decarbonisation in its exports by using its solar and wind energy to process its world-leading critical minerals reserves, and to power manufacturing of energy transition materials. Australia has a once in a century opportunity for investment in renewables, exports, technology and employment, including in solar. It should seize it. Read more

A new report from Climate Energy Finance says booming solar investments is leading to a potential tipping point which could “dramatically accelerate the decline of the incumbent fossil fuel industry, and the decarbonisation of the world economy.” 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

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

Nishtha Aggarwal & Tim Buckley: There is plenty of room to remain skeptical, but we may be witnessing an important capital shift that signals the end of fossil fuel climate denialism. 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