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It is incredibly disappointing that Australia’s largest company refuses to act in line with climate science. Tim Buckley, director of the think tank Climate Energy Finance, notes that the cancellation of the project comes as the company appears to be winding back its broader decarbonisation ambitions. Last month, BHP revealed it had deferred until the next decade a decision on when or indeed whether it will electrify its vast fleet of trucks and trains. Read more

“It is incredibly disappointing that Australia’s biggest company refuses to act in alignment with the climate science. “And it makes the government’s emissions reduction trajectory extremely difficult to deliver on.” The cancellation of the so-called ‘Inland Solar PV’ project comes amid what one analyst described as a “cooling” by BHP on broader decarbonisation efforts. Read more

Tim Buckley, the director of Climate Energy Finance, said the battery’s delivery could help bring energy prices down by supporting more green energy projects to completion. “It will [help] more wind and solar and firming capacity into the grid, all of which means we will see electricity prices stabilise and then progressively, hopefully come down over time,” he said. Read more

Tim’s Expert view published on The Energy Co: “Australia is absolutely walking both sides of the street, as we saw with the Albanese government’s approval of a 40 year extension on the North West Shelf gas processing plant. We are still a major, top three fossil fuel exporter. The incumbent industry is still very powerful politically in Australia, and that undermines Australia’s long term strategic national interest, in my view. Read more

The director of Clean Energy Finance, Tim Buckley, said there was cause for optimism but maintaining the pace of investment and developmentrequired much quicker approvals, construction and commissioning. “We need to get speed and scale way beyond current rates, particularly with extended delays to grid connection,” he said. Read more

“We need batteries to time shift demand from when solar is generating to when consumers are demanding it, and that is invaluable for grid stability.” Labor has committed $2.3 billion to subsidise the take-up of 1 million household batteries by 2030, providing up to 30 per cent off the upfront cost of installing eligible small-scale battery systems. Read more

Albanese and Dutton’s pre-election stoush over the Port of Darwin made one thing clear – Australia remains deeply ambivalent about Chinese investment. Each promising to end the lease if elected, the major parties clearly believed a billion-dollar national security stunt would play well with the electorate. This, despite Dutton taking no issue with the lease as a cabinet minister in 2015, and multiple reviews by Australian security agencies finding insufficient grounds to terminate it. Read more

China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Limited (CATL) produces more than a third of all EV batteries sold worldwide and supplies major carmakers including Tesla, Volkswagen and Toyota. The listing was closely watched as the US-China tariff war upended the global trading system and hit carmakers hard. Read more

CATL is currently building its second European factory in Hungary, after opening a plant in Germany in early 2023. In December, the firm announced a tie-up with Chrysler-owner Stellantis to build a $4.3bn (£3.2bn) EV battery plant in Spain. The facility is set to be in operation by the end of next year. The firm invests heavily in new technology, with six research and development centres around the world. Read more

However, Tim Buckley, director of Climate Energy Finance, a Sydney think-tank, noted that few Chinese cleantech companies would be as attractive to international investors. “CATL is an exception; even as they’ve delivered very strong growth, they’ve also delivered good profit margins,” he said, adding: “For the solar, wind and lithium companies . . . profit is one of the least important drivers.” Read more

In the wake of the Government’s announcement of its Cheaper Home Batteries Program, 60 Australian economists, energy analysts and policy specialists have signed a letter comparing the economic consequences of pursuing nuclear energy against those of subsidising distributed clean energy technologies, including batteries. Read more

Residential battery prices are yet to fall like industrial ones, Climate Energy Finance director Tim Buckley says, but they are becoming more reliable and long-lasting, making them better value. Read more