Media

The Lights Will Stay On report released today warns delays to closing Eraring – Australia’s largest coal-fired power station – and the smaller Vales Point would cost the bank and risk the nation’s emissions reduction target, AAP reports. Analysis by Climate Energy Finance’s director, Tim Buckley, finds NSW can close the power stations as planned with slight incentives for solar and wind investment. Read more

The NSW government is being urged to save the estimated $200 million to $400 million annual cost of keeping the state’s largest coal-fired power station open and invest the money in accelerating its clean energy rollout instead. A new report by Tim Buckley of Climate Energy Finance rejects mounting calls by energy customers for Origin Energy’s 2880 megawatt Eraring power station to be kept open beyond its scheduled 2025 closure date. Read more

Eraring Power Station can close on time in 2025 if the NSW government takes steps to accelerate renewable energy projects, a report says. The report, to be released on Tuesday by Climate Energy Finance (CEF) think tank, said there was “no case to delay the planned closure of Eraring”. Read more

NSW can safely close Australia’s largest coal-fired power station in 2025, secure supply and reduce power bills with a speedier rollout of renewables, analysis shows. The Lights Will Stay On report released on Tuesday warns delays to the closure of Eraring and the smaller Vales Point would cost the bank and risk the nation’s emissions reduction target. Read more

With the world racing ahead with huge subsidies attracting massive capital inflows, the $500m commitment in the new federal Critical Minerals Strategy released this week is a drop in the ocean, and fails to take advantage of Australia’s unique position in the energy transition as a potential critical minerals value-adding superpower. Read more

Australia has the potential to secure its position as a world leader in value-added critical minerals supply that underpins the energy transition. However, while the new Australian Critical Minerals Strategy 2023-2030 released by the federal government this week rightly foregrounds leveraging international supply and value chain partnerships, the new funding of $500m to NAIF fails to invest in Australia’s minerals boom at a scale commensurate with the opportunity – and is an inadequate response to the capital investments of our partners and competitors in the global decarbonisation race, such as the US IRA. Read more

Tim Buckley breaks down the statement by AEMO CEO Daniel Westerman today that we are not moving fast enough on decarbonisation of the grid; and speaks to the federal government’s Critical Minerals Strategy released today that announced a $500m commitment to minerals processing – a disappointing underinvestment in Australia’s once in a century opportunity to leverage our massive reserves and lead globally on value-added energy transition materials. Read more

Tim Buckley said he is “not surprised” to see a mining company continue its business in Russia despite its invasion of Ukraine. “It’s all about the money. In the coal industry in a good year, you can make a fortune. China doesn’t want to be dependent on Australia’s coal. We are 55 per cent of the world’s coking coal export. Therefore, China will happily buy from Russia.” Read more

Tim Buckley writes that it’s about time NSW reflected QLD’s progressive coal royalty regime which has just delivered a stunning dividend to the people of the state. 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