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Independent Australian think tank Climate Energy Finance (CEF) finds public and private capital is rapidly transitioning Queensland from its dependence on coal and methane gas for electricity generation. The findings were published today in a new report. Called the Queensland’s Energy Transformation: From Coal Colossus to Renewable Energy Superpower report, its key findings show renewables are the fast-growing energy source in the state’s grid, on track for its coal fleet to retire by 2035. State government policy, the report concludes, is attracting billions in private sector investment into renewable energy infrastructure. Read more

A new report by Climate Energy Finance, a Sydney-based think tank, praises Queensland’s energy and jobs plan, a climate, energy and future industries policy designed to eliminate the state’s reliance on fossil fuels. The report, Queensland’s Energy Transformation: From Coal Colossus to Renewable Energy Superpower, will be released Wednesday. It says the jobs plan, backed by a 75 per cent 2035 emissions reduction target, has put the state on “the precipice of a clean-tech revolution, one that well positions the state as a renewable energy and cleantech superpower”. “In an incredibly short timeframe, Queensland has pivoted from energy and climate laggard to a national leader in distributed rooftop solar and large-scale firmed renewables and infrastructure.” Read more

A new report by independent public interest think tank Climate Energy Finance (CEF) finds that Queensland’s nation-leading investment into transmission, large-scale, low-cost renewable energy and Consumer Energy Resources (CER) is crowding-in a tidal wave of both public and private capital. Leveraging Queensland’s game-changing $62bn Energy and Jobs Plan, this is turbocharging the state’s energy transition, reducing reliance on expensive, polluting fossil fuels and putting downward pressure on household and commercial energy bills. Read more

Grid expert Tim Buckley, director of Climate Energy Finance, said that when you had 30 per cent of Victoria’s power generation centred on a single, ageing facility, “you have a real concentration of risk”. “The idea that Loy Yang A is going to be operational 10 years from now is really remote,” Buckley said. “The engineers say it has a 40-year life asset. Forty years is next year, so any year beyond 2025 is a bonus year. “So we have critical point reliance on something that already next year reaches its end of useful life and we’re banking on it being held down for another decade. It’s already unreliable.” Read more

Environmentalists have implored Queensland’s opposition party to “end the climate wars” by backing the government’s carbon emissions reduction target as renewables industry leaders also call for bipartisanship on the issue. Climate Energy Finance director, Tim Buckley, said the industry requires bipartisan support for long-term planning and security. “That means it’s got longevity and credibility and therefore it provides the investor certainty that is needed to really underpin the literally hundreds of billions of dollars of investments that are required to make this work,” Buckley said. Read more

Victoria, like Australia, is on notice. We need to plan and build-in energy system resilience as a key priority, and invest in a modern, flexible grid that is future-proofed. This requires pivoting emphatically and as a matter of urgency from risky dependence on end-of-life, unreliable, polluting centralised coal-plants like Loy Yang A, built four decades ago for a completely different energy market. Thermal coal power plants are not part of the solution – they are the problem. Alongside big solar, wind and batteries, we stand on the precipice of a revolutionary opportunity to massively upscale consumer energy resources, like solar PV on rooftops everywhere, household batteries, and EVs sending power to the grid. Read more

“It was not Loy Yang A tripping that caused the blackouts, it was the grid connected to Loy Yang that got taken out, and Loy Yang tripped because [it] couldn’t export the power [it was] generating,” explains energy analyst Tim Buckley. He says distributing the sites at which power is generated and stored and the number of transmission lines connected to these sites to end users would strengthen rather than weaken the grid. “It’s about having a spiderweb so if the one line or one string goes down, the grid overall doesn’t collapse.” Read more

Tim Buckley, the director of Climate Energy Finance in Sydney described yesterday’s events as a “debacle” and called for a rapid rollout of wind, solar, and battery energy storage. “The result is electricity prices spiking to the maximum $16,600/MWh – meaning all electricity producers are absolutely cashing in big time, profits for generators, a nightmare for Victorian energy users. Time to break the fossil fuel cartel gouging Australians and accelerate the deployment of firmed renewable energy as fast as possible,” wrote Buckley in a post on LinkedIn. Read more

A leading energy analyst says Victoria needs to improve the resilience of its power supply. Tim Buckley is director of the public interest think tank Climate Energy Finance. He joined Raf Epstein to share his view of what Victoria needs to do to future-proof the grid. Read more

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The transition of Australia’s energy system will simply not happen without diversified supply: offshore wind projects are an important component now available for our future energy system. Climate Capital Forum member and experienced wind energy executive, Naomi Campbell, outlines the extensive feasibility process involved and the opportunity for community engagement. Read more

Tim Buckley breaks down the COALition’s attempt to kill the renewables revolution by sowing disinformation and dissent in the community as the rest of the world rapidly decarbonises Read more