Media

Australian energy consumers risk benefiting from only a marginal fall in their electricity bills, despite a big plunge in wholesale electricity prices caused by the growth of renewables, and rooftop solar PV in particular. The Australian Energy Regulator on Tuesday released its draft proposals for what is known as the Default Market Offer for 2024/25. Read more

Sydney Ausgrid electricity consumers will see 3 per cent retail price declines for the new financial year starting 1 July 2024 under the Default Market Offer (DMO) draft ruling from the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) this morning, and small and medium enterprise (SME) customers a much more significant decline of 10 per cent. The default market offer is a maximum price that retailers are allowed to charge. Read more

After two years of hefty increases… it looks like the price of power for consumers in the eastern states is set to drop. The Australian Energy Regulator has today released its draft decision on the nation’s main consumer price caps which are known as “default market offers”. It’s recommended the maximum retailers can charge drop by between one and ten per cent, depending on where you live and whether your bill is for a small business or private residence. Read more

A coalition including leading union, investor, energy, industry and First Nations peak groups today called on the federal government to embed requirements for locally produced and supplied components into all renewable energy supply chain manufacturing and development. A measured, considered local content requirement (LCR) in CIS tenders will support the domestic clean energy and technology supply chains to mature. Read more

Tim Buckley, the Sydney-based director of the Climate Energy Finance think tank, said the adoption of DER systems, particularly rooftop solar panels, should be scaled up significantly in Asia to reach their potential. “DER is a massively underutilised resource, particularly for land-constrained nations who have good solar resources like India and others in Asia,” Buckley said. Citing an example in Denmark, Buckley said construction is under way to build the world’s largest solar rooftop power plant. When completed, the plant on top of a logistics centre in the city of Horsens will have 35 megawatts of capacity, equal to a typical solar farm. Read more

On the Planet A podcast dive into the world of renewable energy and decarbonization with Tim Buckley, Director of Climate Energy Finance – an engaging discussion on the future of energy, global energy markets, and how we are becoming a multi-polar world. Read more

Climate Capital Forum member Satya Tanner in Port Stephens News of the Area new site, on the importance of communities remaining engaged in consultation on offshore wind in Australia. Read more

A new report from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has found that a fleet of EVs used to supply Frequency Control Ancillary Services (FCAS) to the National Energy Market (NEM) could generate revenue of up to $12,000 per vehicle in a single year. Tim Buckley from Climate Energy Finance says the new study’s findings can’t be overstated. Read more

According to Climate Energy Finance founder and director Tim Buckley, “A full rollout of solar on schools and early childhood centres would be the largest renewables project in Australia’s history, providing distribution-level grid stability opportunities, particularly as battery systems become more cost competitive.” “The rooftop solar potential of the early childhood and school sectors should be a key part of the national effort to at least treble the existing 20 GW of cumulative rooftop solar capacity to the 60GW target for the NEM by 2040 (and 85GW by 2050 or 100GW including Western Australia and the Northern Territory) as modelled in the Australian Energy Market Operator’s Integrated System Plan,” he added. Read more

The St George & Sutherland Shire Leader reports a preschool at Oyster Bay has ‘gone green’ for the environment. The Point Preschool has installed rooftop solar to keep energy bills down. Preschool Director Catherine Lee says the centre’s power bills have been in negative territory since installing a large system in 2023. The NSW Government is piloting a program in state schools to install air conditioning powered by rooftop solar, but the support isn’t being stretched to the early childhood sector, Climate Energy Finance Founder and Director Tim Buckley, said. Read more

Queensland is poised to become Australia’s renewable energy “superpower” after unveiling a $570 million battery industry investment. Premier Steven Miles on Thursday announced the multimillion dollar strategy that is forecast to contribute $1.3 billion to the economy and create 9100 jobs by 2030. Think tank Climate Energy Finance (CEF) said Queensland was becoming the nation’s “cleantech leader”. “The battery strategy is further evidence that Queensland is not just undergoing an energy transition but a complete transformation from a legacy coal and gas petrostate to a renewable energy and critical minerals superpower,” CEF director Tim Buckley said. Read more

Queensland is not just undergoing an energy transition, but a complete transformation from a legacy petrostate to a renewable energy superpower. Its staggering momentum has lessons for other states and the federal government. The state is a case study on the catalysing impact of public capital expenditure in “crowding-in” private investment to energy transition. As Climate Energy Finance’s new report released this week details, Queensland’s nation-leading investment in transmission, large-scale low-cost renewable energy and consumer energy resources (CERs) is resulting in a tidal wave of public and private capital. Read more