Media

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

An Australia-South Korea Compact across value-added critical mineral industries, and scaling of the capacity and cooperation of our respective export credit agencies, should be a strategic federal priority for Australia. Such a Compact would bring material gain to both economies as Australia seeks to move beyond its dig and ship history and capture value further downstream by value-adding and building batteries onshore. Read more

Tim Buckley, from Climate Energy Finance, emphasizes Australia’s opportunity to play a more significant role in the full electrification of various sectors. Tim notes Australia’s position as a significant global exporter of lithium, iron ore, and coke coal, and the need to capitalise on this status to usher in the transition to electric vehicles. Read more

Australia has been urged to ink a battery supply chain pact with leading car maker South Korea to kickstart local industry. A globally competitive battery manufacturing capability onshore in Australia could be part of a critical minerals compact with the country’s top three trading partners, a think tank said in a report released on Thursday. Read more

Buckley of Climate Energy Finance pointed out Australia could also have an opportunity when it comes to heavy haulage electric trucks, since as a nation we command much of the market via our mining industry. “In heavy haulage vehicles, Australia is number two,” he said. Read more

A $51 million, 10 megawatt (MW) electrolyser is planned for North East Water’s local wastewater plant in Wodonga, one of the largest proposed for Australia, and will feed green hydrogen into the local gas network at a blend of up to 10 per cent. Tim Buckley says gas companies are substituting high emission, low cost gas for low emission, high cost green hydrogen and it’s a low value use of the hydrogen. 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