Media

The false dichotomy of distributed small-scale versus utility-scale renewables, coupled with the nuclear and CCS furphies, is the latest chapter in the Coalition’s efforts to stymie and repoliticise Australia’s energy transition. As Andrew Forrest succinctly put it at his National Press Club address this week: “If we swallow this new lie that we should stop the rollout of green energy and that nuclear energy will be our fairy godmother, we will be worse off again.” Read more

Hydrogen electrolyser manufacturers are staring into the valley of death, as the hype-fuelled valuations of 2021 and high hopes of the hydrogen economy come crashing down around their ears. Last week, two of the most notable electrolyser technology developers – Plug Power and Bloom Energy Corp – revealed the depth of their problems as they try to achieve massive scale while improving and reducing the cost of the technologies they are developing. “The electrolyser manufacturing sector is going through a massive learning-by-doing as they’re flying the plane,” says Climate Energy Finance director Tim Buckley. Read more

With Laura Tingle on ABC TV’s 7.30, Tim Buckley supports calls by Rod Sims and Ross Garnaut of The Superpower Institute for the federal government to leverage Australia’s generational opportunity be become a zero-emissions trade and investment leader – and for a Carbon Solutions Levy to invest in the clean energy transition. Read more

New research from independent think tank Climate Energy Finance (CEF) has found that Queensland is leading the nation in the transition to renewable, clean power, having made transformational investments in transmission, large-scale, low-cost renewable energy and Consumer Energy Resources (CER). Interestingly, the revamp has offered regional Queensland new opportunities as well – CEF believes the Sunshine State is on the precipice of leaving behind its legacy of coal and gas and becoming a clean tech superpower with the minerals and renewable energy needed to service the global push to decarbonisation. 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 public and private capital. Leveraging Queensland’s game-changing $62 billion Energy and Jobs Plan, this is accelerating the state’s energy transition, reducing reliance on expensive, polluting fossil fuels and putting downward pressure on household and commercial energy bills. Read more

Tim Buckley appears on Queensland WIN News to discuss CEF’s new Queensland Energy Transformation report. Read more

Tim Buckley joins ABC Radio Sunshine Coast to discuss how Queensland’s Energy and Jobs Plan is bringing in a tidal wave of investment into large-scale renewables, as well as distributed energy resources. Read more

Tim Buckley joins Kelly Higgins-Devine to discuss Climate Energy Finance’s new report analysing Queensland’s energy transformation, covering government investment, renewables, rooftop solar and energy prices. Read more

The sunshine state is at the precipice of transforming from a legacy coal and gas petrostate to a renewable energy superpower. It is in the process of unleashing its once-in-a-century opportunity to lead the world in exporting decarbonised critical minerals and metals key to the global energy transition. As we find in our new CEF report, 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 public and private capital. Off the back of the state’s game-changing Energy and Jobs Plan, this is turbocharging the energy transition, reducing reliance on expensive, polluting fossil fuels and slashing household and commercial energy bills. 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

Tim Buckley said Tuesday’s blackout shows why it is important the energy market diversify, particularly as climate change escalates and extreme weather becomes more extreme and more frequent. “Our power system needs to factor this in as part of sensible adaptation. 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,” he said. Buckley added that thermal coal power plants were not part of that solution, instead they were the problem. “Australia’s world-leading distributed rooftop solar and battery residential systems can be built in a day, or for commercial properties, a month, at speed and scale,” he said. 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