Media

Energy analysts, including Tim Buckley, say Origin needs to reveal how it will remain a major generator of power if it is to meet a customer book totalling about 4.5 million people. Read more

As Tim Buckley and AM Jonson write the record high of low-cost wind and solar in the grid comes as we are still waiting for the Coalition’s budget projections on its plan to nationalise the eye-watering cost of seven nuclear plants. Read more

The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) has released its latest Electricity Statement of Opportunities (ESOO), painting an optimistic picture of Australia’s energy future. The report suggests that with continued investment in new renewable and storage projects, the nation can successfully transition beyond coal-fired power generation. Tim Buckley, Director of Climate Energy Finance, highlighted that AEMO’s forecasts show power supply reliability can be maintained over most of the next 10 years, provided that established programs and initiatives are delivered on time. Read more

Tim Buckley speaks on ABC Victoria Radio on AEMO’s 2024 ESOO and continued investment into renewable energy to ensure a stable and secure electricity grid. Read more

Tim Buckley speaks with Sky News on transitioning our economy away from fossil fuels that Australia has had a historical over reliance on, and into zero emissions technology, as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visit to the Pacific and the urgent need to end coal and gas. Tim also speaks on massive profitability of Australia’s iron ore majors, and the lack of urgency from Australia’s corporates to address the climate emergency. Read more

Liddell Power Station in Australia’s Hunter Valley burned through coal for five decades before closing last year. Opposition leader Peter Dutton now wants Liddell to be reborn as something banned in the country for a quarter of a century: a nuclear power plant. Tim Buckley, director of the Climate Energy Finance think-tank, said the opposition’s proposals would displace private capital with a “communist-style policy” requiring more than A$100bn of public funds. “It is not impossible, but it is financially illogical,” said Buckley, who questioned the move’s political motivations ahead of an election. “This is not nuclear versus renewables. This is about extending the climate wars.” Read more

The Minns government asked the electricity grid operator to undertake more conservative modelling which showed Eraring’s closure would create a reliability shortfall just months before giving the green light to extend the nation’s biggest coal-fired power station. Climate Energy Finance chief executive Tim Buckley questioned whether the investment necessary to defer Eraring’s retirement could have instead been used to encourage “a lot of permanent, low cost, zero emissions private projects”. “Were alternative solutions actually even sought?” he said. Read more

[Starts at 37:46] Tim Buckely told Bloomberg that Adani’s renewable energy aspirations are entirely feasible, and it is in lockstep with the Indian government. Surging power demand will complicate India’s energy transition efforts. Read more

As a confidential report to the NSW government, suggesting that closing Eraring would push power prices up, is released to the public, Tim Buckley provides a withering critique: “Does this analysis assume they (the NSW government) stand there like startled rabbits in the headlights and do absolutely nothing for a couple of years in the face of the stark knowledge that the largest coal fired power plant is at the end of its useful life and going to close? The permanent solution is not bandaids and more taxpayer subsidies for an end of life, unreliable high emissions coal clunker. $450m of tax payer monies would have crowded in a lot of permanent, low cost, zero emissions private projects.” Read more

Tim Buckley discusses the LNP’s nuclear furphy with French newspaper Les Echos: The Australian Conservatives’ proposal is nothing more than a political bluff that “conflates higher electricity prices with renewable energy”, said Tim Buckley. Among the weaknesses of the plan in question, he cites the envisaged use of SMRs “which are not even commercially available”. He also notes that, when it comes to nuclear power, “Australia is relying on foreign know-how, because we have no skills, expertise or technology, zero”, which suggests that budgets and delivery times are likely to be exceeded. Read more

Tim Buckley told Straits Times that Australia is set to be one of the world’s largest sources of renewable energy such as wind and solar power, and that these could eventually be used to produce vast quantities of green hydrogen. “Twiggy (Dr Forrest) was too far ahead of the curve – he has now pivoted to something that is more achievable this decade,” Read more

Battery storage is supposed to throw a bit more competition into the market. But the problem is that many of these assets are now owned or contracted to the very same energy giants that control the rest of the generation. If anything, it’s made it easier for them to control prices and profits. And being in the grip of the big energy players doesn’t feel like a safe place to be at the moment, especially with gas prices at such highs – five times the price of other international markets – according to Tim Buckley, from Climate Energy Finance. And it gives the Coalition plenty to crow about, something that is now taking hold in the minds of the public. Read more