Media

Three-quarters of the gas extracted by Australia is sold overseas, mostly to customers in Japan, China and South Korea. Does this make Australia a petrostate? Tim Buckley, a former investment banker, now director of the analysis firm Climate Energy Finance, is among those who believe it does. He points to the documented history of Australia’s fossil fuel industry to pay, pressure and cajole governments to get its way. The result is that the country has continued to expand gas and coal operations, with no articulated end in sight, since it rejected a climate-laggard rightwing Coalition administration in 2022 and replaced it with a Labor government promising to take a leadership role on the climate crisis. Read more

Source: AEMO Gas Statement of Opportunities If privatisation of gas and electricity networks and the consequent complexity of the market are partly to blame for high energy bills, it is worth pondering whether a more independent regulator might be in order. We are talking about the Australian Energy Market Operator (AMEO), which independent energy expert Tim Buckley described this week as “captured by the methane gas cartel”. Read more

Tim Buckley comments for this feature on Andrew Forrest’s recalibration of his green hydrogen ambitions. Read more

Tim Buckley discusses with Kieran Gilbert the power price spikes AEMO identifies in its latest quarterly energy dynamics report – including the devastating impacts of aging coal clunker outages. Read more

Tim Buckley breaks down why we have seen massive power price spikes in the NEM – coal’s unreliability, system gaming by gentailers and the failure of the approvals system to bring firmed renewables replacement capacity online Read more

Multinational metals giant Fortescue has confirmed it has put green hydrogen plans for the NSW Upper Hunter on the backburner. Director of energy industry think tank Climate Energy Finance, Tim Buckley, said he understood why FFI had backed away from the Liddell idea after conducting the feasibility study. He said Mr Forrest was ambitious in thinking the project, and other FFI green hydrogen projects, could take off so quickly. Mr Buckley said the technology for green hydrogen was still lagging behind in many respects, especially in the large cost of exporting hydrogen from Australia to the world. “[The technology] is yet to be commercialised, and I say that in terms of production but more importantly in terms of international transportation,” he said. “The cost of the transportation is prohibitive and it’s in fact not even commercially viable at this point in time, and won’t be for another decade.” Read more

EdF, which is now fully government owned after facing potential bankruptcy due to delays and massive cost over-runs at its latest generation large scale nuclear plants, had reportedly been working on a new design for SMRs for the last four years. Tim Buckley, from Climate and Energy Finance, seized on the news and called on Opposition leader Peter Dutton and energy spokesman Ted O’Brien to provide more details of their nuclear plans beyond the one page press release they released last month. “Come’on guys, how naive do you take the average Australian voter for?” Buckley wrote. “In your alternate fact world, who do you think will pay for the permanent around 50% increase in Australian energy prices for consumers? Are you really intent on destroying the international competitiveness of Australian industry purely in the service of your fossil fuel funders?” Read more

Tim Buckley, director of think tank Climate Energy Finance, questioned how a form of energy that would produce “zero” electricity for the next 15 to 20 years, could bring down power prices. In the meantime, the Coalition’s plan would undermine investor confidence so Australia didn’t get as much electricity supply from other sources, Buckley said. “Less supply means higher prices — that’s economics 101.” He believes the Coalition’s nuclear strategy could increase electricity prices by 20-50 per cent over the next decade because of the need for more government intervention and funding to extend the life of coal plants. Buckley said the GenCost report — produced by Australia’s national science agency, the CSIRO — found power from nuclear could also be double the price of firmed renewables. “Therefore power prices go up, not down,” he said. Read more

As Tim Buckley an Annemarie Jonson argue in this op ed, the LNP’s egregious $100bn+ taxpayer funded nuclear hoax is fiscal irresponsibility of the highest order, designed to disrupt and delay the accelerating renewables transition, as it does catastrophic damage to surging investor confidence in Australia’s firmed renewables rollout and trashes our Paris commitments. Read more

In the West Australian, Climate Energy Finance director Tim Buckley said the CSIRO’s modelling of costs to build nuclear reactors was conservative, estimating the capital cost of the entire project at between $80 billion and $100 billion. “On top of that, you’re looking at $30 billion to $50 billion for the rehabilitation in 60 years time when they have to be decommissioned, another $10 billion for upgrades and refurbishments in 30 years’ time,” he said. Read more

In The Nightly: Peter Dutton’s plan to turn Australia nuclear by 2050 could carry a price tag of $100 billion, according to experts opposed to his proposal while others argue the energy source will provide “low-cost solutions” for customers. Climate Energy Finance director Tim Buckley said he was of the view the CSIRO had been conservative, suggesting Australian taxpayers were likely to be hit with a minimum $80b to $100b in capital costs for the entire project. Read more

Syndicated across News Corp mastheads nationally including all regional sites in QLD: Climate Energy Finance Director Tim Buckley has hit out at the Coalition government for providing little information when revealing its nuclear energy plan.Mr Buckley said his best cost estimate for the Coalition government’s nuclear energy plan following the CSIRO GenCost report would be $100 billion. “It’s a rather large number to not have any facts on,” Mr Buckley said. “For the shadow energy minister to spend a year building a detailed analysis of the federal opposition energy and climate strategy and provide rather limited facts, rather limited details – a one-page flyer really doesn’t cut it when you’re talking about a $100 billion of public money being invested. It’s a little bizarre that Ted O’Brien’s announcing this policy without any facts.” Read more