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Wholesale prices of electricity are down about 50 per cent in the 2023 calendar year, relative to 2022, because the “hyperinflation of gas and coal commodity prices internationally over 2022 has now in 2023 progressively come off [more than] 70 per cent from their peak”, according to Climate Energy Finance director Tim Buckley. The government is being transparent about this, in sharp contrast to Angus Taylor, who, as energy minister in the Morrison government, sat on the relevant report predicting significant price increases in the run-up to the last election. Read more

“The wholesale cost of electricity has come down more than 50 per cent year on year in [calendar year] 2023 because the hyperinflation of gas and coal commodity prices internationally over 2022 has now in 2023 progressively come off [more than] 70 per cent from their peak,” Climate Energy Finance Director Tim Buckley says. Read more

Climate Energy Finance Director Tim Buckley says the announcing of the Capacity Investment Scheme is a “very significant move” by Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen as it “doubles” on grid capacity of renewables. The targets 82 per cent of Australia’s electricity generation to come from renewables by 2030, along with their targets for a reduction in emissions by 43 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030. Mr Bowen announced the scheme on Thursday which will underwrite 32 gigawatts of new electricity, which consists of 9 gigawatts of storage and 23 gigawatts of variable renewable energy generation. “We, at the moment, have about 32 gigawatts of renewables on grid, in Australia, today and this policy will effectively double that on grid capacity over the next four or five years,” Mr Buckley told Sky News Australia. “That capacity will be brought onstream progressively over the next two, three, four years. “In one initiative, a doubling of the renewable energy capacity on grid in Australia.” Read more

Renewable energy advocates such as Tim Buckley, director of thinktank Climate Energy Finance, hailed the scheme’s expansion as “exactly the kind of bold, landmark federal policy and investment ambition we need to rapidly transform Australia’s energy market whilst ensuring grid reliability and energy affordability”. “It will help facilitate the mothballing of polluting coal clunkers such as Origin Energy’s Eraring power station in New South Wales, Australia’s biggest, scheduled for 2025, while enabling stand-by capacity to ensure supply,” he said. Read more

Tim Buckley, director of Climate Energy Finance, today hailed Federal Climate and Energy Minister Chris Bowen’s decision to expand the Capacity Investment Scheme to a targeted 32GW, a huge stepchange in ambition. Read more

The government is expanding its Capacity Investment Scheme (CIS) to drive the development of new renewable energy projects. “This policy alone will add effectively double that on-grid capacity over the next four or five years now,” said Tim Buckley, director of Climate Energy Finance. Read more

CEF Tim Buckley and Annemarie Jonson wrote: Energy minister Chris Bowen’s boost to the Capacity investment Scheme (CIS) is a game-changer, expanding federal investment to underwrite a massive target of 32GW of new storage and renewable infrastructure, a huge step-change in national decarbonisation ambition and to be roundly applauded. This is exactly the kind of bold, landmark federal policy and investment ambition we need to rapidly transform Australia’s energy market whilst ensuring grid reliability and restoring energy affordability. Read more

Tim Buckley, director of Climate Energy Finance and former stockbroker, agrees with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission that the public benefit from Brookfield’s ambitious plan outweighs competition concerns raised by its ownership of Victorian poles and wires business AusNet Services. “At the end of the day, we do have an energy crisis, a cost of living crisis and a climate crisis. And all three of them can be solved by unlocking a huge amount of capital at speed and scale in alignment with building new capacity,” Buckley tells The Australian Financial Review. Read more

As Tim Buckley asks: What kind of game is AustralianSuper, the country’s biggest super fund, playing with Origin Energy? It is shaping up to scuttle a bid by Canadian fund manager Brookfield et al to acquire Australia’s largest power company, gentailer Origin Energy, and transition it to renewables and storage with a ~$30bn investment – a mammoth capital injection that will be transformative for Australian decarbonisation. What is AustralianSuper offering as its alternative plan? Higher electricity prices, slower decarbonisation and more climate destruction? If it kills the deal, will it step up and guarantee a $30bn commitment to decarbonising Origin? If not, why not? If it has no legitimate answer to these questions, it should get out of the way. Read more

CEF partner and advisory board member, Blair Palese, founder of the Climate Capital Forum, makes a powerful case for Australia to step up its transition investment ambition ahead of COP and in light of the US Inflation Reduction Act. Read more

Victoria’s State Electricity Commission (SEC) has been reintroduced in a move that is hoped will crowd-in investment into renewables in the state. Tim Buckley told FS Sustainability that some are concerned that public capital may crowd out private capital. “The key challenge that the SEC has to actually work to crowd in private capital,” Buckley said. “I think that risk is real, but it’s more than outweighed by the benefits to the people of Victoria.” He sees renewables as a “solution to the cost-of-living crisis, the energy crisis and the climate crisis… More competition means more supply and lower prices.” Read more

Our op ed on PM Albanese’s state visit to the US. While the visit was touted as a platform for major announcements on investment into an Australian response to the game-changing Inflation Reduction Act, there was a lot of talk, but only $2bn for Australian critical minerals – entirely insufficient relative to the scale of our opportunity to lead the world in processing of minerals onshore. Read our full analysis. Read more