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This damaging policy reversal undermines what was formerly Queensland’s national leadership in building out large-scale renewable energy and storage, and its record uptake of rooftop solar, just as the climate emergency escalates and in the context of a national cost of living crisis driven by skyrocketing fossil fuel energy bills. Read more

The benefits of the new battery program extend beyond those with existing solar. Reducing energy demand in the peak evening period brings down wholesale electricity prices and network costs, meaning reduced power prices for all. Read more

The rebate would only apply to people with rooftop solar, meaning people living in an apartment and renters could miss out. Buckley said he would like to see this revised and caveats put in place for apartment blocks, so that those households aren’t left behind. “I would hope this is just the next iteration of a number of policies to make sure we deal with apartment dwellers,” he said. “There could be split incentives for renters and landlords, and policies to deal with council regulations and strata titles.” Read more

n the lead-up to Australia’s election, the cost of living crisis remains a key issue. Labor has proposed a 30% subsidy on household batteries linked to solar energy, which could save individuals over $1,000 annually on electricity bills. However, some homes, especially apartments, may not benefit due to limitations in installing solar systems. Read more

Climate Energy Finance founder Tim Buckley, who was not involved in the report, said the death of coal has been called many times but now the numbers are showing the “beginning of the end”, particularly as the Chinese solar and wind juggernaut continues. “It’s going to be a slow death for coal,” he said. “It’s not a decline, it’s a plateau, so it’s not going to be rapid.” The implications for Australia “are profound”, Buckley said, with the country’s economic policy seemingly built on the assumption its Asian trading partners would make no serious efforts to transition their economies to renewables. “We don’t as a country realise the magnitude of the threat to our key exports today and our government continues to sleepwalk on the resources curse,” he said. Read more

Highlights Federal election has been called this morning – for 3rd May 2025 Budget – not much climate or energy information in the budget, perhaps there’s more to be announced during the election. BYD’s amazing stats. Matt Pollard’s oped in RenewEconomy. 120,000 R&D staff!!! EV momentum Tim shares overall EV market stats, perhaps a lowlight for Tesla. Caroline’s Wang work on electricity generation stats. Highlighting the first two months of 2025 performance. Harry Martin’s International Solar PV and Bess Manufacturing Trends. See Climate Energy Finance report. Read more

CEF observes continued price deflation in solar PV and batteries – prices dropped 20% for batteries, and Chinese panels plummeted by 37 to 46% in 2024. This cost reduction has turbocharged deployment rates, with almost 600GW of solar PV installed in 2024. Assuming continued growth in China deployments, 700GW this year seems likely, and CEF projects this will rise to 1,000GW per annum by 2030. BESS installation rates are expected to treble in this timeframe. With solar modules and battery manufacturing capacity at three times the current global installations, expectations of plateauing installations are entirely unlikely. Read more

China has emerged as the global leader in clean technology, making significant strides in renewable energy technology, manufacturing, domestic deployments […] Read more

Battery storage can turn record-high instances of negative spot pricing in Australia’s National Electricity Market (NEM) into investment opportunities. That was the view expressed by various panellists and sources at the Energy Storage Summit Australia 2025 in Sydney this week. Tim Buckley, founder and director of the think tank Climate Energy Finance, got the ball rolling on Day One yesterday, flipping traditional views on negative pricing events in describing them as “an advantage.” Australia has “world-leading negative pricing in wholesale markets,” Buckley said, noting that in the states of Victoria and South Australia, negative pricing was experienced for 24% and 26% of last year, roughly four times higher than experienced in European power markets. Read more

Despite ongoing manufacturing overcapacity, CEF described a “relentless” investment in the solar PV supply chain, driving a 29% year-on-year manufacturing capacity increase in China in 2024. This is a trend that CEF expects to continue in 2025, which may stabilise some of the record low module prices seen in the industry. “With global manufacturing capacity at 2-3 times current global install rates, CEF does advocate for the global industry to immediately suspend all non-essential capacity expansions for several years,” said the CEF. Read more