Our work

The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO)’s assertion in its Gas Statement of Opportunity today that we need more new supply to offset purported imminent shortages is counterintuitive. There is no shortage, just a cartel with a chronic shortage of ethics extorting Australians as they export the majority of domestic production and rake in obscene war profits. It should be a major priority for AEMO to provide rule modernisations incentivising new technologies to rapidly decarbonise our grid and decouple from extortionate, polluting, volatile fossil fuels. Read our take. Read more

Consumers slugged by interest rate rises are in for more pain as the Australian Energy Regulator today flagged retail electricity price rises of ~20% from 1 July – noting that absent the Albanese government’s wholesale domestic coal and gas price cap intervention in December, this would have been more like 40-50%. The solutions: make the war-profiteering fossil fuel multinationals pulling superoprofits from our resources pay a temporary windfall tax to offset cost of living pressures for those hardest hit; and rapidly accelerate decarbonisation, delivering clean low-cost firmed renewables to Australians, permanently reducing power prices. Read more

A new partnership between the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and Australia’s biggest mortgage lender, CBA, to incentivise energy efficiency and cut emissions in the $9tn residential sector is a step in the right direction, but there is scope for more ambition. CEF analyst Nishtha Aggarwal takes a look. Read more

The Australian Energy Market Operator released an update of its Electricity Statement of Opportunities overnight. It confirms significant progress on decarbonising our grid in the last six months, coupled with the urgent need for accelerated investment in new generation, energy storage and transmission to ensure reliable supply as fossil fuels exit the grid, flagging a staggering 209 gigawatt pipeline of new firmed #renewables proposals worth over A$250 billion, and highlighting how decarbonisation is unlocking massive regional employment and investment opportunities. Read more

A new study in Nature Energy released overnight quantifies the devastating toll of global energy price hyperinflation, with household energy costs spiking up to 113% in 2022.The report said the price crisis could push up to 141 million people into extreme poverty. Meanwhile, as Tim Buckley notes in this analysis, fossil fuel multinationals have extracted massive war superprofits, bringing to the fore again the case for proper taxation of these corporates. Read more

The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) released its fourth quarter of 2022 Quarterly Energy Dynamics report today. It is a welcome reminder that the energy transition is well established and accelerating beyond expectations. While rampant fossil fuel price hyperinflation caused mass disruption in 2022, the underlying trends are clear – and the burgeoning of renewables and decline of coal and gas in the grid ultimately spell permanent price relief. After the historic Q4 federal government intervention to cap wholesale prices of gas and coal, prices on the electricity futures market more than halved in the final three months of 2022, as renewables set new records. Read more

CEF’s submission to the NSW government on the proposed Winterbourne Wind Farm in the New England region. The project is expected to generate approximately 2,100,000 megawatt hours (MWh) per year of clean, renewable energy — enough to power more than 375,000 average NSW homes for a year. Read more

As the ACT bans methane gas connections in new homes, new peer-reviewed research finds that 13% of childhood asthma cases in the US can be attributed to gas stove use. Tim Buckley writes that it’s time to turn off this expensive, toxic legacy fuel, shut down the cartel’s self-interested gaslighting, and “electrify everything” – reaping the economic, health and climate benefits of the transition. Read more

Our wrap of the top ten energy events in 2022, including the end of federal climate and energy policy chaos under the LNP, and our wishlist for an even better 2023! Read more

Having moved decisively with an energy price relief plan that addresses the worst of the gas cartel’s market failure, Energy Minister Chris Bowen is again moving at speed on the energy transition, with 8 major new battery developments that will accelerate the deployment of much needed storage for grid firming capacity by 2025, attract close to $3 billion in private capital and add 2GW of capacity. Read more

An historic week saw the federal govt legislate coal and gas price caps and bill rebates under its energy price relief plan, with an additional commitment to electrify everything, and a staggering endorsement from the market as prices on the electricity futures market dropped 50%. We also look at progress on decarbonisation in India, finding a doubling of RE installs rate is needed to hit Modi’s target of 450GW by 2030. Read more

It is brilliant to see that the federal government, having struck an agreement with the Greens and crossbench, has secured the passage through parliament tomorrow of its energy price relief plan. Meanwhile, the gas lobbying is gushing a torrent of threats and spin, determined to continue to line its own pockets at the expense of Australians. Read more