Category Archives: Renewable energy

Coalition’s climate and energy policy in disarray as opposition splits over nuclear and renewables

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Simon Birmingham contradicts Nationals’ leader, saying renewables are ‘an important part of the mix’ while Queensland LNP leader rules out nuclear

The federal Coalition’s climate and energy policy is in disarray, with a senior Liberal contradicting the Nationals’ anti-renewables push and the Queensland LNP leader ruling out allowing nuclear energy in that state.

After the Nationals further undermined the push for net zero by 2050 by claiming the Coalition would “cap” investment in large-scale renewable energy, the Liberal leader in the Senate, Simon Birmingham, declared on Tuesday it is an “important part of the mix”.

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Coalition to impose ‘cap’ on renewable energy investment, Nationals leader says

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David Littleproud claims Australia doesn’t need ‘large-scale industrial windfarms’ like the planned offshore zone south of Sydney

David Littleproud has claimed Australia doesn’t need “large-scale industrial windfarms” like the planned offshore zone south of Sydney, adding the Coalition will “cap” federal government investment into renewable energy if elected.

The Nationals leader visited Wollongong on Monday, where he promised the opposition would instead offer a “calm” and “methodical” energy pathway to net zero by 2050.

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Offshore windfarm zone off Illawarra coast given green light in bid to ‘power Australia’s clean energy future’

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Zone will be 20km off the coast and exclude areas significant for little penguin and for southern right whale migration

The federal government has given the green light to an offshore windfarm zone south of Sydney, making it Australia’s fourth such zone to be declared.

Announcing the project in the Illawarra on Saturday, the climate change and energy minister, Chris Bowen, said the move would bring thousands of new jobs and help “power Australia’s clean energy future”.

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Landowners whose views are spoiled by power lines could receive $40,000 under Victorian plan

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Scheme would collect funds from power companies to pay communities affected by new transmission lines

Victorian landowners whose views are spoiled by new power transmission lines on neighbouring properties could receive one-off compensation payments of up to $40,000 under a plan being considered by the state government.

The new transmission planning agency, VicGrid, has opened consultation on a scheme that would collect funds from power companies to pay communities affected by new transmission lines.

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‘At heart it’s the same technology’: the heat pump that uses water instead of air

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Equipment being trialled in Scotland extracts warmth from nearby water sources to provide homes with heating

Scientists in Edinburgh have developed a home heating system that draws its energy from the world’s most abundant resource: water.

The equipment can use sea water, rivers, ponds and even mine water to heat radiators and water for baths and showers, using the same technology as in air source heat pumps.

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Can Labour’s GB Energy plan future-proof UK’s power generation sector?

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Party has put state-owned power company at centre of its plans for decarbonisation, security and energy bills

Labour is to put a government-owned power company at the heart of the UK’s energy system for the first time since the privatisation of the industry in 1990, in one of Keir Starmer’s boldest pledges so far.

Great British Energy, with £8bn of investment, forms the centrepiece of Labour’s promise to decarbonise the electricity supply by 2030. This would stop well short of any form of renationalisation: GB Energy would be a state-owned investment vehicle and company working alongside and often in partnership with the existing private sector suppliers. The plan is for it to be largely invisible to households, not offering electricity directly to consumers but financing and helping to build low-carbon infrastructure, from windfarms to – potentially – nuclear reactors.

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Queensland government to fuel state’s transition to renewable energy with $26bn investment

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Premier Steven Miles will announce state’s largest ever investment in green power ahead of next week’s budget

The Queensland premier, Steven Miles, is expected to announce today a pledge in next week’s budget to spend $26bn on renewable energy.

It would be the largest ever investment in green power for the sunshine state, and is about $7bn more than previously earmarked.

$16.5bn towards renewable energy and storage projects

$8.5bn to build a “SuperGrid”, including the CopperString project and renewable energy zones

$500m for network batteries and support of local grid solutions

$192m for the transmission and training hubs in Townsville and Gladstone.

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Improving energy supply in Pakistan could save 175,000 lives, says Unicef

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As a heatwave sweeps the country increasing demand for power, a new report says a more resilient network could also contribute $300m to the economy

A study by the UN children’s agency has found that developing resilient energy systems to keep the power on in health facilities in Pakistan could prevent more than 175,000 deaths in the country by 2030.

The study comes as Pakistan is experiencing a blistering heatwave that has overstretched an already poor healthcare system. Last week, temperatures in various parts of the country reached highs of 49C (120F), causing a huge demand for power.

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NSW government extends life of Australia’s biggest coal-fired power station by two years to 2027

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Deal struck with Origin Energy, owner of 2.88-gigawatt Eraring plant near Lake Macquarie, to limit risk of electricity shortages as renewables come online

Australia’s biggest coal-fired power station will remain operational for at least two more years after the New South Wales government signed a deal with its owner, Origin Energy, in an attempt to limit the risk of electricity shortages until more renewables are built.

The agreement, announced on Thursday, involves NSW taxpayers underwriting the 2.88-gigawatt Eraring plant near Lake Macquarie to keep generating power beyond the scheduled closure date of August 2025 Origin set two years ago.

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Dutton won’t rule out a Coalition government quitting ICC – as it happened

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Chris Bowen says nuclear energy is ‘slow, expensive and risky’

Chris Bowen is also asked about the latest CSIRO report released today, showing electricity from nuclear power in Australia would be at least 50% more expensive than solar and wind.

CSIRO and Aemo have looked at large-scale nuclear for the first time. It finds that that would be far more expensive than renewables, despite claims from the opposition – quite inappropriate attacks on CSIRO and Aemo from the opposition, that they hadn’t counted the cost of transmission. The cost of transmission and storage is counted, and still renewables comes out as the cheapest.

And of course, CSIRO points out that nuclear will be … very slow to build. So nuclear is slow and expensive and is risky when it comes to the reliability of Australia’s energy system.

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Closure of Australia’s biggest coal-fired power station may be delayed while renewables catch up

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States must roll out batteries, solar and wind energy more quickly to ease risk of blackouts, market operator says

Eraring, the nation’s biggest coal-fired power station, may need to delay its closure to ease blackout threats in New South Wales, while other eastern states also face “periods of high risk” because of the slow rollout of renewables, the Australian Energy Market Operator warns.

In an unusual update of its Electricity Statement of Opportunities report, Aemo forecast so-called reliability gaps in NSW, Queensland, South Australia and Victoria unless authorities “orchestrated” faster deployment of solar and wind energy, and batteries.

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Union urges Labour not to ban new North Sea licences without plan for jobs

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Unite launches bid to persuade Keir Starmer to invest more in north-east Scotland

The UK’s oil and gas workers risk becoming “the coal miners of our generation,” Unite’s general secretary, Sharon Graham, has warned, urging Labour not to ban new North Sea licences without a clear plan to safeguard jobs.

Unite is launching a billboard campaign in six Scottish constituencies aimed at persuading Keir Starmer to commit more investment to north-east Scotland, the centre of the offshore oil and gas industry.

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Consumer groups criticise energy companies charging solar panel owners for exporting power

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Critics argue change could lead to people installing smaller solar power systems so they aren’t penalised for exporting excess energy during the day

A new tariff that will charge solar panel owners for exporting their energy during the middle of the day could discourage solar uptake, consumer groups say.

Ausgrid, which has about 280,000 customers in New South Wales with rooftop solar panels, has introduced a two-way tariff system to incentivise solar panel owners to export their power into the grid in the evening, when it is most needed.

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US and China need ‘climate armistice’ to meet net zero, says former head of CSIRO

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‘Climate change is a global problem. It needs that global level of collaboration,’ says Larry Marshall

The world needs a “climate armistice” between the US and China if net zero emissions are to be reached while Australia should hone its efforts on a few key areas where it has an unusual competitive edge, Larry Marshall, the former CSIRO chief executive, said.

Speaking ahead of Tuesday’s budget in which the Albanese government’s Future Made In Australia (FMIA) plans will probably be prominent, Marshall said the nation ought to focus any industrial support on sectors such as processing of lithium or vanadium or products that realistically scale up.

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‘It’s going to be messy’: advocates balance climate action and conservation amid Queensland’s green energy boom

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‘Some negative projects will get up, but we have to keep our eyes on the broader goals’, says WWF Australia

A map of operating windfarms in Queensland does not take too long to survey – of the 100 or so across Australia, only six of them are in the sunshine state.

But this is about to change in a very big way. According to state government data, there are 46 separate proposals for windfarms in Queensland with four more already under construction.

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Tanya Plibersek rejects claims renewable projects are being held up by approval delays

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The environment minister says she is approving windfarms at the fastest rate in history amid industry concerns about an ‘alarming’ slowdown

Tanya Plibersek has said she is approving windfarms faster than any previous environment minister, rejecting industry claims the sector faces deteriorating investment conditions and lengthening delays.

Renewable energy firms have raised concerns that securing environmental approval is becoming more difficult, particularly for wind. Challenges are unlikely to ease soon, given the government’s recent decision to postpone conservation law reforms until after the next election, putting at risk emissions reduction goals, they say.

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Biden marks Earth Day with $7bn ‘solar for all’ investment amid week of climate action

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Funds will be targeted at disadvantaged areas to create 200,000 jobs, after last week’s oil and gas lease restrictions in Alaska

Joe Biden marked Monday’s Earth Day by announcing a $7bn investment in solar energy projects nationwide, focusing on disadvantaged communities, and unveiling a week-long series of what the White House say will be “historic climate actions”.

The president was speaking at Prince William Forest Park, in Triangle, Virginia, touting his environmental record and unveiling measures to tackle the climate crisis and increase access to, and lower costs of, clean energy.

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ACTU calls for sanctions on Israel over Gaza war – as it happened

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The Matildas’ route to potential Asian Cup success is a step closer to being finalised, AAP reports, after Football Australia revealed the host states for matches at the 2026 edition of the tournament.

FA confirmed on Monday that NSW, Queensland and Western Australia had been nominated as the preferred locations for the continental competition.

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Tanya Plibersek rejects windfarm proposed for biodiverse Queensland forest

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Plan for 42-turbine Wooroora project withdrawn after minister signals refusal because of threat to spectacled flying-fox habitat

A proposed windfarm next to the wet tropics world heritage area in north Queensland will not go ahead after the federal government signalled it would refuse the project.

Ark Energy had proposed building the 42-turbine Wooroora Station windfarm – formerly known as the Chalumbin windfarm project – 15km south-west of Ravenshoe.

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Tory candidate for London mayor has Trumpian attitude to climate, says Khan

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London mayor expected to criticise Susan Hall in speech launching panels on school roofs

Sadiq Khan will accuse his Conservative rival in the race to be London’s next mayor of being “Trumpian” over the climate crisis, as he announces plans for solar panels on schools.

Khan is expected to acknowledge resistance to his expansion of the ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) in a speech on Friday but insist that he still intends to “go further”.

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