Category Archives: Energy

Bowen says Dutton ‘making it up as he goes’ on gas plan as experts question lack of detail

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Opposition leader promises to release secret modelling within days as former ACCC chair urges Coalition to explain how they would lower prices

Energy minister Chris Bowen claims Peter Dutton is “making it up as he goes” with his gas plan, as experts question how a Coalition government would force gas producers to sell to Australians at cheaper prices.

In his first public comments on Dutton’s plan to bring more gas into Australia’s energy market, Bowen claimed the Coalition was simply dusting off a plan created under the former Morrison government.

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Methane emissions from Queensland mine may be gross underestimates, UN research finds

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Data collected by two planes suggests large open-cut coalmine in Bowen Basin is releasing methane at higher rates than official estimates

Emissions of the potent greenhouse gas methane at a Queensland coalmine were likely between three and eight times higher than officially reported, according to UN-backed research that flew aircraft over the site.

Queensland’s open-cut coalmines are known to be a major source of methane and experts are worried that official figures could be a gross underestimation of actual emissions.

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Proposed nuclear power plants in Queensland could not access enough water to prevent a meltdown, research finds

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About 1,000 times the combined capacity of Wivenhoe and Boondooma dams was required to cool Japan’s Fukushima nuclear reactors in 2011

Proposed nuclear power plants in Queensland would not have access to enough water to stop a nuclear meltdown and could strain capacity on drinking water and irrigation supplies even under normal operations, research has found.

Analysis by the Queensland Conservation Council (QCC) has found that one of the two nuclear reactors proposed for the sunshine state under the energy plan that the Coalition will take to the upcoming federal election would require double the water currently used by the existing Callide coal-fired power station. The other, Tarong, would use 55% more water than its existing coal station.

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‘Wake-up call’: ministers launch urgent investigation into Heathrow shutdown

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Government says lessons need to be learned after the substation fire that caused chaos for 300,000 passengers

The government has launched an urgent investigation into the power shutdown that crippled Heathrow airport, with experts warning it was a “wake-up call” about vulnerabilities in the nation’s critical infrastructure.

The energy secretary, Ed Miliband, has commissioned the independent National Energy System Operator (Neso) to investigate the incident and assess the UK’s energy resilience. The regulator Ofgem warned it would “not hesitate” to take action if there were any breaches of standards or licence obligations.

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Australia will not revise critical minerals-for-tariffs exemption deal rejected by Trump administration

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Resources minister says she is ‘sad’ the US did not embrace a more reliable supply of minerals for renewable energy and battery technologies

The Australian resources minister was saddened the US did not accept an offer of guaranteed supply to critical minerals in return for steel and aluminium tariff exemptions, and has warned the package will not be improved.

Australian diplomats proposed a more reliable supply of critical minerals – which are essential for renewable energy, computer and battery technologies – as they sought exemptions from a 25% tax on steel and aluminium imports.

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Get the app, consider capacity and be ready for behavioural change: top tips on installing a home battery

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Guardian readers share what they wish they had known before taking the plunge

So you’re finally ready to install a battery at home. There is much to consider – from cost and capacity to the behavioural changes that can boost efficiency. Here, Guardian readers make it easy by sharing their experiences and offering key pieces of advice for how to get the most out of it.

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UK hoping to work with China to counteract Trump’s climate-hostile policies

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Ed Miliband visits Beijing as part of plan to create global axis working in favour of climate action

The UK is hoping to shape a new global axis in favour of climate action along with China and a host of developing countries, to offset the impact of Donald Trump’s abandonment of green policies and his sharp veer towards climate-hostile countries such as Russia and Saudi Arabia.

Ed Miliband, the UK’s energy and net zero secretary, arrived in Beijing on Friday for three days of talks with top Chinese officials, including discussions on green technology supply chains, coal and the critical minerals needed for clean energy. The UK’s green economy is growing three times faster than the rest of the economy, but access to components and materials will be crucial for that to continue.

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Australians urged to shop around as power prices set to rise up to 9% from July

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Peter Dutton blames the government for proposed rises but won’t guarantee power prices will be lower if he wins coming election

Hundreds of thousands of households face higher power bills after the energy regulator proposed lifting benchmark prices by up to 9% in some regions.

The move prompted the energy minister on Thursday to concede power bills are “too high” and urge users to shop around for the best deal, while the opposition branded the price rise a failure of Labor’s energy policy.

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Balance of power: why Loch Ness hydro storage schemes are stirring up trouble

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As Scottish energy firms race to meet challenges of storing power, critics fear plans will affect delicate hydrology of loch

Brian Shaw stood at the edge of Loch Ness and pointed to a band of glistening pebbles and damp sand skirting the shore. It seemed as if the tide had gone out.

Overnight, Foyers, a small pumped-storage power station, had recharged itself, drawing up millions of litres of water into a reservoir high up on a hill behind it, ready for release through its turbines to boost the UK’s electricity supply. That led to the surface of Loch Ness, the largest body of freshwater in the UK, falling by 14cm in a matter of hours.

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Trump’s ‘drill, baby, drill’ agenda could keep the world hooked on oil and gas

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The US president is making energy deals with Japan and Ukraine, and in Africa has even touted resurrecting coal

Donald Trump’s repeated mantra of “drill, baby, drill” demands that more oil and gas be extracted in the United States, but the president has set his sights on an even broader goal: keeping the world hooked on planet-heating fossil fuels for as long as possible.

In deals being formulated with countries such as Japan and Ukraine, Trump is using US leverage in tariffs and military aid to bolster the flow of oil and gas around the world. In Africa, his administration has even touted the resurrection of coal, the dirtiest of all fossil fuels, to bring energy to the continent.

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What the world needs now is more fossil fuels, says Trump’s energy secretary

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Chris Wright signals abandonment of Biden’s ‘irrational, quasi-religious’ climate policies at industry conference

The world needs more planet-heating fossil fuel, not less, Donald Trump’s newly appointed energy secretary, Chris Wright, told oil and gas bigwigs on Monday.

“We are unabashedly pursuing a policy of more American energy production and infrastructure, not less,” he said in the opening plenary talk of CERAWeek, a swanky annual conference in Houston, Texas, led by the financial firm S&P Global.

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UK Treasury ‘plans funding cuts at GB Energy’ in blow to Ed Miliband

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Government considering such a move over state-owned firm set up by Labour in June’s spending review, say reports

The UK government is making plans to cut the funding for GB Energy, the state-owned company set up by Labour to drive renewable energy and cut household bills, in June’s spending review.

Cuts to the £8.3bn of taxpayer money promised over the five-year parliament would be another blow for Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, after he was overruled by the government when the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, backed the expansion of Heathrow’s third runway.

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EU ambassador to China urges Beijing to stop building coal-fired power plants

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Jorge Toledo’s comments come after approvals for coal power projects increased in second half of 2024

The EU’s ambassador to China has urged Beijing to stop building coal-fired power plants, saying that its rapid approval of new projects was increasingly at odds with its green ambitions.

Speaking at an EU-hosted event in Beijing, Jorge Toledo said the war in Ukraine had underlined the need for energy security, but that the EU had managed to navigate the issue without reverting to fossil fuels.

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Premier claims WA a ‘renewable energy powerhouse’ but leaked document shows wind and solar projects have ‘stalled’

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Exclusive: Government document confirms electricity from large-scale renewables has flatlined, with one campaigner saying pipeline has ‘little sign of life’

Officials have warned the Western Australian Labor government that work to build wind and solar farms for the state’s main electricity grid has stalled under its leadership, a leaked document shows.

A confidential state government document reveals state bureaucrats advised the government that the “decarbonisation work program” in Perth’s electricity grid had “stalled to date”. It said there were “few new wind developments” advanced enough to be added to the grid before the promised closure of a coal power station in 2027.

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Offshore wind farm developer asks Labor to delay application on Illawarra project until after election

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Chris Bowen accuses Coalition of creating ‘sovereign risk’ by opposing offshore projects as Nationals celebrate ‘major win’

An offshore windfarm developer has asked the Albanese government to pause its application to progress its project off the Illawarra until after the coming federal election, after the Coalition campaigned against it.

BlueFloat Energy was the only applicant asking for a seven-year feasibility licence to further develop its project in the deep waters of the Illawarra offshore wind zone.

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BP to almost double oil and gas production by 2030 in move away from green goals

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Firm will be selective about investing in low-carbon options, slashing more than $5bn from previous green plan

BP is almost doubling its target for oil and gas production by the end of the decade and slashing its spending on low-carbon energy as part of a fundamental reset of the troubled company away from previous green goals.

The FTSE 100 fossil fuel company has promised shareholders it will increase its planned oil and gas production by 2030 to the equivalent of about 2.4m barrels a day – almost twice the figure in its net zero plan set out five years ago.

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Energy giant AGL disputes $25m fine for wrongly taking welfare money from hundreds as ‘excessive’

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Exclusive: Court documents obtained by Guardian Australia show appeal argues judge was wrong to decide penalty was needed to ‘provoke’ leadership attention

Energy giant AGL is disputing a “manifestly excessive” $25m fine for using the Centrepay debit system to wrongly take welfare money from hundreds of vulnerable Australians. It argues that a judge should not have used the massive financial penalty to try to “provoke some attention” from the company’s board and executive leadership.

Late last year, the federal court imposed the hefty fine and excoriated AGL for wrongly taking money from 483 welfare recipients via Centrepay, the scandal-plagued, government-run system that allows automatic diversion of social security payments to essential services, like electricity bills and rent.

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Redrawing of global energy markets map set to heap benefits on US

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The prospects of peace and the return of Russian gas looks likely to serve the interests of Donald Trump

The Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine three years ago has reverberated through the global energy industry; unravelling Europe’s decades-long reliance on gas imported via pipelines from Russia, and triggering a global squeeze on gas markets that unleashed a cost of living crisis still felt today.

The prospect of a peace deal has many wondering whether the energy industry could be upended once again; this time giving way to a market serving the interests of the US president hoping to broker the deal.

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Europe greenwashing with north Africa’s renewable energy, report says

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Greenpeace argues European-backed projects hamper countries’ ability to decarbonise their own economies

European countries are extracting renewable energy from Morocco and Egypt to “greenwash” their own economies, while leaving north Africans reliant on dirty imported fuels and paying the environmental costs, a Greenpeace report says.

Both Morocco and Egypt are aiming to leverage their strategic locations south of the Mediterranean, and their solar and wind power potential, to position themselves as pivotal to Europe’s quest to diversify its energy supply.

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Sellafield nuclear site taken out of special measures for physical security

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Site in Cumbria can now return to routine inspections but concerns remain over cybersecurity

The UK nuclear industry regulator has taken Sellafield, the world’s largest store of plutonium, out of special measures for its physical security – but said concerns remained over its cybersecurity.

Guarding arrangements at the vast nuclear waste dump in Cumbria have improved enough to allow for routine inspections from the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR), rather than requiring “enhanced regulatory oversight”.

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