Category Archives: Energy

Broken Hill customers to get bill reprieve as power outages continue

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Origin and EnergyAustralia agree to defer bills after brownouts cripple region for better part of a week

Customers who have suffered through Broken Hill’s mass outages are set for a temporary reprieve on their bills as locals continue to be hit with night-time power cuts in sweltering conditions.

Two power companies – Origin and EnergyAustralia – have agreed to defer bills to those who have been affected by the outages that crippled the region for the better part of a week.

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Australia news live: PM to announce clean energy projects; property market losing heat but prices still going up

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Anthony Albanese to launch schemes in NSW and Victoria today; Domain says rate of price increases is cooling. Follow today’s news headlines live

Bowen derides Coalition’s ‘nuclear fantasy’

Chris Bowen, minister for climate change and energy, is speaking on ABC Radio National this morning.

If I was the energy minister of another country, I would consider the opportunities that I had in that country – but a country saying to Australia, with our excellent renewable resources, that we should go down the nuclear road when we have no nuclear industry, no nuclear expertise of the scale that we would need for a nuclear power industry, is like us going to Finland or Scandinavia and saying, ‘Listen, we know [you have] a lot of snow, but you should really try beach surfing.’ It just doesn’t make any sense.

We have to play to our strengths in Australia, and we have the best renewable resources in the world, and the opposition wants to stop us using them, and in turn, keep coal in the system for longer. They’re quite explicit about that while we wait for this nuclear fantasy to come on board. That would be terrible for emissions and fatal for energy reliability.

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Abandoning Bass Strait oil and gas structures would breach international law, expert warns

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Australia must insist on full removal when ExxonMobil decommissions offshore project, Wilderness Society says

An international law expert has warned that abandoning oil and gas infrastructure in Bass Strait would breach Australia’s obligations under international law, if ExxonMobil pursues this plan in decommissioning its Gippsland offshore project.

Prof Donald Rothwell, who specialises in international law at the Australian National University, said Bass Strait was used for international navigation and had special status under the UN convention on the law of the sea and related International Maritime Organisation guidelines.

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Whitehaven Coal faces rare shareholder action over mining plans and CEO’s $7m bonus

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Australian miner paying ‘massive bonuses’ for ‘steamrolling ahead with an outdated and unacceptably risky coal growth strategy’, activists say

Whitehaven Coal, one of Australia’s biggest coal producers, faces a rare “second strike” from shareholders this week as climate activists seek to draw attention to the miner’s plans to ramp up volumes and resulting carbon emissions.

The ASX-listed company received a 41% vote against its executives’ remuneration report at last year’s annual general meeting. A vote of at least 25% at this year’s AGM on Wednesday would force a motion to spill Whitehaven’s board.

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Labor accuses Peter Dutton of trying to ‘force nuclear energy on Queenslanders’

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Nationals MP Keith Pitt claims Coalition would have mandate if it won federal election despite opposition to nuclear power from state’s incoming LNP government

A senior federal Labor minister has accused Peter Dutton of trying to “force nuclear energy on Queenslanders” following the LNP’s state election win after which a Coalition MP claimed the federal party would forge ahead with its power plan.

The federal Nationals MP for Hinkler, Keith Pitt, on Sunday said the Coalition would have a mandate to press ahead with its nuclear policy if Dutton won the next election.

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Albanese rejects China’s claim that Australia plagued by ‘systemic racism’ – as it happened

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This blog is now closed

The Rail, Tram and Bus Union of NSW (RTBU) conducted a five-minute work stoppage early this morning, which is leading to delays across the network.

Sydney Trains says this has led to minor delays and “larger than normal gaps in services may be experienced”, according to an alert:

Trains stops and platforms may change at short notice and some trains may be cancelled. Extra travel time may be experienced in some cases and you may need to change to continue your trip.

The action was set to happen in select locations across the network to ensure we could ramp up stoppages whenever needed.

The rail agencies continue to bargain in good faith with the Combined Rail Unions for a new enterprise bargaining agreement. Sydney Trains are working to minimise the disruption to commuters as much as possible.

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Transgrid under pressure as NSW inquiry examines how failed backup generators left Broken Hill in the dark

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NSW premier Chris Minns says state’s far west let down by privatisation after region’s only working large-scale emergency generator failed

Chris Minns is flying to Broken Hill after a storm left about 20,000 people without power and put pressure on the energy operator Transgrid to explain why it did not have a backup plan to prevent the outage.

The New South Wales premier will meet affected residents on Thursday after announcing an inquiry and declaring a natural disaster to unlock emergency relief funding for the outback town and surrounding communities.

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Cop29 host Azerbaijan set for major fossil gas expansion, report says

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Exclusive: Those with ‘interest in keeping world hooked on fossil fuels’ should not oversee climate talks, say report authors

Azerbaijan, the host of the Cop29 global climate summit, will see a large expansion of fossil gas production in the next decade, a new report has revealed. The authors said that the crucial negotiations should not be overseen by “those with a vested interest in keeping the world hooked on fossil fuels”.

Azerbaijan’s state-owned oil and gas company, Socar, and its partners are set to raise the country’s annual gas production from 37bn cubic metres (bcm) today to 49bcm by 2033. Socar also recently agreed to increase gas exports to the European Union by 17% by 2026.

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Cuba makes progress on regaining power after second total blackout

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Authorities say they are gradually re-establishing electrical service across the island, including to hospitals

Cuba’s government said on Saturday it had made some progress in gradually re-establishing electrical service across the island, including to hospitals and parts of the capital, Havana, after state-run media earlier reported the national grid had collapsed for a second time in 24 hours.

Most of Cuba’s 10 million people, however, remained without electricity on Saturday afternoon.

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Anti-fossil fuel comic that went viral in France arrives in UK

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World Without End topped bestseller lists but was criticised for embracing nuclear power

In 2019, France’s best known climate expert sat down to work with its most feted graphic novelist. The result? Perhaps the most terrifying comic ever drawn.

Part history, part analysis, part vision for the future, World Without End weaves the story of humanity’s rapacious appetite for fossil fuel energy, how it has made possible the society people take for granted, and its disastrous effects on the climate.

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Could Australia’s outdated voltage standards be taking years off the life of your toaster?

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Lowering voltage about 5% could lower emissions and save customers on the national electricity market around $110 a year, research shows

Ever wondered why your trusty toaster abruptly failed or your widescreen TV suddenly went on the fritz, far too early in the life of the appliance?

Excessively high voltage levels might be to blame for their premature demise, energy experts say.

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Energy prices soar after volatile wind saw heavier gas, hydro and battery use, Australian regulator says

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But wholesale prices are down by 25% compared with the June quarter in New South Wales, down 9% in Victoria and down 12% in Tasmania

Wholesale power prices across much of eastern Australia were sharply higher in the September quarter from a year earlier because of increased reliance on gas, hydro and batteries, the Australian Energy Regulator said in its quarterly report.

Average prices ranged from $114/megawatt-hour in Queensland to $201/MWh in South Australia. The biggest year-on-year increases were in Tasmania, with prices up 290%, Victoria’s increasing 114% and SA’s 76% higher.

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Great British Energy can become a major power generator, says its chair

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Jürgen Maier’s vision for company includes the potential to borrow its own money in order to rival multinationals

Britain’s new national energy company will eventually become a major power generator, running its own windfarms, tidal power and carbon capture schemes and potentially borrowing its own money, according to its new chair.

Jürgen Maier, the chair of Great British Energy (GBE), told the Guardian in an interview that his vision for the company far outstrips its current scope and would put it on a par with multinational firms such as Denmark’s Ørsted or Sweden’s Vattenfall.

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UK ‘risks repeat of surging energy bills’ amid continued reliance on gas

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Energy crisis panel warns country is ‘dangerously unprepared’ and must shift away from gas quickly

Britain is at risk of experiencing a repeat of the sharp increase in energy costs which has fuelled the continuing cost of living crisis because it relies too heavily on gas, according to an expert panel of industry leaders.

The Energy Crisis Commission has warned that the UK is still “dangerously underprepared” for another crisis because it continues to rely on gas for its power plants and home heating.

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Russia’s shadow fleet of oil tankers grows despite western sanctions

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Poorly maintained and uninsured vessels transporting up to 70% of country’s seaborne oil, says report

Russia’s shadow fleet of oil tankers is expanding, according to research, transporting up to 70% of the country’s seaborne oil despite western efforts to curb Moscow’s wartime energy revenues.

The volume of Russian oil being transported by poorly maintained and underinsured tankers has almost doubled in a year to 4.1m barrels a day by June, according to a report published on Monday by the Kyiv School of Economics (KSE).

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Stop pushing heat pumps or face major backlash, green energy magnate tells Labour

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Party donor Dale Vince warns that urging homeowners to switch to clean-power technology risks political storm bigger than Ulez

The government risks a huge political backlash if it keeps pushing the public to install heat pumps to replace their boilers, one of Britain’s leading green entrepreneurs has warned.

Dale Vince, a major Labour donor and renewable energy advocate, called on Keir Starmer to rethink national programmes, championed by Boris Johnson, pushing the technology. Vince argued that Whitehall should explore alternatives to the devices, which he said were expensive, caused serious disruption and could end up increasing energy bills for some people.

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Some Australian states are discovering what happens when they have too much rooftop solar

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Alerts to possible power shortfalls have become a familiar occurrence. But experts say it won’t be long before the opposite is common

When Victoria basks in mostly sunny spring weather this weekend, energy authorities will be monitoring how far electricity demand ebbs. If needed, they’ll turn off rooftop solar systems to ensure stability for the grid.

Such minimum system load events, as they are called, have emerged as a new challenge as households across Australia take advantage of plunging prices for solar panels to shield themselves from rising power bills and cut carbon emissions.

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Green energy firms promise more than £24bn of new investment in Britain

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Industry bosses to meet prime minister before government’s international investment summit next week

The leaders of the world’s biggest green energy companies have promised more than £24bn of new private investment across Great Britain ahead of a meeting with the prime minister on Friday.

Keir Starmer is expected to meet the green energy bosses on the sidelines of the first Council of Nations and Regions in Edinburgh to discuss the multibillion-pound projects just days before the government’s international investment summit next week.

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Australia’s coalmines and gasfields may be emitting twice as much methane as declared, report warns

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Superpower Institute says analysis of Queensland, NSW and Victorian sites shows need for independent reporting of greenhouse gas emissions

Australia’s coalmines and gasfields may be emitting twice as much methane as they currently declare, underscoring the need to introduce independent reporting of the potent greenhouse gas, an energy thinktank has warned.

The Superpower Institute’s Open Methane tool used satellites and ground-based verification to identify 20 “sites of concern” – all involving coal and gas operations – that are releasing “around double” the amount of methane reported.

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China to head green energy boom with 60% of new projects in next six years

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IEA says faster clean energy rollout being led by solar power in China with country set to boast half of world’s renewables by 2030

China is expected to account for almost 60% of all renewable energy capacity installed worldwide between now and 2030, according to the International Energy Agency.

The IEA’s highly influential renewable energy report found that over the next six years renewable energy projects will roll out at three times the pace of the previous six years, led by the clean energy programmes of China and India.

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