West African country is enduring hard times – and critics say plan to import liquefied natural gas will only make things worse
John Gakpo has milled corn to make kenkey – a cornmeal dumpling and Ghana’s staple food – in a dimly lit wooden shack in a suburb of the capital, Accra, for 15 years.
In the past, his earnings have been sufficient to provide for his family – but not any more.
Continue reading...Proposed 800km VNI West will be costlier than alternatives and won’t solve grid bottlenecks holding back new solar and wind, thinktank says
Victorians face a more than doubling of transmission charges on electricity bills if the state government proceeds with plans for what is likely to be the most costly and longest single power line in Australia’s history, a thinktank says in a new report.
The report by the Victoria Energy Policy Centre (VEPC) argues the proposed 500 kilovolt VNI West transmission line linking Melbourne’s outskirts with Wagga Wagga on an 800km path will be far costlier than alternatives and faces extensive landholder opposition. It also will not solve grid bottlenecks holding back new solar and windfarms in the state.
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Continue reading...Australian mining entrepreneur Andrew Forrest criticises ‘clickbait’ fossil fuel plans as others say Britain has lost credibility
The billionaire Australian mining tycoon and investor Andrew Forrest has led international condemnation of the UK’s new oil rush, saying he would pull his major investment from the country if the prime minister pursued “clickbait” fossil fuel policies.
The iron ore magnate, who also runs the Minderoo Foundation philanthropic organisation, threatened to move his investments out of the UK over Rishi Sunak’s swivel towards new oil and gas drilling.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Long list of ‘sensitive’ topics for petrostate include oil and gas production, emissions and Yemen war crimes
A comprehensive list of “touchy and sensitive issues” for the United Arab Emirates, which is running the next UN climate summit, has been revealed in a document leaked to the Guardian.
The document sets out the government-approved “strategic messages” to be used in response to media requests about the issues, which range from the UAE’s increasing production of oil and gas to people trafficking.
Continue reading...Chris Minns rules out following Victoria in banning new gas connections, saying state has enough serious energy challenges
Homes in New South Wales will continue being built with gas connections after the premier, Chris Minns, ruled out a Victorian-style ban on new connections, saying the state already had enough energy supply issues.
The definitive comments came after the state’s energy minister, Penny Sharpe, on Sunday refused to rule out the possibility of the state following Victoria.
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Continue reading...Rightwing groups penned a conservative wish list of proposals for the next conservative president to gut environmental protections
An alliance of rightwing groups has crafted an extensive presidential proposal to bolster the planet-heating oil and gas industry and hamstring the energy transition, it has emerged.
Against a backdrop of record-breaking heat and floods this year, the $22m endeavor, Project 2025, was convened by the notorious rightwing, climate-denying thinktank the Heritage Foundation, which has ties to fossil fuel billionaire Charles Koch.
Continue reading...Emissions from national electricity market also fell more than 6% in June quarter, Australian Energy Market Operator says
Emissions from Australia’s main electricity grid dropped more than 6% in the June quarter from a year ago to a record low for the period, and wholesale prices stabilised, the Australian Energy Market Operator (Aemo) said.
For the June quarter, wholesale power prices averaged $108 per megawatt hour on the national electricity market (NEM), down almost 60% from the same period a year ago when the market was suspended during a short-lived energy crisis.
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Continue reading...All-party climate group says backing away from green policies would be catastrophic for the economy
A cross-party group of influential politicians has urged Rishi Sunak to set an example by attending the UN climate summit this November, as both major parties come under pressure over their net-zero policies.
The group of MPs and peers wants him to commit to attending Cop28 in Dubai, and to appoint a secretary of state as special envoy for the climate ahead of the UN general assembly in September, where preparations will be made for Cop28.
Continue reading...Exclusive: disquiet points to jockeying among jurisdictions and impatience over the rollout of renewables
Cracks in the unity of the nation’s energy ministers have emerged amid disquiet over a review of power grid plans and an effort by the federal government to force carbon offsets from big new gas fields on to the states.
Almost two weeks on from a gathering of energy and climate ministers in Tasmania, senior officials expressed concern about how the review of the integrated system plan (ISP) – the grid’s roadmap – would be handled. One concern was that the federal energy minister, Chris Bowen’s department would be handling the review.
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Continue reading...Labor’s Environment Action Network says draft national platform ‘very, very weak’ on opposing native forest logging and land clearing
Labor has significantly beefed up its commitment to reduce emissions in the gas industry but still faces a fight at its national conference over “weak” policies on native forest logging.
Labor’s Environment Action Network (Lean) has now signed up 294 branches for its push to end native forest logging and broad scale land clearing, but both policies were omitted from the draft national platform distributed to delegates on Monday.
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Continue reading...Wind output reached record levels in June in the national electricity market, the Australian Energy Regulator said
Eastern Australia’s wholesale power prices increased in the June quarter, although they remained well below the level reached during the energy crisis a year earlier, the Australian Energy Regulator has said.
New South Wales posted the highest spot pricing with an average of $148 a megawatt-hour, up from just over $100/MWh during the first three months of the year. During last winter’s energy squeeze, prices averaged about $320/MWh.
Continue reading...‘Radically different’ partnership aims to construct more than a million solar panels to power electrolysers
A unique partnership between three traditional owner groups and a major clean energy investor is promising to establish a $3bn green hydrogen project in the far north of Western Australia.
In what could be one of Australia’s biggest clean energy projects, more than a million solar panels will power electrolysers to produce 50,000 tonnes of green hydrogen a year.
Continue reading...Analysts call on government to make pumps mandatory for all new homes and scale up grants for installation in existing properties
The UK is lagging far behind France and other EU countries in installing heat pumps, research has shown, with less than a tenth of the number of installations despite having similar markets.
Only 55,000 heat pumps were sold in the UK last year, compared with more than 620,000 in France. Twenty other European countries also had higher installation rates than the UK.
Continue reading...Owner Origin Energy say ‘nothing has changed’ on plan to shut the coal-fired Eraring plant no sooner than August 2025
The New South Wales government says it will hold off any decision about the future of the country’s largest power station until at least next month, after it receives a “health check” on the state’s energy security.
Origin Energy, owner of the 2880MW Eraring plant near Lake Macquarie, also said on Friday that “nothing had changed” on the plan to shut the coal-fired power station no sooner than August 2025.
Continue reading...ScottishPower expects Hagshaw Hill to produce five times as much energy with half the turbines by early 2025
One of Britain’s oldest onshore windfarms will soon be “repowered” so it can generate five times as much green electricity as it did in 1995 – with almost half as many turbines.
The owner of the Hagshaw Hill windfarm, ScottishPower, began dismantling 26 turbines on its site in rural South Lanarkshire on Wednesday.
Continue reading...WA EPA dismisses most grounds of appeal against extension of operation licence for gas processing facility in the Pilbara
One of Australia’s biggest fossil fuel developments is a step closer to having its life extended for nearly 50 years after Western Australian officials dismissed appeals arguing it should be stopped on climate science and cultural grounds.
More than 750 organisations and individuals last year lodged objections to a WA Environment Protection Authority (EPA) recommendation that oil and gas company Woodside be allowed to operate its gas processing facility in the Pilbara until 2070.
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Continue reading...Plans would only supply Britain with fossil fuels for an additional three weeks a year, analysis finds
New oil and gas fields in the North Sea would produce only enough gas to satisfy the UK’s needs for a few weeks a year, with a minimal impact on energy security, analysis has found.
Fields now under consideration would supply at most an additional three weeks of gas a year to the UK, from 2024 to 2050, even if none of the gas was exported.
Continue reading...Scheme aims to raise standard of insulation in 19m of the UK’s leakiest homes
Labour has said that job opportunities for almost 4 million workers would be created under its plan to bring 19m of the UK’s leakiest homes up to an acceptable standard of insulation.
While it has previously said that the plan would reduce annual household energy bills by up to £500, the party has set out details of what it said would be a major expansion of the retrofitting workforce.
Continue reading...Energy security secretary Grant Shapps will this week outline plans for Britain’s atomic power’s renaissance and 2050 emissions commitment
In London’s Science Museum sit full-size turbine engines that tell the story of 300 years of steam power. This week, the museum will play host to the government’s dreams for a new industrial renaissance – this time for nuclear energy.
The secretary of state for energy security and net zero, Grant Shapps, has chosen the venue to set out his ambitions for the UK’s nuclear programme. He is expected to illuminate the path towards the government’s existing commitment to build 24 gigawatts of nuclear power capacity – the equivalent of a quarter of Britain’s total generating capacity – by 2050.
Continue reading...Rafael Grossi met with protests in Seoul during visit to try to calm fears over radioactive water discharge
Protesters have confronted the head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog during a visit to South Korea in an attempt to calm fears over Japan’s plan to discharge treated radioactive water from its Fukushima plant.
Rafael Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, arrived in Seoul on Friday to meet the foreign minister and a top nuclear safety official during a three-day visit after his trip to Japan.
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