Australia's politics only barrier to clean energy system, report finds | The Guardian
Construction halted on nuclear power reactors in South Carolina | NBC News
“The best case scenario shows this project would be several years late and 75 percent more than originally planned,” Santee Cooper President and CEO Lonnie Carter said in a statement. “We simply cannot ask our customers to pay for a project that has become uneconomical.”
Business pleas for government to back Finkel Review | AFR
Australia's business leaders have pleaded for politicians to fall in behind a market-based energy policy built on the Finkel Review's clean energy target to underwrite investment certainty and scathingly dismissed proposals for government to fund a coal fired power station as an answer to high energy prices.
Two of the most powerful figures in Australia's energy sector - former Origin Energy boss Grant King and Energy Australia managing director Catherine Tanna - have said no one in politics has clean hands on past energy policy.
During the BCA's roundtable discussion with the Australian Financial Review, Ms Tanna said that "nobody has a licence to go around and say that the market is working for customers as intended", because energy prices were so high.
But with a push underway within the federal government to provide support for the coal industry, and for government direct investment in a coal-fired power station, the BCA board was asked where coal should fit in to energy policy.
"The first thing I would say about that is coal is a legacy technology," Ms Tanna said.
"I'm not saying that it can't be part of the future mix. I'm just saying that it's a solution that my grandfather would have built.
"I think it is very, very unlikely to find a market participant that will fund such a new investment."
The Pears Report | ReNew Magazine
THE THREAT of electricity blackouts in southern Australia next summer and our bizarre ‘gas crisis’ seem to be dragging us out of the rock-throwing approach to energy policy making.
SA 100MW battery storage tender won by Tesla and Neoen | Renew Economy
The 100MW/129MWh battery bank will be built at Neoen’s huge Hornsdale wind complex near Jamestown, where the last stage of a 309MW project is currently being completed.
Premier Jay Weatherill said the Hornsdale Power Reserve will become the state’s largest renewable generator, and while the lithium battery would be the biggest in the world.
“South Australian customers will be the first to benefit from this technology which will demonstrate that large-scale battery storage is both possible and now, commercially viable.”
The announcement was made jointly with Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk, who flew into Adelaide for the announcement. Musk said the installation would be three times bigger than the next installation.
AGL Energy's Andy Vesey says coal investment doesn't add up |AFR
AGL energy chief executive Andy Vesey and other power bosses said the economics of investing in new coal plants don't add up compared with wind and solar power.
Speaking a day after Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the federal government could invest in new coal plants to shore up supply, Mr Vesey said he had examined the numbers and could not commit AGL's capital to coal plant.
He believed the energy security plan outlined by Chief Scientist Alan Finkel was "comprehensive" and should be backed, and joked that as soon as you think you're up to date with energy policy "a flash on your phone" changed everything again.
AUSTRALIA’S ENERGY: How did we get into this mess? And what do we do to get out of it?
Australia appears to have converted a national advantage – cheap and plentiful energy – into a national energy crisis, for business and consumers. We ask – how did this happen? And is there a way out!
Join the John Cain Foundation for a lively discussion with two experts in energy policy and pricing.
Journalist and writer Tim Colebatch will facilitate a discussion between energy experts Tony Wood, Grattan Institute, and Alan Pears, RMIT University. A Q&A will follow presentations by the speakers.
Join us for drinks at 5pm prior to the presentations.
Wednesday 3rd May, 5.30 to 7.30 pm
Graduate House University of Melbourne
220 Leicester Street
About the speakers
Tony Wood - Tony has deep experience in the energy sector. Prior to joining Grattan Institute in 2011, he worked at Origin Energy for 11 years, and was an adviser to the first Garnaut climate change review. He was also program director of Clean Energy Projects at the Clinton Foundation.
Tim Colebatch - Tim is a freelance journalist and writer, mostly writing on economic and political issues for the website Inside Story. He earlier spent four decades writing for The Age, the last half of them as economics editor and columnist. He is the biographer of former Victorian Premier Sir Rupert Hamer (Dick Hamer: the liberal Liberal), and recently won the Melbourne Press Club's Quills award as the best columnist of 2016.
Alan Pears AM - Alan Pears AM is a Senior Industry Fellow at RMIT University and consultant. Alan is a well-known researcher, commentator and educator on energy policy issues, in particular related to energy efficiency, clean energy policy, energy markets and climate policy. He has worked in this field for 40 years, with governments, businesses and community groups. Alan worked in Victorian energy agencies from 1980 to 1991, and has worked on energy and climate policy and program development across Australia since then.
How AEMO’s new boss will reform Australia’s energy vision | Renew Economy
Audrey Zibelman, the new chief executive of the Australian Energy Market Operator, has been in the job for little over a week, but is already making her mark, signalling the biggest shift in energy management philosophy in a generation.
The gas industry's power play | The Saturday Paper
Long-term mismanagement of Australia’s gas industry has seen price gouging by cartels and the possible need for imports. Even if the government can put things to right, natural gas will never again be a cheap alternative fossil fuel. By Mike Seccombe.
Clarke and Dawe: The energy market explained
Submission to the Victorian Government Retail Electricity Review | Alan Pears AM
The Victorian Government has appointed an independent panel to conduct a review of electricity and gas retail markets in Victoria (the review). The panel comprises John Thwaites, Terence Mulder and Patricia Faulkner. The panel will prepare a final report to the Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change that examines the operation of the Victorian electricity and gas retail markets and provides options that would improve outcomes for consumers.
The independent panel will be supported by a secretariat administered by the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP).
The review will consider the operation of the electricity and gas retail markets in Victoria in respect of supply to residential and small business consumers – defined for Victorian regulatory purposes as consumers with annual consumption less than 40MWh for electricity and 1,000GJ for gas.
Submissions in response to the discussion paper are invited by Tuesday 28 February 2017.
Please click here to read Alan Pears' AM submission to the review.
'Clean coal' too costly for CEFC mandate | AFR
Mandating the Clean Energy Finance Corporation to invest in "clean coal" would require a spectacular government backflip just nine weeks after it issued the lender with strict conditions on the profitability of new projects.
Federal Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg and Finance Minister Mathias Cormann told the agency that its purpose was to help mobilise investment in "renewable energy, low emissions and energy efficiency projects and technologies", and instructed them to "apply commercial rigour when making investment decisions".
In particular, the direction said the CEFC must strive for an average return across the portfolio of 3 to 4 percentage points above the five year bond rate (2.3 per cent).
However, there are only three carbon capture and storage projects operating in the world and none are currently commercially viable. Super critical coal-fired power stations would also struggle to deliver commercial returns, while also not meeting current guidelines to reduce emissions by 50 per cent.
'Clean coal': billions of dollars and lots of carbon | Ben Potter
The Turnbull government wants to ease Clean Energy Finance Corporation guidelines to allow "clean coal" to qualify for "clean energy" funding but figures from a big Japanese supplier of clean coal plants suggest the guidelines would have to be gutted to get the plants over the line. Jonathan Carroll
A top executive at the largest Japanese supplier of high tech coal-fired power plants says they would likely cost more than thought in Australia and still emit relatively large quantities of carbon.
Akihiko Kazuno, head of global strategic planning for Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems, said the company's ultra-supercritical power stations – the most advanced currently being built commercially – typically cost between $US1.5 billion and $US3.5 billion per 1000 megawatts of capacity.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg, Treasurer Scott Morrison and the Minerals Council of Australia – which is launching a "Coal: Making the future possible" advertising campaign – are pushing for "clean coal" plants to be built in Australia.
But industry says the plants are "unbankable" because of their high costs and carbon risk and resources entrepreneurs Gina Rinehart and Trevor St Baker have shunned the technology too.
Submission to NEM Security Review | Alan Pears AM
In December 2016 Dr Alan Finkel presented his preliminary report on the Independent Review into the Future of the Security of the National Electricity Market.
Click here to read the submission made by Alan Pears in response to the report. Alan is a Senior Industry Fellow at RMIT University and a member of the Climate Alliance board of advisors. Alan’s submission focuses on the role of energy efficiency.
Dr Alan Finkel's preliminary report can be found here.
FUTURE SECURITY OF THE NATIONAL ELECTRICITY MARKET | Australia's Chief Scientist
Australia’s Chief Scientist Dr Alan Finkel presented the Preliminary Report of the National Electricity Market (NEM) Security Review to COAG Leaders in Canberra last Friday. The Preliminary Report identifies the forces of change confronting the NEM and key questions to guide consultations on the development of a blueprint for our nation’s electricity future.
“The blackout in South Australia reminds us that our national electricity grid is under pressure and in need of urgent attention,” said Dr Finkel, Chair of the Review.
“We now have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reform the electricity sector to maximise its resilience in the face of rapid market changes.
“The goal is to ensure we have a secure electricity supply, at an affordable price for all Australian consumers, while meeting our international obligations to lower emissions.”
You can download the report here.
Electric Future: Wiring for Progress
Zunz Lecture
Dr Alan Finkel AO, Australia’s Chief Scientist and Chair of the National Electricity Market Review gave a lecture about electricity on the 3rd November 2016.
Electric Future: Wiring for Progress