Capital
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Origin Energy supports a plan to carve up Britain’s largest power and gas retailer, which it owns a stake in. Under the restructure, Kraken would be spun out, with existing Octopus shareholders – including Origin (23%) – receiving shares in the new company. Octopus also plans to sell up to 20% of Kraken in a transaction implying the platform is worth £10 billion, crystallising a windfall of more than $950 million for Origin. Origin’s FY25 result underlined the advantage of a diversified portfolio, with underlying profit up more than 25% and guidance that gas earnings will continue to rise. (The Australian) (AAP)
The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) allocated $3.6 million in funding to Western Australia’s Horizon Power from the Regional Microgrids Program to transition a remote First Nations community in Blackstone (Papulankutja) from diesel generation to a more reliable and cheaper to run clean energy microgrid. The Blackstone Hybrid Energy Project, with a $9.2 million from the state government, will have up to 778kW of solar panels, a 2MWh battery energy storage system and 400kW of diesel generation. Horizon will also establish a Community Energy Fund to return financial benefits directly to the community.
“The success of this project could serve as a blueprint for delivering accessible, affordable and clean energy to other remote First Nations communities.”
Darren Miller
ARENA CEO
Ecotone Partners, led by former Impact Investment capital raising boss Amanda Goodman and ex-Rampersand investment director Nicole Kleid Small, has drawn $25 million worth of interest from a cluster of family offices, including Robyn Denholm’s Wollemi Capital, for its new climate-focused debt and equity fund. (AFR)
“Working as an impact investor and capital advisor to climate companies, I kept seeing promising businesses fall into a funding black hole. There were companies with proven tech, ready to scale and capable of delivering near-term emissions reductions - yet were struggling to raise the capital they needed. They fell outside the mandate of both traditional VC and PE funds: too capital intensive or unable to deliver the ‘venture scale’ returns expected of software companies, yet too early for PE. I’m really excited to be bringing to market a fund designed to fill this critical gap.”
Amanda Goodman
Ecotone Partner
 Projects
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Queensland government’s Stanwell Corporation acquired the Lockyer gas-peaking project from Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners, with Stage 1 including up to 120MW of gas-fired generation and the potential for up to a further 850MW of capacity in Stage 2. Located 75km west of Brisbane, the project lies in an energy distribution hub at the intersection of the Roma-to-Brisbane gas pipeline and a 110kV electricity network substation.
The 500kV Humelink transmission line achieved “considered project” status under the National Electricity Rules, which means proponents of new renewable energy generators and energy storage facilities can start the process to connect directly to the nation-critical link. Main construction works for HumeLink, which will connect Wagga Wagga, Bannaby and Maragle, are expected to begin in coming weeks including 365km of new transmission lines.
“Once the project is connected to the network it will unlock the Snowy Hydro Scheme expansion project, Snowy 2.0, which will provide an additional 2,200 megawatts of on-demand energy into the grid – enough energy storage to power three million homes for a week. HumeLink will also allow more solar and wind generators, and battery and pumped-hydro energy storage facilities to connect directly to the NSW transmission network.”
Jason Krstanoski
Transgrid Acting Executive General Manager - Network
Policy
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The competition watchdog wants to ensure new retail competition from batteries and virtual power plants doesn’t default to digital “walled gardens” dominated by the largest power companies. Early signs are good, ACCC Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb told The Energy at the Australasian Emissions Reduction Summit 2025.
The National Electricity Market (NEM) inquiry noted a big surge in home batteries in the mainland NEM states with “stronger competition in the emerging market in which virtual power plant services are supplied” where over three-quarters of customers are served by smaller providers. In retail electricity, the “big three” - AGL Energy (ASX: AGL), Origin Energy (ASX: ORG) and EnergyAustralia - have more than three-fifths of the market.
“We are seeing a higher proportion of small retailers than we see in terms of traditional electricity….We are really pleased to see it. So in essence, we are hoping this continues, rather than defaults to the current big three.”
Gina Cass-Gottlieb
ACCC Chair
Writing in The Australian, Energy Minister Chris Bowen said “deniers and delayers” were engaging in “strategic scepticism” on the energy transition and net zero, in the face of economic reality.
“China is around 19% of the world’s GDP but represents almost a third of global clean-energy investment. It has already surpassed its 2030 target of 1200 gigawatts of solar and wind capacity and, most experts agree, its emissions have peaked. Likewise, India’s renewable capacity is surging, with almost 50% of its power capacity comprised of non-fossil fuel sources. Solar PV and wind output was 20% higher in the first half of 2025 compared to last year."
Chris Bowen
Minister for Climate Change and Energy
US Department Of Energy mandates to retain retiring fossil power plants could cost US electricity consumers between US$3.1 billion and US$5.9 billion per year, according to a new report from consulting firm Grid Strategies, commissioned by four environmental groups.
Regulation
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Payback on household batteries can be as low as four years with government
subsidies, according to a study by the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC). However, rapid uptake brings important considerations for making sure all consumers benefit as the market matures. With results assuming the consumer chooses the best available battery to maximise their 10-year NPV, key findings on battery affordability include:
- Virtual Power Plant participation emerged as a promising model, delivering strong individual returns while providing grid services
- Average payback periods drop to 7.3 years with federal rebates, and as low as 4 years for NSW households participating in Virtual Power Plants
- Budget batteries outperform premium brands financially, with NSW households seeing 10-year returns of $2,308 on average
- ‘Evening peaker’ households and high-usage households see the fastest returns
- Larger systems are becoming more common, for example in the NSW Ausgrid region the average system size was 7.1kW in FY24, up from 4.8kW in FY21.
Climate
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Origin Energy also released an updated climate plan, reiterating its 2030 emissions reduction targets and the net zero emissions by 2050 goal despite last year extending the life of Eraring by two years to 2027. This action was taken to support security of power supply given the uncertainty in the timing of new renewables, firming and transmission infrastructure coming online, the company said, adding that ash re-use at Eraring had increased to 61%.
“We are growing renewable energy and storage in our portfolio as evidenced by actions to advance the development of the large-scale Yanco Delta Wind Farm, and capital commitments of $1.7 billion towards large-scale batteries under construction at Eraring and Mortlake power stations as well as additional storage offtake contracts.”
Scott Mortlake
Origin Chair
For Scope 1, 2 and 3 equity emissions intensity, Origin is targeting a 40% reduction by 2030 from a FY19 baseline and a 20 million tonne reduction in absolute Scope 1, 2 and 3 equity emissions by 2030, also from a FY19 baseline, saying that was consistent with the Paris Agreement. Shareholders will vote on the plan on October 15.
Research
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Fossil fuels produced 41.4% of electricity in the OECD in May, the IEA’s latest monthly electricity statistics showed, with 41.7% coming from renewable sources and 16.5% from nuclear power. Generation from renewable sources increased by 6.0% year-on-year , with solar generation up 20.7% year-on-year and wind generation up 8.4%, mainly driven by OECD Europe.
