Catch up
Capital
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New Zealand company EnPot has teamed up with Siemens Energy to push its power management technology into China’s aluminium smelters. (BusinessDesk)
The US clean energy sector is facing a wave of collapses as Congress weighs a spending bill that would gut clean energy tax credits that have kept the industry afloat. Two major companies, residential solar provider Sunnova and financing firm Mosaic, filed for bankruptcy this month. (FT)
 Projects
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EnergyAustralia formed a joint venture with EDF to develop the 385MW Lake Lyell Pumped Hydro Energy Storage project (LLPHES) in Lithgow, after AEMO Services encouraged short lead-time projects to come forward to help meet NSW’s 2030 long-duration storage target. EnergyAustralia will continue to have responsibility for community, neighbour and stakeholder engagement for an Environmental Impact Statement submission in 2025, with Final Investment Decision eyed for late 2026. The gentailer is also developing a $1 billion battery at the site of the Mt Piper coal-fired power plant near Lithgow, which supplies about 15% of the state’s electricity but is intended to shift into more of a back-up role rather than be a continuous source for the NEM leading into a 2040 retirement date.
“We own and operate over 20GWs of hydroelectric assets across the globe and are developing many more GWs. In Australia we are already leading the Dungowan PHES project near Tamworth, NSW, with 300 MWs and ten hours of storage that will support NSW’s energy transition. We will work with EnergyAustralia and all interested stakeholders to ensure that LLPHES becomes a model of sustainable development and a source of real pride for the region.” — EDF Power Solutions Australia CEO James Katsikas
Policy
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The UK expanded a Warm Home Discount scheme to bring 2.7 million extra households into its scope, cutting £150 off the coming winter’s energy bills, offset by new efficiency savings across the energy system. The Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem) also plans to reduce the overall stock of consumer debt, which is currently recouped via a standing charge on all bills. However, gas and electricity bills are expected to increase from October, reflecting rising oil and gas prices. (BBC) (The Independent)
“These reforms complement the government’s drive to bring down bills in the long term by replacing the UK’s dependence on fossil fuel markets controlled by petrostates and dictators with clean homegrown power.” — UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero
Spain’s blackout report debunks core claims of the anti-renewables brigade, climate and energy consultant Ketan Joshi explains. (Renew Economy)
Regulation
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NT Minister for Lands, Planning and Environment Joshua Burgoyne said during budget estimates the Finocchiaro government would not implement a 2030 emissions target pledged during the election campaign. He said the Territory was a "relatively small emitter" and climate change provided risks and "opportunities" for them. The Environment Centre NT said he also faced questions about why a cornerstone document requiring the Territory’s Environment Protection Authority to assess, consider and regulate climate pollution from industries like fracking, gas prospecting and agriculture had been “quietly removed”. The centre last year put forward an alternative vision for economic growth and energy security, authored by Springmount Advisory’s Tom Quinn.
Technology
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Fusion will need breeder blankets and lithium, according to IDTechEx. Their research on a technology that’s “always 30 years away” finds the greatest challenge will be demonstrating the effectiveness of breeder blanket designs but suggests, in the long run, fusion plants deployed at scale could represent a lithium demand on the same order of magnitude as lithium battery and electric vehicle markets.
Climate
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The Climate Change Authority warned extreme weather disasters will cost Australians $8.7 billion a year by 2050 without strong action to address climate risks. Disasters such as Cyclone Alfred and record flooding on the NSW Mid-North Coast have cost the Australian economy $2.2 billion in the first half of 2025 alone. The authority’s report calls for governments to reduce the physical risks of climate change by:
- making the right investments in infrastructure and services
- ensuring standards, laws and regulations are fit-for-purpose for a changing climate
- equipping Australians with the information and resources to improve their decision-making.
Record-high greenhouse gas emissions are set to exhaust the planet’s “carbon budget” within three years, passing another ominous milestone that would minimise the chance of limiting warming to 1.5C, scientists have said. (FT)
People
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Queensland’s CS Energy announced the appointment of Brian Gillespie as CEO.
Research
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Scientists and engineers at UNSW Sydney are using artificial intelligence and machine learning to make their method of producing green ammonia more efficient. They fed in information about how each metal behaves and trained the machine learning system to spot the best combinations. Instead of having to run more than 8,000 experiments in the lab, they only had to run 28 to find the winning catalyst combo of iron, bismuth, nickel, tin and zinc.
“We achieved a sevenfold improvement in the ammonia production rate and at the same time it was close to 100% efficient, meaning almost all of the electrical energy we needed to make the reaction happen was used to make ammonia — very little was wasted.” — UNSW School of Chemistry’s Dr Ali Jalili
Natural hydrogen needs scientific rigor to balance the hype, according to a Royal Society report entitled Natural hydrogen: future energy and resource. Unlike hydrogen made using fossil fuels (blue hydrogen) or renewables (green hydrogen), natural hydrogen forms through chemical reactions in the Earth’s crust. If found in sufficient quantities and safely extracted, some say it could offer a cheaper, lower cost alternative to other sources of hydrogen. Dedicated exploration licenses have already been granted in South Australia and exploration is also underway in Canada, France and the United States.
“This is not a gold rush. As interest grows, we need to make sure evidence stays at the centre of the conversation. We need solid science, good data, and a realistic view of what’s possible to make sure the hype doesn’t run away with itself.” — Lead author Professor Barbara Sherwood Lollar, University of Toronto
Random
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Monash University is under fire for an event at its Italian campus jointly organised with Woodside Energy, as staff criticise the institution for hosting “shadowy conferences paid for by fossil fuel corporations” and a lack of transparency around the relationship. (Guardian)
