Capital
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Installation of rooftop solar and battery systems would save Australians over $26 billion in annual electricity bills, newly launched solar design platform GreenSketch has projected in new modelling that predicted the average Australian home could save $3,104 per year by adopting renewable energy infrastructure. This translates to around $50,000 per rooftop and a 24% internal rate of return, according to the firm’s Australian Rooftop Valuation Report,
The US installed a record 18.9GW of batteries last year – a 52% surge compared with 2024 that saw utility scale installations surge by 31% during the fourth quarter alone. The figures, from Wood Mackenzie’s latest US Energy Storage Monitor report, found new battery energy storage system (BESS) activity spread across 13 US states – a significant change from the previous situation in which BESS deployments had been focused on environmentally-minded California and land-rich Texas. The report also found US residential storage hit a record, with 75% growth delivering 1GWh of residential batteries during the fourth quarter and 800MW total capacity during 2025. Wood Mackenzie predicts the US will install 500GWh of storage by 2031.
Policy
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A six-month reduction in the statutory flashpoint for diesel – from 61·5°C to 60·5°C – will give Australian refineries more latitude to increase their supply of diesel, energy minister Chris Bowen said in announcing a change that will “widen the markets from which we source diesel”. Australia’s flashpoint is normally slightly hotter than that in regions like the US, Canada and Europe due to our hotter climate.
Some 32 NSW service stations have no fuel and 187 stations – including 78 in regional areas and 109 in metropolitan areas – are out of diesel fuel, the NSW government has confirmed as it announced a new obligation on fuel companies to provide information on their plans to supply additional fuel. It also established a new Liquid Fuel Emergency Operations Centre in Parramatta that will be led by DCCEEW and will track fuel availability and shortages, identify pressure points, forecast future supply needs by sector, and support coordination with industry to redirect fuel “where it is needed most”.
Victorian electricity retailers will be required to provide consumers with three hours of free power during the day, under a newly introduced offer called the Midday Power Saver offer that echoes the federal government’s Solar Sharer policy. Some 2.6 million Victorian households will be eligible for the program from October 1, three months after Solar Sharer, and just weeks before the state election.
Australia “must not waste this energy crisis,” Grattan Institute energy and climate change senior fellow Tony Wood has said in warning that Australia can no longer depend on “the global system for open trade and supply”. He proposes a two-part solution, including a doubling down on EVs and renewed investment in biodiesel, renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel along with recalibrating our fuel reserves. Wood rejected calls to increase domestic crude oil production and domestic refinery capacity, given that Australia’s “very limited oil reserves” would be exhausted in less than 10 years even if exploited.
Developers will be required to install solar panels and heat pumps in all new homes built in England, under new rules alongside the introduction of self-installable balcony solar panel systems that will soon be available for purchase in UK supermarkets. New homes will be banned from joining the gas network and will be required to have solar panels covering an area equal to 40% of the dwelling’s ground floor space.
 Projects
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CS Energy’s Kogan Creek Power Station has been given a new lease of life after the successful delivery of a 334-tonne coal-fired generator. The German device, which was accompanied by a smaller 90-tonne generator rotor, will replace an older generator during a planned refit of the power station in July – substantially extending the life of the 750MW plant.
A large-scale plantation of 16,000 pongamia trees, to be established near Emerald in Queensland, will provide a new source of biofuel under a newly announced joint venture between Energreen Australia and Japan’s Nippon Steel Trading. Pongamia is a non-edible crop with oil-rich seeds that can grow on marginal land not suited to traditional crops.
Santos has paused output from its Darwin LNG project due to issues with the company’s production, storage and offloading vessel, the BW Opal, which was only commissioned last June but has developed issues with dry gas seals on numerous compressors. Santos describes the vessel as the “production centrepiece” of its Barossa LNG project, with the BW Opal now being primed with gas from the Barossa field before resuming operations.
Regulation
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EnergyAustralia has paid two fines from the Australian Energy Regulator, totalling $142,800, after it was found to have breached the explicit informed consent and disconnection provisions in the National Energy Retail Rules and National Energy Retail Law. The breach occurred when a third party accidentally set up an electricity account at an elderly customer’s address, after which EnergyAustralia transferred the customer to its service without their consent. Administrative mistakes led to the customer living without electricity for 114 days in 2023, during which time the customer was living by torchlight and eating out every day.
The AER has published proposed amendments to the Forecasting Best Practice guidelines, as part of its efforts to improve the efficiency of compliance reporting processes identified during previous Integrated System Plan cycles. The changes – which include improving the efficiency of AEMO compliance reports, and alignment with updated definitions and features from AEMC rule changes – have been flagged as “non-material”, triggering fast-tracking by the AER. Submissions are open until April 24.
The AER has approved a gas retailer application from Flo Energy Australia, which is now authorised to sell gas after there were no objections to its application. The regulator is also considering a gas retailer authorisation application by Agora Gas, with submissions open until April 24.
AEMO is soliciting feedback on an addendum to its Draft 2026 Integrated System Plan (ISP), which provides further explanatory material on matters raised in the Transparency Review report it published in January. This includes operational output changes from the 2024 ISP; contribution of key inputs to the outcomes of the most optimal development path; the process for determining scenario least-cost development paths; changes in consumer battery capacity; application of build limit constraint in the constrained delivery sensitivity; and results for the Northern Transmission Project. Submissions are open until April 15.
Technology
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Australia has a two-year window to develop at least 3.1GW of data centre computing capacity, supplemented by supporting subsea and terrestrial connectivity that it needs to become an Asia-Pacific digital infrastructure hub, Deloitte Access Economics has advised. Its new Google-commissioned report found establishing Australia as a digital infrastructure hub could create up to 14,300 jobs and $134 billion in additional GDP over the next 25 years.
Human foot patrols of large solar PV sites could become obsolete, after CSIRO researchers successfully tested repurposed mining robots that traverse solar farms to check installed PV panels, supporting racks and other elements. The autonomous robots use LiDAR and onboard thermal and conventional cameras to map and navigate solar farms, using AI to process what they find as they look for PV panel faults, dust build-up, insect nests, bird droppings, physical damage, panel hotspots and other issues. CSIRO welcomes enquiries from solar plant operators interested in testing and helping refine the new technologies.
AI chip giant NVIDIA, working with a cadre of partners, has announced a new reference design that it says will enable power-flexible AI data centres that can deliver “precise, grid-responsive power flexibility” by redirecting power from co-located energy generation and storage to supply local grids during times of peak demand.
