Capital

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Renewables developer Frontier Energy (ASX: FHE) nominated to become a 5-year fixed price facility following the assignment of Peak Certified Reserve Capacity (CRC). Frontier nominated the fixed price option due to the requirement for guaranteed revenue to underpin project financing. “This is a major milestone for the company as it will provide certainty on the reserve capacity price for the first five years, at or above $360,700/MW,” Frontier CEO, Adam Kiley said. Revenue from energy sales is in addition to revenue received from capacity credits.

Fortescue’s (ASX: FMG) 75m Green Pioneer sailed into New York to spur uptake of clean marine fuel. “While world leaders gather for Climate Week and the UN General Assembly, we will be on the East River showing that green ammonia is not a theory but a fuel that can help power the world’s ships while reducing carbon emissions,” founder Andrew Forrest said. He urged the US to seize the moment instead of “threatening the world with tariffs and sanctions to block climate action” which he said was “economic bullying dressed up as policy”.

Projects

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The approval of the Nowingi Solar Power Station, located near Mildura in Victoria and including the largest eight-hour storage battery of its kind in Australia — for now, marked the 100th renewable energy project given the green light by the Albanese government. “The project is strategically located next to transmission lines and within the easement corridor, minimising impacts to the environment and to existing land use,” Environment Minister Murray Watt said. “Once operational, Nowingi will be the largest duration BESS facility in Australia, capable of dispatching 300MW an hour for eight hours,” Edify Energy CEO John Cole said.

A wind turbine blade snapped in half during a storm earlier in September at the Flyers Creek Wind Farm in the New South Wales Central West. Facility owners, Iberdrola Australia, said the tower's blade initially suffered damage during a storm in June and suffered further damage some weeks ago. No one was injured as a result. (ABC)

Policy

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To date, the energy transition has not had a major effect on the everyday lives of most Australians. Under new emissions plans, that’s set to change, the AFR reports. Alison Reeve, climate and energy director at the Grattan Institute, says political support for the new target will hinge on the government being more upfront with people about how the transition will personally affect them. “If you’re renting, it’s hard to access these savings. Battery rebates are great, but we still have one-third of households who rent and who can’t even get rooftop solar. There has to be a real focus to make sure it’s not just well-off homeowners who benefit from that electrification story,” she told the Guardian.

Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott took to a centre-right stage to reject net zero. The commitment to the target “has to be dropped and the sooner the better”, he told an event in Brisbane, sharing the platform with the Coalition’s Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Nationals Senators Bridget McKenzie and Matt Canavan. “Every time we have fought an election on climate and energy …. we have succeeded but every time we’ve simply mirrored Labor’s position, we’ve done badly,” Abbott said. “We have got to be against it.” (AAP) (Sky)

Regulation

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Synergy tabled in the WA Parliament a $778.5 million annual loss amid mounting energy transition costs, which included a one-off impairment to the book value of coal-fired generation assets and provision for onerous contracts. A year earlier it posted a $589.7 million profit. CEO Kurt Baker said the financial position “is anticipated to remain variable as Synergy and the state government respond to market volatility and other external pressures”.

WA’s Horizon Power, as the regulated operator of the North West Interconnected System (NWIS), has been working with the Australian Renewable Energy Hub (AREH) on early feasibility work for a transmission project to link large-scale renewables into the NWIS in the Great Sandy Desert corridor, and other priority projects, acting CEO Krystal Skinner Acting said in Horizon’s annual report. “And despite the challenge of cost escalations in energy projects from planning to operation, we have seen a $15.2 million profit in the financial year, largely driven by higher sales, mainly in the NWIS.”

Technology

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Green Gravity has secured another old mining shaft to test gravitational energy storage, this time in Wollongong. (ABC)

Climate

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Australia’s climate conversation may be stuck in a loop of what’s politically feasible, but things are changing in the real world. Australians love roof-top solar and 60,000 have installed a battery since July 1. According to Origin (ASX: ORG), home batteries are projected to cut 21 million tonnes of CO₂ by 2035, a cut to national emissions of 3.4%. (ABC)

People

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Former WA minister Sue Ellery was appointed to the board of Synergy as a non-executive director.

Melbourne Law School appointed Professor Nicole Watson as Director of the Indigenous Law and Justice Hub

BHP is expected to appoint Geraldine Slattery as its first female chief executive to replace current CEO Mike Henry, FT reported.

Research

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The Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative (VCMI) released a White Paper on the “catalysing” role for asset managers, banks and insurers as only a fraction of the capital needed is flowing to projects that can reduce greenhouse gas emissions. High-integrity carbon markets are tipped as a critical tool to help direct that capital, and are projected to grow from a mere US$1.4 billion now to up to $250 billion by 2050.

Random

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Engineers at RMIT have developed a new low-carbon replacement for concrete. The material, called cardboard-confined rammed earth, is composed entirely of cardboard, water and soil – making it reusable and recyclable, and with one quarter of the carbon footprint of concrete. (Structures)