Bipartisan support for net zero was fractured and we learnt Australia’s biggest battery project might not be the shock absorber planners were expecting it to be in a week that saw the energy wars return to the front page of major mastheads.
Policy
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The Liberal Party pledged to axe Australia’s 2030 and 2050 climate targets, while keeping the country legally obligated to limit global warming by remaining a signatory to the Paris Agreement.
If elected in 2028, the party would repeal both the 43% by 2030 and net zero by 2050 target from the Climate Change Act, Liberal Leader Sussan Ley told reporters in Canberra.
Carbon Market Institute CEO Sasha Courville said she was disappointed by the decision to send this signal to Australians and the international community that Australia’s support for net zero is no longer bipartisan.
Public hearings in the Senate committee on Information Integrity on Climate Change and Energy saw multiple questions but few answers on how anti-renewables groups are funded. RE-Alliance director Andrew Bray continued his call for local energy hubs to provide independent information and prevent others with nefarious agendas filling the void.
The government is considering an extension to the $75-a-quarter power bill relief, The Age reported. The subsidy was due to end with the calendar year but an extension would cost the budget up to $2 billion.
Uranium was reinstated as a critical mineral in the United States, along with copper and metallurgical coal, in the final version of the 2025 US Critical Minerals List, which unlocks federal support and speeds up approvals as the Trump administration creates sovereign supply chains to bolster energy and national security.
Capital
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Renewables are growing faster than any other major energy source in all scenarios as their cost advantage outpaces rivals, and the increasingly less secure world looks set for a gas glut, according to the latest outlook from the International Energy Agency.
A key issue for electricity is the speed at which new assets are rolled out but spending is lagging in some elements, the IEA found. Investment in electricity generation has risen almost 70% since the 2015 Paris Agreement, to reach US$1 trillion a year, but the annual grid spend has risen at less than half that pace to US$400 million – increasing congestion, delaying the connection of new energy sources, and pushing up power bills.
AGL (ASX: AGL) said it would use $750 million from divesting its Tilt Renewables stake, which was sold to existing investors led by QIC and the Future Fund, as capital for more spending on flexible, dispatchable capacity. Tilt continues to provide 1.6GW of renewable generation capacity under long-term agreements with AGL, including recent commitments to Palmer and Waddi Wind Farms.
 Projects
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Renewables developer Akaysha Energy revealed its $1 billion Waratah super battery suffered a “catastrophic failure” of one of its three transformers last month. The battery is a key part of NSW’s transition away from fossil fuels, and was due to be fully operational by late this year. The state government designated the project as critical infrastructure in 2022, saying it was “the most suitable solution that could be delivered in time to ensure the security of supply to Sydney, Wollongong and Newcastle” as coal generators close.
Queensland declared Graphinex’s Esmeralda Graphite Project as a prescribed project to streamline approvals for faster project delivery. The proposed open-pit graphite mine and processing facility located about 70km south of Croydon, and a graphite refinery in Townsville to produce battery-grade anode materials, has a US Export-Import Bank’s Letter of Interest for $1.3 billion — the largest single financial commitment under the US-Australia Critical Minerals Framework. Managing Director Art Malone and CFO Thomas Bell visited Japan this week to meet with potential offtakers and strategic partners.
Ausgrid launched the Merriwa Microgrid in the Hunter region of NSW, to trial a way of ensuring local energy stays on during outages such as extreme weather events.
Iberdrola Australia was selected as Development Partner for the Victorian section of VNI West, a 240km, 500kV double-circuit transmission line proposed to Victoria and NSW that is a long-delayed but vital support for the flow of new forms of generation and storage as coal exits the grid. VicGrid will lead engagement with landholders, Traditional Owners, and communities, and remain the primary point of contact.
Retailer Flow Power unveiled plans for a 100MW/200MWh battery next to the Corowa substation in New South Wales.
The First Nations Clean Energy Network launched a resource to track almost 60 energy projects awarded a tender under the Capacity Investment Scheme (CIS), and implications for First Nations people and communities.
A hub in the Pilbara will serve as a 500MW test bed for emerging technology within heavy emitter Fortescue Group’s (ASX: FMG) planned 1.5GW solar PV development pipeline. The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) announced an allocation of up to $45 million for the iron ore miner’s Solar Innovation Hub for 10 projects to further reduce the cost of electricity in line with ARENA’s Ultra Low-Cost Solar (ULCS) goal of 30% module efficiency at an installed cost of 30 cents per watt by 2030.
Technology
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Sophia Hamblin Wang, founder of Australian startup MCi Carbon arrived at COP30 with a suitcase full of the first samples of Myrtle’s carbon-embodied materials, including those from recent trials with Brazilian and Japanese partners.
"I picked them up on Sunday from Sydney and they are right here in my hot little hands in Brazil. From selling the idea in Glasgow to having materials created from that plant was just an opportunity that we couldn’t pass up,” she told The Energy from Belém.
Australian solar innovator SunDrive’s copper-based process, which replaces silver in solar cells to cut costs and improve efficiency, received $25.3 million from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) to speed up its transition from laboratory breakthrough to market-ready technology.
Regulation
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Alinta Energy paid $1,089,000 in penalties following a record 15 infringement notices issued by the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) after overcharging welfare recipients required to pay through the Centrepay platform and taking too long to refund them.
TasNetworks published its Annual Planning Report (APR), a combined transmission and distribution document which underpins the Tasmanian Renewable Energy Action Plan, including support of the Marinus Link interconnector and North West Transmission Developments, the Tasmanian Renewable Energy Target and setting up a renewable hydrogen industry in the state.
The Australian Energy Regulator opened consultation on the extent of revenue recovery for TasNetworks’ North West Transmission Development (NWTD) project, with the overhead transmission lines to connect to Marinus Link as part of Project Marinus.
Climate
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The energy transition is moving at half the pace needed to meet Paris-aligned targets, according to a stocktake by McKinsey Global Institute.
Global fossil fuel emissions are projected to rise to a new all-time high this year, and unless these efforts are scaled up substantially, current global temperature trends are projected to significantly exceed the Paris Agreement target that aims to keep warming well below 2 degrees, head of CSIRO’s Global Carbon Project Pep Canadell and other experts warn in the latest Global Carbon Budget released at COP30.
Looking ahead to next week, FutureCoal CEO Michelle Manook will address the National Press Club, and the COP30 conference will wrap up with an outcome expected on Australia's bid to host the event next year in partnership with the Pacific.
