A Melbourne Cup day announcement of free electricity during the solar peak became the front runner for energy surprise of the year as insiders warned of unintended consequences.
Regulation
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A new regulated energy offer, dubbed Solar Sharer by the government, will require retailers to offer free electricity to households for at least three hours in the middle of the day.
St Vincent de Paul Society energy policy director Gavin Dufty said the policy was "a shot across the bow of retailers" to force them to innovate and share the value in the system that is being delivered by households.
Retailer lobby group the Australian Energy Council said the announcement was “a surprise to the industry and did not form part of the DMO Review consultation process”. It suggested some retailers may be forced out of business as a result. UBS energy analyst Tom Allen said recovering the cost of three-hours of free energy in the other 21 hours of the day would be tough for a smaller energy retailer that doesn’t have a big integrated upstream energy supply position.
Later in the week the Australian Energy Regulator released an issues paper on the 2026–27 Default Market Offer determination, known as DMO 8, and encouraged stakeholders to engage in the federal government’s consultation on Solar Sharer, which will complicate the regulator’s approach on how to calculate it.
Retailer Momentum Energy was fined more than $750,000 for disclosing the confidential information of family violence victims to their abusers.
The Clean Energy Regulator launched the Guarantee of Origin scheme that will track and verify claims about products. Initially, Renewable Electricity Guarantee of Origin (REGO) certificates — the successor to the Renewable Energy Target (RET) — will be open to eligible renewable electricity generators, including power stations already accredited under the RET scheme, and energy storage systems. It will later expand to include aggregated systems such as virtual power plants.
Capital
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Wind farm developers said they were worried new contracts being considered as part of the National Electricity Market review will introduce new risks for underperforming projects. A shift from traditional power purchase agreements (PPAs) to more novel contracts that reward projects which exceed typical local wind farm outputs is one recommendation of the contracts working group of the review.
Woodside Energy (ASX: WDS) played down forecasts of an LNG supply glut as it backed in gas and oil to still be providing the lion’s share of its earnings well into the 2030s.
Green lender Brighte secured up to $40 million from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) under the Federal Government’s Household Energy Upgrades Fund, that will support the roll out of up to $150 million in discounted green loans for energy upgrades— including solar and battery systems, energy-efficient heating and cooling, and EV chargers.
Research by Baringa Partners, commissioned by the Clean Energy Investor Group (CEIG), identified how to grow the electricity grid to support production of green iron and other green export products at scale elsewhere. Baringa’s Australia Country Lead Peter Sherry says Australia can meet the increase in clean electricity demand associated with green exports without compromising ambitious domestic decarbonisation. “Enhanced interconnection across the NEM will be key to powering South Australia’s green iron industry, as it will enable an unlocking of our exceptional renewable resources across the east coast.”
Policy
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The environment protection bills cleared the House of Representatives, with no route of passage as yet in the Senate. “There will be opportunities to seriously improve the bills … They are urgent, they are important, but they still have a way to go,” Independent Member for Wentworth Allegra Spender told parliament. A committee inquiry must report back by March 24, 2026, with submissions due by December 5.
The Nationals dumped net zero by 2050 as a policy position, saying Australia should “do our fair share” to reduce global emissions but not more than the rest of the world,
New Zealand broadened the terms of a NZ$200 million co-investment fund designed to ignite gas production and reduce perceptions of sovereign risk in a country that previously banned fossil fuel expansion.
 Projects
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Western Australia’s Horizon Power opened expressions of interest (EOI) to secure the power supply in the vast Pilbara region from 2030. Independent power producers with renewable energy projects and clear pathways to land access — including Traditional Owner groups — will be “viewed favourably” under the Pilbara Generation Power Project EOI, which is open until the end of February 2026 and serves to pre-qualify respondents for the next step — a restricted Request for Tender (RFT).
Approvals for onshore wind and pumped hydro cost between $10 million and $25 million and solar and battery projects an average of $10 million to achieve in NSW. Both categories take 12 months just to prepare and lodge state significant development applications. Renewable energy project proponents are calling on the NSW Government to cut red tape or risk missing its targets for new electricity generation and battery storage. (AFR)
Victoria “fast-tracked” the approval of two renewable energy projects. After a two-year assessment, Meadow Creek Solar Farm has state and federal planning and environmental approvals for a hybrid 332MW solar power and 1GWh battery energy storage system (BESS) on agricultural land near Wangaratta. In Hazelwood, Eku Energy’s 300MW BESS will have the capacity to power 104,000 homes during times of high demand. “Our fast-tracked pathway (the Development Facilitation Program) has unlocked nearly $8 billion worth of investment into renewable energy projects,” Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny said. RMIT Emeritus Professor of Environment and Planning Michael Buxton told The Australian it was “really shocking” the federal assessment was effectively being handed over to the state and its “fundamentally flawed” process.
Technology
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The first of 50 EVs with vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology have been plugged in as part of a federally funded project with electricity retailer Amber Electric.
Climate
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As the COP30 climate conference got underway in Brazil's rainforest city Belem, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that fossil-fuel subsidies must end. "Too many corporations are making record profits from climate devastation, with billions spent on lobbying, deceiving the public and obstructing progress," Mr Guterres said in his speech. (ABC)
Farmers for Climate Action, representing more than 8,000 farmers across Australia, released polling commissioned by the Renew Australia for All campaign that found people in the regions are more united on clean energy than almost any other issue in the past 20 years. But with opponents allowing mis- and dis-information to fester, those polled significantly underestimated support for clean energy in their communities.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Emissions Gap Report 2025: Off Target warned pledges under the Paris Agreement have the world heading for a serious escalation of climate risks and damages. But analysts said a chunky pipeline of national renewable energy projects could shift the needle.
Research
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Turner & Townsend’s 2025-2026 Data Centre Construction Cost Index estimated the cost to build a data centre in Sydney at US$10.56 per watt and US$10.40 per watt in Melbourne, with data centres tipped to consume up to 7% of Australia’s electricity by 2029. But most data centre industry experts (83%) do not believe supply chains are ready to deliver the advanced cooling technology required for AI data centres. Power availability was seen as the biggest single challenge to delivering data centres on schedule, as the industry continues to grapple with securing timely access to energy grids.
Windspeeds are increasing, say international researchers, and planned offshore wind projects around the world may not be equipped to handle it. The team analysed wind speed data from 1940 up to 2023 across global oceans, and found almost two in three coastal regions they studied had seen an increase in extreme wind speeds in that time. (Nature Communications)
Looking ahead to next week, the sessional period of the COP30 conference gets underway, oil and gas explorer Beach Energy (ASX: BPT) will hold its AGM, and the International Energy Agency will release its World Energy Outlook for 2025.
