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The Energy

Unlocking sunshine exports

Published 2 days ago • 9 min read

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Hey Reader, in today's edition:

  • Singapore's superpower support
  • Battery frenzy explained
  • Gas market gripes

Regulatory groundwork for exporting sunshine

Australia and Singapore have inked a Cross-Border Electricity Trade Framework to unlock private sector finance and catalyse regional cross-border electricity trading.

The framework, announced as part of a deepening of the existing Comprehensive Strategic Partnership dubbed CSP 2.0, will advance the ASEAN Power Grid — a project to integrate the electricity networks of 10 Southeast Asian member countries — through collaboration on standards and governance, renewable energy certificates and subsea power cables.

“We will support Australia's vision to become a renewable energy superpower by connecting your abundant resources with Southeast Asia's growing demand for clean power.
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Many of the initiatives that we are working with one another are not just to benefit our two countries, but potentially can serve as pathfinders for the wider world, as we have already done, because we had the world's first Digital and Green Economy Agreements, and that indeed served as pathfinders for other countries eventually to also start thinking about digital rules for the global economy, to think about how trade and climate action can come together within the WTO framework.”
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Singapore’s Prime Minister Lawrence Wong told reporters in Canberra

With the bilateral Digital Economy Agreement already in place, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Wong pledged to further promote cross-border data flows and secure a permanent multilateral moratorium on customs duties on electronic transmissions.

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Battery frenzy explained

Investor appetite for battery energy storage systems (BESS) has reached fever pitch. At 130GW, proposed BESS capacity now outstrips the proposed capacity for each of solar and wind projects.

In The Energy’s latest explainer, Aurora’s APAC head of research James Ha unpacks why, and what’s next for this in-demand asset class.

Expert view

“Utility-scale batteries have gone from a fringe asset class to the single hottest investment opportunity and have completely transformed how policymakers think about firming up a high-renewables system. But the contracting landscape to manage volatile returns will continue evolving, particularly if the recommendations from the current Nelson Review are adopted.

In a market defined by change, the most successful battery developers will be those that can continue to adapt – commercially and technically.”

James Ha
Head of Research, APAC, Aurora Energy Research

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Gas market: broken or self-serving?

Steelmaker BlueScope (ASX: BSL) has called for government intervention to force more gas into the east coast market to drive prices well below $10 per gigajoule to keep manufacturers in business. (AFR) (ABC) (AAP)

“Major change is required to fix our broken gas market and reinstate a fair domestic price,” Chief Executive Mark Vassella told the National Press Club.

"Despite our massive gas reserves, Australia has one of the highest wholesale gas prices among producer nations in the world. Worse, the adoption of a pricing mechanism that is based on LNG export prices means that local gas users are effectively paying for export infrastructure they don't use. This is not right. It increases local gas prices and puts local gas users at a structural disadvantage.
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And the energy companies should desist from that deliberate line of obfuscation about sovereign risk. Similarly, we should ignore the self-serving objections of overseas energy companies.”
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Mark Vassella
BlueScope CEO

The big emitter also needs access to cheaper gas to make its proposed buyout of the collapsed Whyalla steelworks feasible and to power its low-carbon iron export goals.

“Self-serving calls from some large manufacturers for more government intervention and price controls in the gas market are not the answer,” oil and gas lobbyist Samantha McCulloch wrote in the AFR, calling for the federal gas review to back new supply.

Meanwhile, experts speaking at the NEMDEV conference in Brisbane warned policymakers and investors against incorrectly assuming a transition away from coal but “backed by gas” beyond 2028 was a fait accompli.

Expert view

“There's evidence that suggests that those involved in the gas supply industry aren't that interested in solving NEM-related risks. And equally, there's evidence to suggest that those in the power generation industry aren't that interested in the various financial, subsurface, ESG and other risks that come from being involved in upstream gas supply.

In the assumptions and scenarios for the upcoming ISP (Integrated System Plan) we assume that new gas production becomes available when required. That when we need it the market will solve it. I don't think the market is particularly interested in solving that challenge. And so it's going to require some effort. It's going to require some change in policy for that part of the ISP stack not to fall over.

There's no white knight in the south in terms of gas supply. So this is a big part of the challenge around having gas supply close to demand.

The Queensland ramp-up took about $60 billion or so of big-type commitments. It has seen about $130 billion invested, most of it foreign. It's not a small case to suggest that intervention in that market will not come without other risks.

If there are reservation policies that impact the investability of what we call ‘spare’ gas, the gas that's above the contract minimum will start to decline down to probably that contract minimum, and then we're going to have to start chipping into contracts.”

Professor David Close
Director, Gas and Energy Transition Research Centre, UQ

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Catch Up

Capital

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Federal Industry Minister Tim Ayres and Queensland Resources Minister Dale Last announced taxpayers will provide Swiss mining giant Glencore $600 million in financial bridging support until the end of 2028 for the strategically important but loss-making Mount Isa copper smelter and Townsville copper refinery. The agreement will be executed at the end of October and includes funding for capital upgrades to the Mt Isa smelter. While those assets are losing money, Glencore has a highly profitable coal business in Australia. (ABC) (AAP)

Projects

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Frontier Energy (ASX: FHE) announced an expansion strategy at Waroona targeting up to 1GW of solar energy generation and up to 660MW of battery storage by 2031 to align with the retirement of ageing coal and gas generation assets in Western Australia. “The company has been putting the building blocks in place to execute the planned expansion of Waroona for some time, with a freehold landholding of 830ha, grid connections, key approvals and an experienced team in place,” Frontier CEO Adam Kiley said.

Climate Change and Energy ­Minister Chris Bowen has responded to claims first published in The Australian that renewable energy projects will cover vast swathes of the Australia's land-mass, saying the maths "doesn't stack up". Conservation group Rainforest Reserves Australia warned that renewable energy projects could threaten nature in a mass land grab, and proposes nuclear as a smaller footprint solution. (The Australian)

Policy

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Ahead of Queensland’s energy roadmap reveal scheduled for Friday, Monash University’s Climateworks released a report on decarbonising the state’s industrial heartland Gladstone that found emissions could be cut by nearly two-thirds by 2040. Electrifying Gladstone’s industries flexibly, such as shifting power use to off-peak times or storing industrial heat, could provide 4.4GW of flexible power by 2040 and double Australia’s present ability to stabilise the energy grid. Further, electrifying the area’s industries and adding heat storage were estimated to cut wholesale electricity prices by as much as 60%.

US Clean Air Task Force Senior Director Conrad Schneider said the US Department of Energy is planning to terminate funding for over 600 awards totalling US$23 billion issued by the Offices of Clean Energy Demonstrations, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Grid Deployment, Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains, Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy and Fossil Energy. “By abruptly canceling funding for several hundred energy projects, the US risks ceding American energy leadership and signals that US innovation is not a priority,” Schneider said, mapping the impact.

Regulation

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Treasurer Jim Chalmers introduced the Regulatory Reform Omnibus Bill which, among dozens of measures designed to improve productivity, gives the Energy Minister additional flexibility during fuel shortages so companies can tap into their liquid fuel stocks, makes NBN’s mapping data available for use by businesses and industry, and also “making it easier to buy smarter appliances that use energy when electricity is cheapest”.

The first South Australia Firm Energy Reliability Mechanism (FERM) tender will open in late October, with gas generation and batteries both eligible. ASL, as scheme administrator, released market briefing materials for the tender that will target 700MW of capacity across three timeframes: 400MW by November 2028, 200MW by November 2029, and 100MW by November 2031. The appointment of a Financial Vehicle is now underway, with this separate entity the counterparty for contracts awarded under the scheme.

The intricate policy dance known as Senate estimates provided snippets of intel on eight regional “go” and “no go” development zones. Two standards — matters of national environmental significance and offsets — are being fast-tracked as part of the environment law reform package being finalised this month, The Energy reported.

Technology

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A University of Melbourne professor is among three people awarded the Nobel Prize for chemistry for their development of crystals known as metal organic frameworks. MOFs have multiple uses including capturing carbon dioxide, storing hydrogen and harvesting water from desert air. Richard Robson shares the prize with Japan’s Susumu Kitagawa and American-Jordanian Omar Yaghi. (The Australian) (The Guardian) (NYT) (The Age) (The Conversation)

Fluence algorithmic bidding optimisation software will be at the heart of Australia’s first 8-hour duration battery energy storage system (BESS), being built near Balranald in the Murray region of NSW by the local arm of German utility RWE. Planned to deliver more than 50MW/400MWh of storage capacity with Tesla Megapacks, RWE’s Limondale BESS is co-located with RWE’s Limondale Solar Farm and both the BESS and the solar farm will use Fluence’s Mosaic software to participate in the National Electricity Market.

Climate

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The Greens called for Monash University to reverse course on plans to “disestablish” Monash Sustainable Development Institute, a world-leading research institute on climate and sustainability.

People

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Melbourne Climate Futures, a University of Melbourne climate change research and expert advice initiative, announced the appointment of Simon O’Connor as Director of its Sustainable Finance Hub.

Research

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A University of Sydney team led by Professor Anita Ho-Baillie has developed the largest and most efficient triple-junction perovskite-perovskite-silicon tandem solar cell and published their global first in Nature Nanotechnology. A triple-junction solar cell uses three interconnected semiconductors, each absorbing a different part of the solar spectrum to maximise conversion of the Sun’s energy into electricity.

Random

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The Redistribution Committees invited the public to submit ideas about the names and boundaries of federal electorates in South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT.

What's On

October 15​
​The Energy Q&A with the NEM Review panel

NEM Review panel Tim Nelson, Paula Conboy, Ava Hancock and Phil Hirschhorn will speak at this webinar moderated by The Energy Advisory Board Member Anna Hancock.

October 16-17​
IGCC Summit 2025: Decoding the transition

Generation Investment Management Founding Partner and former US Vice President Al Gore will headline this Sydney event from the Investor Group on Climate Change. Other speakers include NSW Energy Minister Penny Sharpe, Climate Change Authority Chair Matt Kean, Energy Efficiency Council CEO Luke Menzel, ARENA Associate Director Tanya Hodgeson and Net Zero Economy Agency CEO David Shankey.

October 22
​2025 Order of Australia Lecture

Emeritus Professor Mark Howden will deliver this year’s Order of Australia keynote - Go hard or go slow on climate change? What’s in the national interest? - at this Canberra event.

October 23
​Understanding Australia's 2035 Net Zero numbers

Climate Change Authority Chair Matt Kean will speak at this UTS event in Sydney, in conversation with Professor Stuart White, Director of the UTS Institute for Sustainable Futures.

October 27
​The real costs of the transition

Powerlink CEO Paul Simshauser will speak at this lunchtime webinar from The Energy, alongside Aurecon Managing Director, Energy (Australia) Paul Gleeson and moderated by Beyond Zero Emissions CEO Heidi Lee.

October 29-30
​All Energy Australia

Victorian Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio, incoming Clean Energy Council CEO Jackie Trad and Pacific Green CEO Joel Alexander are among the speakers at this year’s All Energy event in Melbourne.

Level 1, 60 Martin Place, Sydney, NSW 2000
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The Energy

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