Capital
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How to spend $1 billion on green iron is examined in a briefing note from IEEFA, which urges Australia to learn from the US and EU, where several low-emissions steel projects backed by capital grants were subsequently cancelled or delayed. “Projects often failed where grants were targeted only at the iron or steel producer,” analyst Lachlan Wright said. The answer? Australia should pursue an integrated approach, not grants alone, that combines significant investments across ironmaking, electrolysers and renewable energy.
Legal action against greenwashing launched by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) in June against gas distributor Australian Gas Networks, alleging the energy company made false and misleading representations in its ‘Love Gas’ TV and digital advertising campaign, is listed in the Federal Court for a case management hearing on Friday. (The Age)
 Projects
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Leading offshore wind project Star of the South is scoping locally made steel and steel products for the build. “Some 300 tonnes of steel components per turbine can realistically be made and fabricated here in Australia today, including platforms, walkways, ladders, railings, tubes and other structures,” CEO Charles Rattray said. The up to 2.2GW project expected to participate in Victoria’s first offshore wind auction in September — since delayed and a crucial part of building a business case.
Three out of six bidders have been shortlisted to build and operate the new transmission network for the New England Renewable Energy Zone (REZ) in NSW, and will progress to the Request for Proposal (RFP) stage:
- Future Energy Networks (comprising AusNet, Pacific Partnerships, GS, Hyundai, Ghella, CPB Contractors, UGL)
- NewLeaf Energy (Iberdrola, Capella Capital, Gamuda, Samsung C&T, Ferrovial, Genus Infrastructure)
- Verta Energy (EDF Australia).
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.
Meanwhile NSW’s environment agency faces another pre-Christmas round of redundancies. (The Mandarin)
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. Initially designed to support new gas fields, the Gas Security Fund will now cover a range of investments, including gas storage projects, to “accelerate or increase the volume of gas to market in the short-, medium- and long-term”, largely to protect the viability of gas-dependent industrial and commercial businesses.
The cities of Melbourne and Sydney have signed on to a global agreement to develop shared guidelines and standards for low-carbon and water efficient AI infrastructure. Melbourne Lord Mayor Nick Reece said data centres and AI infrastructure currently accounts for 2% of Melbourne’s energy consumption, which is expected to rise to 8% in five years and 20 per cent by 2040. Global data center power demand is expected to almost double by 2030. (The Age)
Regulation
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The Australian Energy Market Operator’s (AEMO) draft report on Marginal Loss Factor (MLF) Frameworks reform builds on the idea that an investment stability principle is feasible and recommends promoting it as a rule change in 2026. A symmetrical glide path could be implemented after introducing the investment stability rule. Time-varying loss factors benefits do not appear to outweigh the costs of implementation, AEMO said, but it may investigate alternative time slices for the final report.
The Australian Energy Regulator (AER) found the current significant price outcome criteria of $5000/MWh was no longer fit for purpose, after conducting a review of guidelines. Feedback is due by December 1 on a proposed methodology that identifies selected days where the maximum 30-minute price in the NEM markets across all regions is the highest priced day for each month and the next highest priced day in the calendar quarter, with some wriggle room for the AER to “determine alternate price outcomes to report on if they are deemed more consequential or important than any of the selected days”.
Technology
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A new online tool, the Heat Battery Estimator, could help Australian manufacturers to start considering clean heat options to reduce the impact and risk of gas costs and emissions to their businesses, Australian Alliance for Energy Productivity (A2EP) CEO Jarrod Leak said. The free tool developed with Aratherm also shows the impact of network tariffs on the economics of using a heat battery and the urgent need for all network operators to be offering flexible demand connections, he said.
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)
Amnesty International called out the “silencing of defenders” within the UNFCCC process for negotiating an agreement to limit climate change. “We expect COP30 to deliver a strong message regarding the role of those on the frontline of climate activism and the necessity to protect them,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, who is at COP30 in Brazil.
Democratic victories across the electoral map in the US affirmed for campaigners that the energy affordability crisis is a vulnerability for President Donald Trump and his allies, and one they plan to use as they fight his anti-clean energy agenda and work to flip control of Congress next year. “Clean energy is cheaper energy” was a message taken to voters in Georgia, New Jersey and Virginia. (Inside Climate News)
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.
Random
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Sircel, one of Australia’s biggest market hopefuls for solar panel recycling, has been put into administration. (Renew Economy)
