Catch up
Policy
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The NSW government granted $11.25 million to each of the four councils hosting the Central-West Orana Renewable Energy Zone, spread over 54 community projects. These include affordable housing in Mudgee for key workers, critical water infrastructure for Warrumbungle and Upper Hunter Shire Councils and a Renewable Energy Awareness and Career Training Centre in Dubbo which will enable locals to secure renewable energy jobs.
Italian climate think tank Ecco’s Gas and the Green Deal: The Geopolitics of Trump, the EU and China found the objective of the US appeared to be to dismantle the European Green Deal through a forced realignment of the transatlantic relationship around fossil fuels, deterring Europe from turning to new suppliers of clean energy in global markets, such as China.
The Queensland government’s support for extending the life of the Callide B Power Station beyond its planned closure date of 2028 does not align with new analysis showing both the 700 MW Callide B and 844 MW Callide C are “incompatible with today’s dynamic energy system”. A report by Nexa Advisory Principal and ex-AGL policy executive Stephanie Bashir found Callide B had seen downtime of 4,000 hours since 2020 - equivalent to each unit being offline for 12 weeks a year.
Few, if any, of the 102 coal-fired units closed in the US in the past four years would be reliable candidates for a restart. (IEEFA)
Capital
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BP warned of weak gas trading and rising debt in its Q1 2025 trading statement.
 Projects
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Greenleaf Renewables said it was committed to working with the Queensland government on next steps for the $1 billion Moonlight Range wind farm and BESS project after Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie issued a call-in notice. (Industry Queensland)
Norway-based Equinor’s 810MW Empire Wind 1 project off the coast of New York has blown past President Donald Trump’s executive order to block or pause all new wind energy leasing in federal waterways, because it already had approvals in place. (NYPost)
A large fire in January at one of America’s largest battery installations has become a rallying cry for opponents of the technology. (Bloomberg)
The potential extension of Woodside’s North West Shelf LNG project has sparked mixed reactions from locals in the city of Karratha, where the presence of the gas industry is never far away. (The World Today)
Regulation
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In a rare weekend sitting of both houses, the UK parliament passed an emergency law to take control of British Steel’s furnaces at Scunthorpe, which is the last plant in the UK capable of producing virgin steel used in major construction projects. (YouTube) (BBC)
Gas distributor Jemena was fined $5.5 million after it lost a Federal Court case brought by the Australian Energy Regulator (AER). The judge found Jemena breached the National Gas Rules on thousands of occasions between 2019 and 2022 by failing to determine Auction Quality Limits in accordance with AEMO procedures. The end result meant it was understating its available capacity and auction participants paid more than they needed to. The Court also ordered the appointment of an independent expert to review Jemena subsidiaries’ controls, and for Jemena to pay $300,000 towards the AER’s legal costs.
Technology
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Having once promised to ‘democratise energy’, Aussie blockchain tech has become caught by the shadowy and unregulated world of crypto pump-and-dump schemes, according to Michael Mazengarb’s Tempests and Terawatts.
Japan’s numbers for its plan to rely on “clean” ammonia-fueled coal just don’t add up. (Climate & Capital Media)
Research
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In Texas, a state at the forefront of wind project viability and political polarisation over wind power development, Cornell-led research published in Energy Policy found Texans on average welcomed its local benefits. Texas lawmakers have been working to disincentivise new wind development in the state by forcing providers to pay extra for grid services and back up supply, eliminating state tax credits, and imposing new siting regulations for renewables. Positive attitudes toward renewable energy facilities increased when economic benefits - job creation, local tax revenue, lower tax rates, tourism revenues, increased property values, reduced electricity rates or landowner compensation - were realised, the researchers found.
“We find no evidence for NIMBY whatsoever - if anything, the opposite, that people seem to like their local wind turbines … It's not that rural Texans are eager to stop climate change, but local communities are genuinely getting economic benefits from these wind turbines, and people like that.” — Lead author Talbot Andrews
Vehicle-to-grid technology deployment could help balance the electricity grid, but its large-scale adoption is being hindered in Europe because it’s unclear to the players involved how to become “V2G-ready”, researchers found.
People
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Red Earth Energy Storage promoted Marc Sheldon to CEO from COO, replacing founder Charles Walker who will remain at the company as a Non-Executive Director
Random
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Ukraine: What's up with Europe's largest lithium deposits? (DW)