POWER INDUSTRY – AUSTRALIA

Energy prices fall as solar gets hot

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Original article by Colin Packham
The Australian – Page: 17 : 23-Oct-23

Data from the Australian Energy Market Operator shows that the amount of electricity generated by solar power reached a record 2,287 megawatts in the September quarter. AEMO has also reported that wholesale spot electricity prices across the National Electricity Market averaged $63/MWh during the quarter, which is 71 per cent lower than the previous corresponding period. Meanwhile, coal-fired power generation fell to a record low in the September quarter, after AGL shut down the Liddell power station in late April.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN ENERGY MARKET OPERATOR LIMITED

El Nino a threat to power grid

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Original article by Rhiannon Down
The Australian – Page: 2 : 26-Sep-23

The Bureau of Meteorology’s CEO Andrew Johnson has warned that the El Nino weather pattern will present some challenges for Australia’s electricity grid during the coming summer. He says renewable energy generation will be impacted by El Nino, with expectations of more sunshine in some parts of the country and lower-than-average wind levels in others. Johnson adds that the proportion of renewables in the energy mix has increased since Australia’s last very hot summer. Tony Wood from the Grattan Institute notes that coal-fired power stations can also be heavily impacted by hot weather.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. BUREAU OF METEOROLOGY, GRATTAN INSTITUTE

Investment in new Australian wind and solar farms stalls amid ‘raft of barriers’, report finds

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Original article by Peter Hannam
The Guardian Australia – Page: Online : 23-Aug-23

Data from the Clean Energy Council shows that only four proposed renewable energy projects reached financial closure during the June quarter. The four wind and solar projects will have a combined generation capacity of 348 megawatts, while their combined investment value is just $225m; this compares with a rolling 12-month average of $1.3bn. CEC CEO Kane Thornton says the lack of political leadership, planning and foresight over the last decade has resulted in significant barriers to investment in clean energy projects in Australia. He adds that these barriers make Australia less attractive at a time when there are significant clean energy investment opportunities worldwide.

CORPORATES
CLEAN ENERGY COUNCIL LIMITED

Australia set for cheaper solar power as supply of panels soars, says report

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Original article by Peter Hannam
The Guardian Australia – Page: Online : 14-Jun-23

Think tank Climate Energy Finance notes that a record 268 gigawatts of solar panels was installed globally in 2022. A new report from CEF forecasts that this could reach 1,000GW per annum by 2030, given the pace of solar power uptake. The report also concludes that the cost of installing solar panels is likely to fall significantly, given the rise in production and a downturn in the cost of raw materials such as polysilicon. Renate Egan from the University of New South Wales says Australia could have a competitive advantages in parts of the solar panel supply chain.

CORPORATES
CLIMATE ENERGY FINANCE, UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES

Grid precarious as winter looms: EnergyAustralia

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Original article by Colin Packham
The Australian – Page: 15 & 18 : 6-Jun-23

EnergyAustralia MD Mark Collette has told a climate business summit in Sydney that there is currently less dispatchable capacity in Australia’s power system than in 2022, following the closure of the Liddell coal-fired power plant at the end of April. He says there should be better preparation for when coal-fired power stations are closed, in that there should be enough replacement capacity. Collette is the latest executive to express concern about the ability of the nation’s electricity network to manage the increased demand during winter and summer amid the transition to renewable energy sources.

CORPORATES
ENERGYAUSTRALIA PTY LTD

Solar already Australia’s largest source of electricity as rooftop capacity hits 20GW, consultancy says

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Original article by Peter Hannam
The Guardian Australia – Page: Online : 1-Mar-23

Solar energy consulting firm SunWiz says Australia now boasts the world’s highest penetration of rooftop solar panels, which are now installed on nearly one in every three homes nationwide. Queensland has the highest penetration of solar panels, at 82 per cent, followed by South Australia (78 per cent) and New South Wales (51 per cent). SunWiz’s data shows that rooftop solar capacity now totals 20 gigawatts nationwide. SunWiz estimates that it took about 11 years for the first 10GW of capacity to be installed, while the second 10GW took just four years. Green Energy Markets recently estimated that the next 10GW will take just over three years to be installed.

CORPORATES
SUNWIZ PTY LTD, GREEN ENERGY MARKETS PTY LTD

Renewables break records but lag target

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Original article by Angela Macdonald-Smith
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 12 & 14 : 4-Jan-23

New data shows that renewable energy’s share of the National Electricity Market reached a record high of 40.4 per cent in the December quarter. In contrast, coal-fired power generation fell to a record low of 55.5 per cent during the period. However, the rate of growth for renewables slowed from 21.6 per cent in 2021 to just 16.6 per cent in 2022. Dylan McConnell from the University of NSW says this rate of growth will need to almost double in order to achieve the federal government’s renewable energy target of 82 per cent by 2030.

CORPORATES
UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES

Tech titan wins AGL board fight

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Original article by Perry Williams
The Australian – Page: 13 & 14 : 16-Nov-22

AGL Energy’s shareholders have endorsed the appointment of all four of Grok Ventures’ nominations for the company’s board. Software entrepreneur Mike Cannon-Brookes became AGL’s largest shareholder earlier in 2022 via his private company. AGL will now have a nine-person board of directors, prompting fund management veteran and AGL shareholder Geoff Wilson to suggest that changes to the board are likely. However, AGL chair Patricia McKenzie has ruled out stepping down. Meanwhile, more than 25 per cent of shareholders voted against AGL’s remuneration report, putting the company at risk of a board spill if there is a similar backlash at its 2023 AGM.

CORPORATES
AGL ENERGY LIMITED – ASX AGL, GROK VENTURES

Origin suitor EIG expects intervention

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Original article by Perry Williams
The Australian – Page: 13 & 16 : 14-Nov-22

US private equity firm EIG has teamed up with Canadian firm Brookfield to make a $18.4 billion bid for Origin Energy, with EIG expected to acquire Origin’s integrated gas business if the bid succeeds. EIG CEO R Blair Thomas says it has had to deal with windfall taxes and price caps at its German and UK operations, and expects that the federal government will intervene in Australia’s domestic gas market. Thomas says the gas industry needs to keep the public onside as it progresses through the energy transition, with many households angry about soaring gas prices.

CORPORATES
ORIGIN ENERGY LIMITED – ASX ORG, EIG GLOBAL ENERGY PARTNERS, BROOKFIELD ASSET MANAGEMENT INCORPORATED

Nuclear energy must be part of the conversation

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Original article by Cameron England
The Australian – Page: 17 : 28-Oct-22

BHP’s chief technical officer Laura Tyler has told a business forum that Australia needs to consider adding nuclear power to the nation’s energy mix. She has highlighted the potential for nuclear energy to provide baseload power, but acknowledged that Australia is still "having the conversation" about nuclear at a political level. Meanwhile, Zen Energy chairman Raymond Spencer cautioned against government over-intervention in energy markets, in the wake of the Victorian government’s plans to directly invest in renewable energy.

CORPORATES
BHP GROUP LIMITED – ASX BHP, ZEN ENERGY PTY LTD