Skip to navigationSkip to contentSkip to footerHelp using this website - Accessibility statement
Advertisement

Energy transition

Today

SunDrive’s manufacturing facility in Kurnell. Chief executive Vince Allen (right) said the company would explore setting up a plant at AGL’s Hunter Energy Hub.

The PM has made a silly billion-dollar bet on solar panels

The price of solar panels has plunged and overseas makers are going broke, making it even more puzzling why the government is making a $1 billion taxpayer bet.

  • John Kehoe

Yesterday

“Government is going to need to play a role,” said Greg Combet.

Bet ‘significant’ public money on renewables stakes: Combet

The incoming chair of the nation’s sprawling $212 billion Future Fund says it’s time to return to public investment in green energy.

  • Jacob Greber
EIG now owns a minority stake in Chevron’s Gorgon project in Western Australia.

Origin Energy suitor EIG nabs stakes in three major LNG projects

The private equity group, partly owned by Saudi Aramco, has made three investments in ventures run by Woodside, Chevron and Shell and will open a local office.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith
Energy infrastructure that cost trillions and took a century to build cannot be phased out overnight.

The energy transition is going to take time, money, and trust

Getting the great energy shift wrong will bring price spikes, blackouts and job losses, making it very difficult to maintain community and political will.

  • Richard Goyder

This Month

Neoen projects include a solar farm at Griffith.

Neoen taps Bank of America to sell $1.6b stake in renewables business

The French group has appointed the bank to sell as much as 30 per cent of its Australian wind and solar portfolio as it attempts to accelerate expansion.

  • Updated
  • Angela Macdonald-Smith and Aaron Weinman
Advertisement

March

From left: SunDrive’s Vince Allen, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, AGL shareholder Mike Cannon-Brookes, Tesla chairwoman Robyn Denholm, former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull.

AGL, Cannon-Brookes vying for $1b in solar manufacturing grants

SunDrive, backed by the Atlassian billionaire, is among groups including 5B and Tindo who want to use the taxpayer funds to expand local panel production.

  • Updated
  • Angela Macdonald-Smith and Ben Potter

Why EVs are such a big geopolitical deal

Policy changes in the US will have ramifications that will be felt far beyond the autoworkers of Detroit, Michigan.

  • Matthew Cranston
The El Ganso sneaker, made from Acciona’s decommissioned wind turbine blades.

Turning turbines into sneakers: a recycling idea takes flight

Renewable energy giant Acciona was unsure how to dispose of its fibreglass and carbon-fibre wind turbine blades. Its solution came out of the box.

  • Hans van Leeuwen
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink.

The shocking data that stopped Larry Fink cold

“I’ve seen a lot of numbers. But no single data point has ever concerned me more than this one,” the CEO of BlackRock says.

  • James Thomson
Santos’ 2017 Dassault Falcon is for use “by the board and executive team”.

Jet costs cloud proxy adviser support for Santos

CGI Glass Lewis raised “concerns” over the use of a corporate jet for top management, but it and ISS backed both the remuneration report and chairman Keith Spence’s re-election.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith
Exxon’s large West Barracouta domestic gas project came online in 2021.

Australia dropped the ball on energy security: Exxon

Forecast gas shortfalls in the southern states cannot be blamed on Queensland’s LNG exports, one of the east coast’s biggest gas suppliers says.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith
Senex CEO Ian Davies says it will soon be too late to address Australia’s gas supply problem.

Gas CEOs dial up warnings as ‘crunch time’ looms

Senex CEO Ian Davies and APA Group’s Adam Watson will warn of a “desperate” need for new gas supply to help cut emissions, and prevent higher costs for customers.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith
MMA Prestige, one of ASX-listed MMA Offshore’s biggest earners, is now working on offshore windfarms.

Surprise energy transition story in Monday’s $1b buyout

The last time vessel owner MMA Offshore hit the headlines, it was an offshore oil and gas services group going broke. Now it has a $1 billion bid, and investors can thank the energy transition.

  • Anthony Macdonald
Mike Cannon-Brookes.

How Sun Cable could be a loser, yet a winner

Mike Cannon-Brookes’ company is set to lose the race to lay a 4000-kilometre cable to send solar energy out of the desert and under the oceans.

  • Updated
  • Hans van Leeuwen
The new US rules push the car industry towards majority EV sales by early next decade.

Biden gives Bowen green light to soften vehicle pollution reforms

Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen indicated that Labor may soften planned vehicle emissions rules, which are based on US figures, to help car makers.

  • Updated
  • Jacob Greber and Matthew Cranston
Advertisement
The new US rules push the car industry toward majority EV sales by early next decade.

Biden eases new vehicle emissions standards, Australia could follow

The new rules give US automakers more time to comply with emission standards and to push sales of hybrid vehicles as demand for EVs slows.

  • Updated
  • Matthew Cranston
Iron ore has retreated by more than a quarter since the start of the year.

‘Copper’s time is now’ as traders switch from iron ore

Goldman Sachs and Citi believe copper prices can rally another 30 per cent, while Westpac sees iron ore dropping below $US90 a tonne.

  • Alex Gluyas
Business leaders are worried about productivity
2:09

Business leaders are worried about productivity

Leaders at The Australian Financial Review Business Summit on the factors in the Australian economy that keep them up at night.

  • Updated
Wind and solar farm investment commitments look set to pick up after a poor 2023.

Renewables spending bounces back in race to 2030

Clean energy project developers point to billions of dollars worth of projects heading to financial close in the next few years, marking a recovery from 2023.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith
First Light Fusion is one of HostPlus’s many small investments into relatively unproven start-up companies.

Why Hostplus is doing the UK differently

Super funds are pumping money into big, solid infrastructure plays in the UK, but Hostplus has picked out an Oxford nuclear fusion start-up.

  • Hans van Leeuwen