Yesterday
Victoria needs new gas after all, state Labor admits
In March, Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio said the state had enough electricity to cover winter shortfalls. On Thursday, she conceded that it needed new gas supplies.
- Gus McCubbing
Fears Eraring subsidies will need to be extended
Keeping the country’s biggest coal-fired power station open until 2027 has raised questions about whether it will be needed to keep the lights on into the 2030s.
- Updated
- Ben Potter and Elouise Fowler
- Opinion
- Renewables
With patient capital, Australia could make solar panels
This country can make good quality panels. The doubts lie with Australian governments’ and capital markets’ willingness to allocate the billions of dollars, year after year.
- Tristan Edis
This Month
Subsidy wars: Carbon capture cost adds up for fertiliser maker
Carbon capture and storage would add 50 per cent to the cost of producing ammonia in the Pilbara, making it uneconomic without further government support.
- Ben Potter
- Opinion
- Letters to the Editor
Our cheapest, most efficient nuclear fusion reactor is the sun
Readers’ letters on nuclear energy; the role of drugs and alcohol in family violence; fat-cat university vice chancellors; an alternative Bonza outcome; Singapore’s new leader; and Alexander Downer’s columns.
- Opinion
- Nuclear energy
Cut through the noise on nuclear power
It’s a mistake to flatly rule out nuclear power when the final cost of a fully renewable system is also far from clear.
- Michael Brear and Chris Greig
Woodside eyes data centres to justify hydrogen bet
Woodside is looking to data centres’ hunger for green power as a potential solution to the problem of finding customers willing to justify the oil and gas giant’s commercial-scale bet on green hydrogen.
- Ben Potter
Risk of summer blackouts in NSW, Victoria rises
Power users face an increased risk of summer shortages in NSW and Victoria due to delays in transmission lines and renewable projects, and large users may need to switch off plants to avoid blackouts.
- Ben Potter
- Opinion
- Energy transition
Keeping Eraring open is about engineering not morality
The imminent decision around when to close Australia’s biggest coal-fired power station is a watershed moment between an ideological approach to climate change and the laws of physics.
- Matthew Warren
Critics say Aussies can’t make cheap solar panels. This start-up says they’re wrong
The brains behind SunDrive say Australia has the material, the best resources, and even national security reasons, for keeping solar panel expertise here.
- Ben Potter
Hydrogen credit could blow its $6.7b budget
Sunshine Hydro chairman Michael Myer says international investment could mean the cost of the budget measure blows out, but is still worth the benefits.
- Ben Potter
The game changer on battery-making is still to come
The founder of Australia’s only lithium-ion battery-maker says a $523 million budget boost will help underwrite a boom in critical minerals.
- Ben Potter
This could be the biggest local energy shake-up since the late ’70s
The budget leg-up for the ‘Future Made in Australia’ through green metals is ultimately about shoring up Labor’s electoral base.
- Andrew Clark
Arena to receive $5.1b to back renewable energy
A big winner is the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, a body threatened with abolition a decade ago.
- Ben Potter
Blue-sky thinkers block the sun to fight climate change
It might sound like science fiction, but a mix of scientists and venture capitalists are working on plans to block the sun to slow global warming.
- Peter Ker and Lap Phan
The world’s wiliest climate warrior? It’s not who you think
International Energy Agency boss Fatih Birol, a lifelong bureaucrat with roots in the oil industry, has made the net zero transition a personal mission.
- Hans van Leeuwen
- Exclusive
- Nuclear energy
Australia doesn’t need nukes: International Energy Agency boss
Global energy tsar Fatih Birol says Australia should play to its strengths in renewables, and there should be less emotion and politics in energy discussions.
- Hans van Leeuwen
- Opinion
- The AFR View
Labor locks gas firmly into energy transition
The Future Gas Strategy reaffirms a strong role for gas, but despite the title it is light on ideas to get there.
- The AFR View
ANZ hardens policy against bankrolling oil and gas projects
The bank says it will “no longer provide direct financing to new or expansion upstream” projects, practically ruling out lending to the largest proposals.
- Ben Potter
- Opinion
- Energy
We will need new sources of gas
Australia is committed to reaching net zero emissions by 2050, and we will need gas to get there.
- Madeleine King
