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    Carbon challenge

    News and analysis on the obstacles and opportunities in the transition to a net-zero economy.

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    Alan Finkel says green hydrogen will be used as a chemical to produce decarbonised products for export,

    Green hydrogen too ‘expensive and inefficient’: Finkel

    Former chief scientist Alan Finkel – who devised Australia’s first clean hydrogen strategy – now says we are “unlikely to use hydrogen for storage of electricity”.

    • 41 mins ago
    • Angela Macdonald-Smith, Peter Ker and Jessica Sier
    Former Fortescue executives Bart Kolodziejczyk (left) and Michael Masterman.

    Forrest says Element Zero execs burned bridges ‘like Nazis’

    Fortescue chairman Andrew Forrest has distanced himself from surveillance tactics used against former employees, but fully supported the IP lawsuit against them.

    • Peter Ker
    Energy Minister Chris Bowen, left, and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

    Don’t restart energy wars, business and green groups warn

    A coalition of business and environment groups has urged governments to provide credible and consistent energy policy.

    • Tom McIlroy

    Fortescue’s pivot shakes faith in Labor’s Hydrogen Headstart strategy

    Power prices would need to drop steeply and electrolyser costs more than halve to produce hydrogen at anywhere near a competitive level, the industry has warned.

    • Angela Macdonald-Smith

    Nuclear awakening ‘a decade or two late’, says AER

    Clare Savage said it would take 25 years to put the political and regulatory frameworks in place for nuclear power – much longer than the Coalition says.

    • Angela Macdonald-Smith
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    This Month

    Dutton a threat to energy transition’s ‘critical decade’: Bowen

    Investment in renewables would grind to a halt on the election of a Coalition government, Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen says.

    • Phillip Coorey
    Japan’s J-Power will now take on responsibility for delivering Genex’s Kidston pumped hydro project in Queensland.

    Genex to depart ASX after investors back J-Power takeover

    Shareholder approval of the deal, worth more than $1 billion including debt, was in little doubt after 19.9 per cent investor Skip Capital revealed it would back it.

    • Angela Macdonald-Smith
    Squadron Energy CEO Rob Wheals, Stephanie Unwin, CEO, Horizon Power and AGL Energy CEO Damien Nicks, at the Clean Energy Summit in Sydney on Tuesday.

    AGL, Squadron CEOs warn of pitfalls in flagship clean energy policy

    The Capacity Investment Scheme could end up supporting poor projects that only won contracts because they bid at a cheap price and which will never be built, a clean energy summit heard.

    • Angela Macdonald-Smith
    AEMO chief executive Daniel Westerman at the Clean Energy Summit in Sydney. He said it would take too long to build nuclear plants.

    AEMO chief warns no chance of nuclear replacing ageing coal plants

    Daniel Westerman, who runs the energy market operator, said gas generation would remain the “ultimate backstop” as fossil fuels exit the electricity grid.

    • Angela Macdonald-Smith
    Skip Capital is owned by Scott Farquhar and wife Kim Jackson.

    Farquhar’s Skip Capital will back J-Power’s takeover of Genex

    The Atlassian billionaire’s fund owns 19.9 per cent of the ASX-listed renewable energy group. Its support removes a major roadblock for the Japanese utility.

    • Angela Macdonald-Smith
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    A gas-fired power plant in Leipzig, Germany, is planning to switch entirely to green hydrogen. Advocates for the fuel in Australia worry that loose rules for access to subsidies will leave local suppliers at a disadvantage to those in Europe.

    Labor’s green hydrogen rules for $6.7b subsidy splits producers

    Criteria being proposed for renewable hydrogen could mean emissions rise instead of fall as projects “cannibalise” the grid, green advocates warn.

    • Angela Macdonald-Smith
    Snowy Hydro’s gas power portfolio includes the Colongra plant in NSW.

    Snowy Hydro pushes gas power ambitions with major storage deal

    The 25-year contract will underpin the expansion of the Iona project, and underscores expectations the fuel will remain part of the energy mix past 2050.

    • Angela Macdonald-Smith
    Element Zero founders Bart Kolodziejczyk and Michael Masterman.

    Fortescue says Financial Review report led to spying on former staff

    The Andrew Forrest-chaired mining giant said its investigation into alleged intellectual property theft began only after an interview published in January.

    • Brad Thompson
    Part of the $2.3 billion EnergyConnect transmission line being built between South Australia and NSW.

    Downer EDI pitches in on flailing EnergyConnect construction

    The troubles at the cable project are being closely watched because its failure would imperil the entire build-out of the transmission grid, sources say.

    • Angela Macdonald-Smith and Jenny Wiggins
    Fortescue executive chairman and founder Andrew Forrest.

    Forrest says he was kept in the dark about spying on ex-employees

    Fortescue’s executive chairman Andrew Forrest is considering sacking the company’s external lawyers who presided over the surveillance of former employees.

    • Brad Thompson
    Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is now pushing for nuclear power plants, such as this one in Georgia, in the US, to solve Australia’s need for new energy generation.

    It’s an energy race between the implausible and the impossible

    Peter Dutton has come up with a nuclear-powered cost of living wedge to expose Labor’s overreach on renewables and sustainability.

    • Matthew Warren
    Glencore’s smelters dominate the skyline in Mount Isa.

    Queensland breaks ground on $5b transmission project

    The CopperString project will eventually link the mining region of Mount Isa with the port city of Townsville via an 840-kilometre high-transmission line.

    • Tess Bennett
    Brett Redman.

    Transmission ‘will get easier’ after EnergyConnect: Transgrid CEO

    Brett Redman’s comments come as speculation mounts Transgrid will need to bring other contractors in to complete the delayed $2.3 billion transmission project.

    • Updated
    • Angela Macdonald-Smith

    How to get to net zero with recycled building rubbish

    Nu-Rock founder Maroun Rahme says reusing waste products could deliver Australia its net-zero target by 2030 as the company takes out the Property and Construction category.

    • Larry Schlesinger

    New tools democratise greenhouse gas management

    A digital marketplace for companies with smaller carbon footprints to buy offsets has taken out the Technology category.

    • Alexandra Cain
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    How Amcor gave us guilt-free cream cheese

    Soft plastics are piling up in warehouses around Australia. Amcor says it has a solution, taking out the Manufacturing category.

    • Sylvia Ramsey
    Biomass Projects founder Richard Paterson hopes to transform Western Australia’s largest weed infestation into carbon-capturing biochar.

    This trailblazer turns destructive weed into a replacement for coal

    Biomass Projects has plans to build the world’s largest biochar production on a 225,000-hectare Pilbara plot that is overrun with mesquite.

    • Gus McCubbing

    Transport needs to avoid becoming the nation’s biggest emitter

    Without dramatic changes, this may be the last industry to decarbonise. Aurizon, the winner of the Logistics and Transport category, aims to change that with its electric locomotive.

    • Agnes King
    There are plenty of jobs in renewables.

    ‘Everyone wins’: Financing renewables at scale

    Brighte looks to boost the renewables transition through its ‘one-stop shop’ model, winning the Banking and Financial Services category.

    • Prashant Mehra
    AgriProve founder Matthew Warnken: “We’re not going to incrementalise our way out of these challenges, which means that now is the opportunity to innovate.”

    A farming revolution built on down-to-earth thinking

    Increasing carbon levels in grazing lands could remove 10 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions from the atmosphere says the winner of the Agriculture category.

    • Tom McIlroy