Will a grid based around wind and solar kill manufacturing and industry? It’s what the naysayers – the Coalition and conservative agitators – want you to believe, but the experience in South Australia, which leads the world in the uptake of wind and solar, proves the opposite. (more…)
Giles Parkinson
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AEMO slams Murdoch media campaign that claims renewables are not low cost
The Australian Energy Market Operator has made a rare foray into the mainstream media debate around the green energy transition, saying claims that its cost assessment of renewables does not include transmission and storage are “wrong.” (more…)
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Bowen: “It’s too late to avoid the climate emergency”
Australia’s climate and energy minister Chris Bowen says the extreme weather events of recent years, and the heatwaves sweeping the globe in this northern summer, show that the world has already failed to prevent a climate emergency. (more…)
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Morrison’s media code could be catastrophic for climate and energy news
Morrison’s government could hardly have wished for a better outcome. The core of their supplicant media is to receive millions to continue their cheering from the sidelines, while independent voices such as RenewEconomy risk being squeezed by these secret deals. Yet big media companies and the competition regulator claim this to be some sort of victory for media diversity and the democratic process.
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Coal! Coal! Coal! for Australia, as bushfires and denial greet Olympic year (Reneweconomy 13.1.2020)
So much for the great Australian summer holidays. The apocalyptic vision and impacts of the brutal bushfires that have devastated large swathes of the country, and covered much of the rest in choking smoke, is accompanied by an unwanted record. (more…)
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South Australia’s stunning renewable energy transition, and what comes next (Renew Economy 5-11-19)
The eyes of the energy world are upon it, but the renewable energy transition in South Australia is probably one of the misunderstood, misreported and under-appreciated achievements of our time. (more…)
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Coalition signs off with a budget tailored for climate denial (RenewEconomy, 2.4.19)
The federal Coalition government has delivered its last budget before the May poll, and pretty much finished the way it started in government nearly six years ago: Long term climate and clean energy policies and technologies are ignored, and the focus is on trinkets and handouts. (more…)
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Morrison puts lipstick on Tony Abbott’s pig of a climate policy (Renew Economy).
Prime minister Scott Morrison has finally unveiled his climate policy and it is clearly designed to do two things: Placate the core rump of climate deniers and ideologues within his own party and the conservative media, and try to fool enough others that the Coalition is doing something to address a problem it barely admits exists, or worth doing anything about. (more…)
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Coalition energy and climate policies hit rock bottom at year’s end
The federal Coalition government has achieved what most would have assumed impossible at the start of 2018: its position on climate and energy policies has worsened and shifted even further to the right. (more…)
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Lazard hails “inflection point” as wind, solar costs beat new and old fossils (Renew Economy)
Lazard hails “inflection point” as wind, solar costs beat new and old fossils.
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Coalition’s breathtakingly stupid response to IPCC climate report (RenewEconomy, 09.10.18)
It wasn’t too hard to predict what the Coalition government’s responses to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report would be – you just needed to know where they would be making them. (more…)
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Business gives up on Coalition, turns to Labor and states on energy, climate
Here’s the most damning assessment of the Coalition’s energy and climate policy, such as it remains after the crucifixion of Malcolm Turnbull and the elevation of conservatives Scott Morrison as prime minister and Angus Taylor as energy minister: (more…)
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Taylor confirms no interest in emissions, but says he’s no climate skeptic (RenewEconomy, 30.08.18)
New energy minister Angus Taylor has confirmed what was largely expected: that he has no interest in emission reductions under the remit handed him by prime minister Scott Morrison, and that his primary focus will be on reducing prices for consumers. (more…)
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Morrison names leading anti-wind campaigner as energy minister
New prime minister Scott Morrison has ended the experiment of combining the energy and environment portfolios, and appointed one of the country’s most prominent anti-wind campaigners as energy minister, and a former mining industry lawyer as environment minister. (more…)
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GILES PARKINSON & SOPHIE VORRATH “Scoal-Mo” as PM. What does that mean for climate and energy policy? (RenewEconomy, 24.08.18)
It says something about the state of Australia’s politics that the new prime minister, the man who brandished a lump of coal in parliament, is considered a moderate, at least in comparison to the forces he beat to the job. (more…)
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Turnbull survives as puppet of right wing, as Australia burns (RenewEconomy, 21.08.18)
At least in 2009, Turnbull left his job as then Opposition leader with his dignity intact.But not now. (more…)
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NEG in the air as Nationals go for coal, and Barnaby goes nuts
The timetable for a final decision on the controversial National Energy Guarantee has been thrown into the air amid a renewed push for coal generation by the National Party following the Coalition’s “super-Saturday” by-election defeats last weekend. (more…)
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Bad news for coal-huggers: Renewables at 50% by 2030
“King coal to rule for 20 more years” screamed the front page lead headline in The Australian, following the release of the Australian Energy Market Operator’s 20-year blueprint for the future of energy, known as its Integrated System Plan. (more…)
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Turnbull’s election budget dumps on climate and renewables
What is widely regarded as the last budget to be delivered by the Turnbull government before the next federal election ceded no ground on climate policy, insisting that it’s much criticised emissions reduction targets would remain unchanged. (more…)
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South Australia’s renewable energy future hangs by a thread
It’s an election that is impossible to call. And too important to ignore. (more…)
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Weatherill: Why state election will be a referendum on renewables
South Australia Premier Jay Weatherill might not be able to see much daylight between his Labor Party and the rival Liberals and SA Best, but he’s certainly making sure there is a big difference between his energy policy and those of the Opposition and the upstart party of Nick Xenophon. (more…)
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SA Labor shoots for 75% renewables, 25% storage target
South Australia’s Labor government has doubled down on its commitment to renewable energy, promising to increase the share of renewables to 75 per cent by 2025 if re-elected at next month’s state poll, and announcing plans to install 750MW of “renewable storage” to go with it. (more…)
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Battery storage leaves fossil fuels and regulators in state of intertia
The brain cells are working overtime at the headquarters of network owners, grid operators, generators, and regulators. Australia’s electricity grid is about to make the leap from analogue to digital, and everyone is scrambling to keep up. (more…)
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Shorten hails cheap wind and solar, but will he stop Adani
You would have missed it, if you were relying on mainstream media, but Labor leader Bill Shorten did actually mention clean energy and climate policies in his scene-setting speech for 2018, which may well turn out to be an election year. (more…)
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GILES PARKINSON. Turnbull blows trumpet for right wing idiocy on energy
Prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has chosen to close the year in much the same way as he started it on climate and energy policy: awaiting yet another review, and parroting the ever more absurd claims of the fossil fuel lobby and the right wing of his Coalition government on energy. (more…)
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GILES PARKINSON. LNP, One Nation would force Queensland energy prices up; Greens, ALP down
A new analysis of the energy policies presented by the major and smaller parties contesting the Queensland state election shows that the Greens would deliver the biggest electricity savings, Labor would also push prices down, while One Nation and the LNP policies would force prices to rise.
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GILES PARKINSON. South Australia’s stunning transition to consumer-powered grid
South Australia is already being hailed – or in some quarters demonised – for its leadership on renewable energy technology. A new report from the Australian Energy Market Operator highlights how far out in front it is in the transition to a consumer-powered grid.The earlier comments by Turnbull and Frydenberg are now looking even more petty and ill informed. (more…)
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GILES PARKINSON. Garnaut says NEG may do little for prices, certainty or competition.
Leading economist Ross Garnaut has delivered a critical appraisal of the federal government’s proposed National Energy Guarantee, warning that it will unlikely deliver lower prices or investment certainty, and could simply lock in the power of the big incumbent generators. (more…)
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GILES PARKINSON. AGL bought Liddell for nothing – what will it cost Turnbull?
One of the late billionaire Kerry Packer’s famous quotes about business was that you only get one Alan Bond in your lifetime, a reference to his ability to sell the Nine Network to the late entrepreneur for a small fortune and then buy it back at a fraction of the price. (more…)
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GILES PARKINSON. Turnbull’s abject capitulation to the coal lobby is now complete
The kindest thing to say about prime minister Malcolm Turnbull’s absurd proposal to extend the life of the country’s oldest coal generator is that he is playing politics. (more…)