May
Can Labor turn a big win into a green energy reality?
Clean energy advocates hope Labor can use the policy seeds planted in its first term to deliver its energy transition agenda. The reality will be much harder.
‘Green Macquarie’ Pollination fails to raise $150m venture fund
Despite securing cornerstone investment from Queensland’s Sovereign Wealth Fund, Pollination has had to scrap ambitions to invest in climate start-ups.
Renewables lobby leaderless after long-serving boss quits
Australia’s top industry advocate has stepped down less than a week after an election he called a “referendum on renewable energy”.
Chalmers didn’t know a key budget number. This is why it matters
Treasurer Jim Chalmers failed to recognise a $47 billion deficit figure in an oversight that economist Saul Eslake says exposes the government for glossing over so-called “off budget” spending.
March
Labor’s spending ‘diet’ not believable, economists warn
Labor’s budget forecasts for spending to decline slightly from a 40-year high are built on shaky savings assumptions economists say, and are unlikely to be achieved.
CEFC, $11b Goldman Sachs fund will invest in low-carbon developments
The federal government’s green bank says it’s leading other investors into more sustainable project investment.
Green bank backs electrification, but offshore wind too risky
Clean Energy Finance Corporation chief executive Ian Learmonth says the $33 billion fund has shifted towards supporting household electrification and major poles and wire projects vital to Australia’s green energy transition.
Has the green bank outlived its purpose? It’s a $32.5 billion question
If the taxpayer-funded Clean Energy Finance Corporation is to continue, its role should be to provide a subsidy in areas when there is a lack of private capital or a genuine market failure.
January
As CEFC billions roll in, the green bank faces a political test
Extra funds of $2 billion for the Clean Energy Finance Corporation invite questions over its future, as the opposition’s Ted O’Brien says “the whole thing is absurd”.
How Trump’s war on green energy affects Australia
Donald Trump’s plans for an energy revolution will blow strong political winds across Australia’s energy market.
Labor pumps $2b into green bank despite Trump’s fossil fuel push
The first extra funding for the country’s green bank since it was set up in 2012 contrasts with the pullback on clean energy under Trump 2.0.
Residential development gets an $800 million new year kick
The latest chunk of money ploughed into the country’s chronic housing shortage shows Australian build-to-rent is now a mainstream sector for overseas capital.
Opposition savings from housing, green energy funds in doubt
Senator Jane Hume says the Coalition will interrogate Labor’s billions of dollars tied up in funds for housing, clean energy and manufacturing, but admits they may be difficult to unwind.
December 2024
Milestone reached to unlock Snowy 2.0 power
The government’s green bank has committed its single biggest investment to the HumeLink transmission project, which is considered critical to the cleaner energy transition.
MinRes chairman’s private equity firm scores big cash gift
James McClements’ Resource Capital Funds was given a $116 million handout from Australia’s “green bank”.
Older, ‘cheaper’ houses hide costs that bite owners
More than 80 per cent of Australia’s houses have half the energy efficiency of the latest standards – and that’s going to make them less valuable.
CEFC hands $116m for private equity-backed mining decarbonisation
Resource Capital Funds will use the money to invest in new Australian projects that focus on minerals used in the energy transition such as lithium and copper.
Macquarie inks $300m deal to finance EVs for ride-share drivers
Splend, a start-up that leases electric vehicles to Uber drivers, plans to increase its fleet of ride-share vehicles to 10,000 after signing a new debt deal.
CEFC acquires minority stake in Palisade Impact’s Energy Locals
In its debut growth equity investment, CEFC has paid $25 million to acquire a minority equity stake in electricity retailer Energy Locals.
November 2024
‘I would not have agreed to Future Fund shift’
With $230 billion to come into play, expect a long line of rent-seekers to form a queue, says former treasurer and Future Fund founder Peter Costello.