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Electricity

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Tomago is the country’s largest aluminium smelter and the single biggest user of energy.

The country’s biggest aluminium smelter says green target unreachable

Rio Tinto-backed Tomago, which uses more power than any other industrial operation in Australia, says renewable energy is too expensive and in short supply.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith

This Month

Glencore CEO Gary Nagle says there has been an evident shift in thinking around ESG outside of Australia.

NSW idle in pragmatic shift on coal: Glencore CEO

Gary Nagle says the state, where Glencore is struggling to extend the life of a coal mine, has fallen behind the rest of the world in failing to adopt a more “neutral” position on the fossil fuel.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith
Liberty Energy chief executive Chris Wright is a staunch defender of fossil fuel use.

Trump’s new energy secretary linked to Beetaloo Basin gas project

Chris Wright’s Liberty Energy is behind the fracking fleet used for extraction from developing fields in the Northern Territory.

  • Updated
  • Matthew Cranston
NextDC CEO Craig Scroggie (r) talks to AFR technology editor Paul Smith in Sydney.

Nuclear ban holds Australia back from data centre opportunity

Craig Scroggie says without a ‘logical conversation’ on nuclear, Australia may miss an opportunity to grab an outsized chunk of the booming data centre industry.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith
Joanne Spillane, Macquarie Group’s global head of private capital markets (centre), flanked by KKR APAC Infrastructure MD Andrew Jennings (l) and Clayton Utz corporate partner Samy Mansour (r).

Trump win could be good news for Australian energy transition

Investment bankers hope an expected pullback in Inflation Reduction Act support for green investments under the new Trump administration could help Australia.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith
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Costs of transmission projects could rise further, advisers warn.

Energy bill fears grow as transmission costs blow out

Billions of dollars of cost blowouts in transmission announced so far this year have fuelled worries about rising electricity bills for households and business.

  • Updated
  • Angela Macdonald-Smith

Innovations that go above and beyond to meet customer needs

Endeavour Energy, the winner of the Established Business to Consumer category, has found customer expectations keep changing, requiring an innovative response.

  • Christopher Niesche

Portal helps manage demand to douse power bill shock

Energy demand influencer Flow Power helps businesses capitalise on low-cost renewables, making it a leader in the Challenger Business to Business category.

  • Sylvia Ramsey
ETU bans have led to $25 billion worth of projects being delayed.

Push to end union threat to student housing, summer power prices

Snowy Hydro and Cedar Pacific have applied to suspend crippling work bans that are delaying projects across NSW as Premier Chris Minns faces pressure to intervene.

  • David Marin-Guzman and Campbell Kwan
Palisade Impact’s Jeremy Wernert (left) and Steve Gross (right).

Palisade Impact acquires Quinbrook’s Energy Locals

The acquisition comes after Street Talk revealed Quinbrook had hired Jefferies to shop the asset, alongside a few other energy-related businesses.

  • Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
Vast Solar wants to build a scaled-up version of its pilot concentrated solar project at Jemalong, NSW.

Solar thermal developer backed by energy royalty in financial peril

Vast Renewables, chaired by Peter Botten, is battling to remain a going concern, despite a funding deal last December that enabled its listing on the Nasdaq.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith

October

Jeremy Kwong-Law, CEO and CIO, Grok Ventures.

Singapore gives early green light to Mike Cannon-Brookes’ Sun Cable

The venture intends constructing a large solar plant in Australia’s north before shipping power to Singapore using an undersea cable.

  • Primrose Riordan and Angela Macdonald-Smith
After Bawley Point was ravaged by bushfires in 2019, residents were determined to become more energy resilient.

The microgrid delivering energy resilience to bushfire-prone community

Endeavour Energy has worked with government and residents to develop an $8 million battery scheme on the NSW south coast.

  • Gus McCubbing
Troy Malcomson reckons drones for aerial stringing are the way of the future for power line construction.

How drones help power Australia’s energy transition

The winner of The Australian Financial Review Energy Award for Innovation had a tragic genesis. But Powerlink hopes it will show others the benefits of embracing change.

  • Hannah Wootton

This app helps you avoid power bill shock

Aurora Energy customers can see their electricity use in real time and decide the best way to be more efficient and cut costs.

  • Christopher Niesche
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Solar panels saved from the scrap heap

By 2027 Australia will be generating a million waste panels a year. ElecSome can put them to good use.

  • Christopher Niesche
A storm-damaged Transgrid tower south of Broken Hill.

NSW to introduce 2034 target for long storage

NSW Energy Minister Penny Sharpe says the legislated goal will show investors the government has a long-term commitment to storage.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith and Phillip Coorey
Hostility from local communities to offshore wind farms is threatening the government’s renewable energy ambitions.

Offshore wind ambitions in disarray as key players walk

Moves by Origin Energy and Norway’s Equinor have exposed big doubts about offshore wind developing anywhere in NSW, given high costs that are only modestly lower than for large nuclear plants.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith
The Olympic Dam copper mine in South Australia.

BHP’s Olympic Dam mine idle for a week after transmission outage

Transmission towers feeding power to the copper mine have been damaged by storms. Eight years ago, a similar outage cost it $137 million in the statewide blackout in South Australia.

  • Simon Evans
Former premier Daniel Andrews and his successor Jacinta Allan.

Just one deal, $1m on consultants, board exodus: Vic SEC report card

Former premier Daniel Andrews set sky-high expectations for Labor’s plan to put taxpayer money into green energy investments that two years later have not been met.

  • Gus McCubbing and Patrick Durkin

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/electricity-hul