Category Archives: Australian Response

PLEA Network

5 September 2016, Renew Economy, One small gain for battery storage, one big win for fossil fuel industry. Australia’s principal policy maker for the energy markets has waved through a rule change that could accelerate the use of battery storage to provide grid stability as more renewables enter the market. But the rule maker has shocked participants with another decision that may reinforce the dominance of the big fossil fuel utilities. The Australian Energy Market Commission late last week made two rulings that it was first asked to consider way back in 2012 (such is the glacial pace of change in Australian regulatory circles) but which seen as critical as more wind and solar enter the market and old fossil fuel generators are phased out. One of the rulings was good news and largely expected: The AEMC said it would allow “unbundling” of ancillary services for the grid – which provide fast-acting balancing responses following a “contingency” event, usually the unexpected loss of a large thermal generator. This means that these services, known as FCAS, can now be more easily provided by more players, and not just the big generators, which currently control the supply (and thus the price) of FCAS services. Allowing new players like batteries and demand response loads should increase the supply of FCAS, and lower market prices. That ruling was largely uncontroversial and expected, with any opposition by incumbents lukewarm at best. The second ruling, however, has stunned some participants in the industry, because it effectively limits the amount of battery storage and new ideas – such as aggregating power plants in homes – by leaving it in the control of the major players. The proposal was to create a “demand response” mechanisms in the spot market to respond to times of high load, and high electricity prices, as were experienced in South Australia and other states in recent months, and which used to be frequent years ago, and may well become regular again as gas prices rise. Read more here

PLEA Network

5 September 2016: THE CLIMATE CHANGE AUTHORITY’S SPECIAL REVIEW ON AUSTRALIA’S CLIMATE GOALS AND POLICIES: TOWARDS A CLIMATE POLICY TOOLKIT MINORITY REPORT Professor Clive Hamilton AM Professor David Karoly 1. Introduction 1. As Members of the Climate Change Authority who have participated fully in the processes of the Special Review, we have reached the conclusion that the majority report does not respond adequately to the Review’s terms of reference and has not followed the principles set out on the Climate Change Authority Act (Section 12). We also disagree with several, but not all, of the major recommendations and conclusions of the majority report. We find the analysis used to defend some of the report’s recommendations inadequate. Overall, we view the majority report as a recipe for further delay in responding to the urgent need to reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions. 2. We regret that a consensus report has not been possible but feel that in good conscience we cannot lend our names to the majority report. After consideration, we have therefore decided to write a minority report. Access full minority report here Access Climate change Authority’s Special Review here

PLEA Network

29 August 2016, The Guardian, Greg Hunt’s approval of Adani’s Queensland mine upheld by federal court. Former environment minister entitled to find any assessment of resulting carbon pollution on the Great Barrier Reef was ‘speculative’, court says. The federal court has upheld the commonwealth approval of Adani’s Queensland mine, ruling that former environment minister Greg Hunt was entitled to find any assessment of resulting carbon pollution on the Great Barrier Reef was “speculative”. The court on Monday dismissed a challenge by the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF), which claimed Hunt failed to consider the impacts of the mine’s 4.6bn tonnes of emissions on the world heritage values of the reef. The ruling prompted the ACF to call for tougher national environment laws to tackle carbon pollution from coalmines, while flagging hopes that Hunt’s successor, Josh Frydenberg, would take a “fresh look” at the Carmichael mine. The Queensland resources council accused the ACF of running a “nonsense case” that was akin to holding the Saudi Arabian government responsible for emissions from Australian cars running on their oil. Read more here

PLEA Network

17 August 2016, Renew Economy, First act of Coalition’s “innovation” government: strip funds from ARENA. Malcolm Turnbull’s Coalition government has taken a new line of attack against the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, and sought to wedge Labor on the issue by adopting the Opposition’s own pre-election policy platform on the future of the agency. As part of its $6.5 billion “omnibus” budget repair package to be put to parliament in its first act of the new government, the Coalition proposes to change tack: instead of stripping all of the remaining $1.3 billion legislated funds in ARENA’s budget, it now proposes to remove $1.023 billion in funds – as proposed by Labor before the election. Labor’s threat to strip ARENA of $1 billion in funds was made in an apparent fit of pique earlier this year over the failure of NGOs to criticise the Turnbull government when it announced the creation of the Clean Energy Innovation Fund, using monies already allocated to the Clean Energy Finance Corp. Labor argued that instead of applauding a move by the Turnbull government to “re-brand” previously allocated monies, it should have been critical of the move to de-fund ARENA. So it decided to abandon its own support of the key agency. While Labor later said it was prepared to review that decision, party sources admitted to the Australian Financial Review on Wednesday that it remained a “grey area for us” because of their pre-election policy. On ABC Radio, treasury spokesman Chris Bowen refused to commit Labor to protecting ARENA. Stripping ARENA of $1 billion of funding would be a huge blow for the emerging technologies in Australia, which usually need grants to test out new business models and applications, as witnessed by ARENA’s support for two key battery storage projects in South Australia, and its support for large scale solar. Read More here