Day 123: 'Full on revolt'
An introductory weekday newsletter from Schwartz Media. Counting the days since Australia had an energy policy.
Good morning and welcome to day 123.
Today in summary: The COAG Energy Council descends into climate wars, as a state push for emissions commitments is squashed by federal government; the CER finds that 25% of solar panels could be shoddily installed and dangerous; and big insurers aren’t keen on the Adani coalmine.
— Sophie
Today’s policy spin level: 💨💨💨💨💨
Please don’t keep Australian Energy Daily to yourself. Forward this email to your colleagues and encourage them to sign up for free here.
The December meeting of the COAG Energy Council grabbed headlines as NSW attempted to push a motion creating a zero-emissions pathway, only to be blocked by federal energy minister Angus Taylor. The SMH reports an insider saying Taylor was “sweating blood” as he faced a “full on revolt” at the meeting.
In an interview on RN Breakfast this morning, Taylor reiterated his view that the government doesn’t need to intervene in the electricity market to cut emissions, as they’re already dropping in the sector, and said he was “very confident we’ll reach the target across the broader economy” despite Australia’s emissions rising in the last year.
COAG did agree to adopt a reference bill by July 2019, allowing customers to compare their offer against a single standard. It isn’t the default offer that the federal government wants and is still proposing. On RN, Taylor said he didn’t accept a default offer would increase prices for some customers, and criticism from Queensland’s energy minister Anthony Lynham was because “he’s speaking as the owner of most of the energy assets in Queensland.”
“Of course he wants profits. That’s how they’re making ends meet in Queensland, a huge amount of their budget problems are being filled by profit-taking from their energy company. You would expect them to say this. We on the other hand sit on the side of the energy consumers.”
Another thing COAG did agree on was the development of a national hydrogen strategy for Australia, led by chief scientist Alan Finkel. You can read Australian Energy Daily’s exclusive on the project here.
A new review by the Clean Energy Regulator has found that as many as one in four solar panel units could pose a severe or high risk due to poor installation, the Australian reports. Taylor wrote to state and territory ministers last week asking them to review their frameworks to manage risk.
The report is available here. Earlier this month the CER warned consumers to “do their research” before installing solar panels, as the number of systems installed through the Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme topped two million.
The AFR reports ten of the world’s top insurance companies won’t touch Adani’s planned Carmichael coal mine, citing activist group Market Forces. AXA, which currently insures the Carmichael rail line, reportedly said that it won’t renew the policy when it lapses in 2020 and won’t insure the mine which is a “banned investment both for our equity and fixed income holdings”.
Enjoy Australian Energy Daily? Have you got feedback for us? Please consider taking a few minutes to fill in our new short survey on what you value from news services.
Three more things
Australia is likely to see more hot days and fewer cool extremes according to the Bureau of Meteorology’s latest State of the Climate report. It says globally, emissions from fossil fuels continue to increase and are the main contributor to the observed growth in atmospheric CO2. The report’s authors from both CSIRO and the Bureau say Australia will need to plan for and adapt to some level of climate change, and the science underpinning the report will help inform economic, environmental and social decision-making by government.
Researchers from ANU and the California Institute of Technology say they have developed a way to combine silicon with another material (known as perovskite) to more efficiently convert sunlight into electricity. The 'tandem solar cell' - essentially one solar cell on top of another, is an unconventional solution to making solar cells cheaper and easier to produce.
Some big names are getting behind a new US energy storage technology that the proponents say has the potential to last longer than lithium-ion batteries. Alphabet’s X Moonshot lab is spinning off a pilot project with US$26 million in funding from the Jeff Bezos and Michael Bloomberg-backed Breakthrough Energy Ventures, reports Bloomberg. The new company is called Malta Inc and its technology uses large vats of molten salt and cooler liquid to store energy produced via wind and solar.