AUS
NZ
UK
CA
USA
IND
Highlights
- Australia met nearly 32.5% of its energy demands from renewables in 2021
- The Australian government has framed the Power Australia Plan to support the growth of renewables in the country
- The Genex K2-Hydro project is to become operational by 2025.
Australia is committed to undergoing a transition from fossil fuels to renewables. The creation of clean energy has been a priority for past few years. The country has an abundance of sunshine, wind, and other natural sources, making it an attractive market for renewable energy investment. Australia has come a long way in the field of renewable energy. There were once severe doubts about the survival of renewable energy in the county when the Abbott government took a threatening stance towards renewable energy in 2015.
But in 2021, nearly 32.5% of Australia’s energy was generated from renewable sources, and the industry is also growing very fast. Almost 3GW of new large-scale capacity was added to the grid in 2021, including some of the largest renewable projects in Australia. The growth of the renewable sector can be estimated by the fact that the share of total generation from coal fell from 62% in 2020 to 59.1% in 2021. By the end of 2021, a further 68 large-scale projects were under construction, which represented a new capacity of 9GW.
Victorian Big Battery, Australia’s largest battery company, was commissioned in 2021. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, upon winning the federal election in 2022, announced making Australia a superpower in the renewable sector. During his campaign, he had laid out the plan to increase the share of renewables in electricity to 82% by 2030.
Some of the commitments of the Australian government under the Powering Australia Plan are:
- Formally lodged a 43% reduction in emissions by 2030 as an enhanced Nationally Determined Contribution under the Paris Agreement. This is as per the Climate Change Act of 2022, which also includes the net zero emissions target by 2050.
- For providing independent climate change advice to the government, the 2022-23 budget announced that the Climate Change Authority will be provided with funding of AU$42.6 million over four years.
- Budget 2022-23 also announced funding of AU$275.4 million over six years for Driving the Nation Fund to reduce emissions from transportation.
- 400 community batteries will be deployed with a funding of AU$224.3 million over four years to reduce emissions and ease pressure on the grid.
- Seaweed commercialisation will be supported through a funding of AU $8.1 million over three years for reducing emissions from livestock feed supplements.
Let us look at recent updates from some ASX- listed renewable stocks:
Data: ASX as on 5 January 2023
Genex Power Ltd. (ASX:GNX)
ASX-listed company Genex Power Limited is focused on developing renewable energy generation and storage projects in Australia. The flagship project of the company Kidston Clean Energy Hub will integrate solar power generation with pumped hydro storage and have the potential for further expansion. The company expects the K2-Hydro project to become operational by 2025. Genex is also developing a battery energy storage system with a capacity of 50 MW at Bouldercombe, Queensland.
Genex recently concluded a discussion with a consortium of Skip Capital and Stonepeak. It was in relation to acquiring all of the shares on issue in Genex through a conditional, non-binding, and indicative proposal.
The company is focused on the safe delivery of the K2H and Bouldercombe projects, which will increase the nameplate capacity of the company’s portfolio by four times. Genex is also on track to complete the first generation from Bouldercombe by mid-2023.
Carnegie Clean Energy Ltd. (ASX:CCE)
ASX-listed company Carnegie Energy Limited is engaged in developing ocean energy-related technologies to contribute towards a sustainable economy. The company has developed CETO® technology, which is used to capture energy from ocean waves and convert it into electricity.
Image: © Nicoelnino | Megapixl.com
Carnegie was selected as one of five contractors to continue Phase 2 of the EuropeWave Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP) program after successfully completing Phase 1 in July 2022. The phase will continue till June 2023 and include Frond End Engineering Design (FEED), and power take-off (PTO) component testing.
Frontier Energy Ltd. (ASX:FHE)
Frontier Energy Limited is developing the Bristol Springs project (BSS) to become one of the country’s first commercial green hydrogen projects.
The company recently completed the Pre-Front End Engineering Design (Pre-FEED) related to the BSS project. The cost estimate of the project was completed to Class 4 level and confirmed that the total cost was in line with the Pre-Feasibility Study (PFS).
Frontier is progressing with Stage One development for the Definitive Feasibility Study (DFS) and expects it to be completed by the first quarter of 2023.
