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The Silverton Wind Farm and Broken Hill Solar plant were supposed to produce enough electricity to power 117,000 homes. They’re supported by AGL’s 50MWh battery facility at Pinnacles Place, one of the largest in Australia. Yet Broken Hill, population 19,000, has been in a semi-permanent state of blackout since a storm brought down the transmission line connecting the town to the east coast grid.

Hancock Prospecting has deferred part of its plans to tap into the WA magnetite market and delayed a final investment decision on its proposed Ridley mine, pinning the move on approvals uncertainty and water supply.

The chief executive of the Australian Energy Market Operator has conceded there is no guarantee the country’s transition will deliver cheaper power bills.

Just one major resources project has been sanctioned in WA this year and the pipeline of future projects is thin, a review by Business News has found.

The doyen of ALP energy policy, Martin Ferguson, has called for a gas-driven power station in the Latrobe Valley in a direct policy confrontation with current Energy Minister Chris Bowen.

Minerals behemoth cuts back massive iron expansion plan in northern WA over concerns for habit of vulnerable wildlife.

Australia is falling behind Qatar and the US in the race to become the dominant supplier of LNG and the country’s dwindling ranking should stoke alarm bells in Canberra if it is to address the looming domestic gas supply crunch, one of the world’s largest energy companies has warned.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has cited a mural on a central NSW post office as proof of the existence of the blue-­banded bee dreaming story, one of the central reasons she killed the Blayney goldmine proposal despite evidence from the local land council that the story is not ­Wiradjuri tradition.

Mining giant Rio Tinto and its partner in the Rhodes Ridge joint venture have informed Federal environmental regulators that they would no longer push ahead with a long-awaited proposal to mine the Giles Mini deposit near Newman due to its impact on potential roosting sites for the vulnerable Ghost Bat.

11 October 2024.

The Albanese government is facing a loss of social licence for its energy transition, particularly in regional areas. A recent survey confirmed this decline, with less than half of the respondents (47 per cent) feeling positive about the renewables transition compared with the peak of 70 per cent in August 2022.

It was meant to be the last piece of the net-zero jigsaw – green hydrogen. The renewable energy plus batteries pieces were (sort of) in place. Green hydrogen, using electrolysis powered by renewable energy, would be the means whereby hard-to-decarbonise sectors could achieve net-zero emissions.