Archived News for Energy Sector Professionals

The Victorian Government has announced a $500,000 grant for the construction of a new bio-energy production in Echuca in the state’s north.

Plans for the CopperString 1,000 km transmission line from Townsville to Cloncurry in north-west Queensland have been thrown into doubt by an announcement by Xstrata that it will obtain its power from the new gas-fired Diamantina Power Station under a 17-year contract with the Diamantina consortium.

ENERGEX has completed its $17 million multi-stage upgrades that will aim to greatly enhance power supplies along the Brisbane River, covering the Australia TradeCoast region.

Renewable energy company CBD Energy has signed an agreement to acquire energy retailer, Neighborhood Energy, from Alinta Energy for $29.4 million.

Origin Energy has taken a further step in securing funding requirements for its APLNG project in Queensland after raising $US500 million ($A513 million) in the US market through a senior unsecured notes offering.

The Victorian Government has announced $500,000 in funding for the creation of the new centre for Geological Carbon Storage to support the emerging Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) industry.

Australian exporters have recorded a trade surplus of $3.1 billion in August – the second highest on record – as well as experiencing the highest exports to Asia on record.

Global CCS Institute has published its annual report, titled The Global Status of CCS: 2011, surveying 74 large-scale integrated carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects from around the world.

Chevron Australia has announced constriction will begin immediately on the company’s Wheatstone LNG Project at Ashburton North on the Pilbara Coast.

The Contract for Closure Program aims to support the closure of around 2,000 megawatts of highly emissions-intensive electricity capacity by 2020. Under the scheme, eligible generators can seek payment from the Government as part of a competitive tender process to retire their operations by an agreed date and will remain as a voluntary process.

Ausgrid has announced that new technology and pricing trials will be offered to at least 30,000 households in Sydney and the Hunter next year to test whether they make the grid more efficient and reduce household power bills. 

New South Wales will commence new technology and pricing trails for at least 30,000 households in Sydney and the Hunter region to test whether they make the grid more efficient and reduce household power bills.

Renewable energy specialist Infigen has announced it will seek community feedback on the feasibility of a planned wind-farm co-operative (co-op) as part of its proposed Flyers Creek Wind Farm near Orange, New South Wales.

Treasury has released a more detailed modelling of the impact of a $23 carbon price on household expenditure for the Clean Energy Future package announced on 10 July 2011.

QGC Pty Limited has announced a new $120 million contract for the construction of the supply of polyethylene to its gas fields in Queensland.

Victoria has secured a number of separate long term contracts worth more than $2 billion after Premier Ted Baillieu witnessed the signing of the Declaration of Commitment between purchaser Qenos and suppliers ExxonMobil Australia and BHP Billiton to supply petroleum feedstock to the Qenos Altona plant.

The Sustainable Energy Association of Australia (SEA) has continued its campaign against re-mergers in Western Australia’s energy industry.

South Korea has announced its plans to pass a law this year to help start carbon dioxide emissions trading by 2015, a plan opposed by manufacturers who say it will increase costs and make exports less competitive globally.


Mr Park Chun Kyoo director general of the Presidential Committee on Green Growth overseeing climate change policy said that the National Assembly is expected to pass by December a bill for the proposed emission trading scheme or ETS.


Ms Victoria Cuming, senior analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance in London said that "Prospects for the bill appear quite healthy as it has backing from the ruling and opposition parties."


South Korea will become the third in Asia Pacific to tax polluters after Australia and New Zealand. South Korea has pledged a 30% reduction in emissions from expected levels by 2020 and offered tax breaks to companies including POSCO and Samsung Electronics Co to pollute less and use renewable energy.


Mr Park said that South Korea is taking a step by step approach to implement the ETS. He added that "We hope to give a clear signal to companies that our binding commitments will continue."


Australia plans to impose a price on emissions from next July before shifting to a cap and trade system three years later. New Zealand already has an emissions trading program in place.


The Korea Chamber of Commerce & Industry, which counts steelmaker POSCO and Samsung Electronics among its 120,000 members, and Federation of Korean Industries have asked the government to delay implementing the plan on concern that higher costs will result in loss of market share to rivals from countries that don’t either tax or cap emissions.


According to data from state owned Korea Energy Management Corporation, which is tasked with emissions reduction and promoting renewable energy, companies may face an additional KRW 5.6 trillion of costs if ETS is implemented.


According to the Korea Economic Research Institute, major industries including steel and petrochemicals stand to lose about KRW 12 trillion of sales.


South Korea, the world's ninth largest greenhouse gas emitter, announced its voluntary goal to reduce green house gas emissions blamed for global warming at Copenhagen in December 2009. The following year the government introduced a plan to set targets for the biggest polluters.


The government is in talks with 471 polluters ranging from factories, buildings and livestock farms that produce at least 25,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year to impose reduction targets by the end of September. These emitters generate about 60% of the country’s overall greenhouse gas emissions.


Mr Park said that "We will continue our binding commitments domestically to meet our pledges to the world." He added that South Korea's emissions may fall after peaking in 2014 if the nation pursues its reduction target by 2020.


He said that the government has been providing tax and financial incentives to encourage companies to cut their emissions, including feed in tariff since 2002. It is spending KRW 1 trillion in 2011 on renewable energy, including the KRW 395 billion for feed in tariffs or preferential payments, to solar, wind and other renewable energy projects.


The tariffs will be replaced with a 2% renewable portfolio standard or RPS, starting 2012. The country's 14 power generators and other energy producers would be required to derive a fixed quota of their energy output from renewable sources, including solar and wind.

A new partnership between the University of Newcastle and Hunter TAFE has been announced to further the development of joint capabilities in research, training and related services.

The Federal Government has announced an inquiry by the Productivity Commission into the regulation and policy framework that would best enable effective climate change adaptation.