This paper traces how Australia offered some of the cheapest and most reliable electricity in the world from the 1960s through to the early 2000s. It warns that this historic advantage has now evaporated. The paper argues that intermittent wind and solar power has failed to replicate the low-cost reliability once supplied by coal and...

This paper argues that once wind and solar push beyond roughly one-fifth of total energy supply, costs and grid difficulties begin to rise sharply – spelling the end of the renewables honeymoon in Australia. The paper explores the nature of the challenges posed in three different ways, examining the relationship between electricity prices and weather-dependent...

Rooftop solar has been lauded by energy market bodies, policymakers, the media and environmental groups as a great way to lower bills, help the environment and help the grid. While rooftop solar may have lowered bills for homeowners able to install it, this paper posits that it has done so by increasing bills for everyone...

The federal, state and territory Energy Ministers have introduced a shadow carbon price for the national electricity market. This ‘value of emissions reduction’ (VER) sets the value of carbon abatement at $66 per tonne in 2023, rising six-fold to $420 by 2050. This paper estimates that including VER as a class of market benefit could...

The Australian Government wants to transition the electricity system to net zero carbon emissions by relying on wind and solar power – excluding alternatives such as small nuclear reactors. This paper focuses on the question of how Australians have been led to believe two false claims: that renewables are the cheapest and that the cheapest...