The past decade has seen the energy industry, and particularly electricity generation, transformed. As households install solar panels and communities develop renewable energy projects, electricity generation is rapidly becoming localised. Community renewable energy projects are an important and increasing part of this transformation. Australia’s first community wind farm Hepburn Wind started operating in June 2011...

The Climate Change Authority is pleased to release the third and final report of its Special Review into the actions or policies that Australia should take to implement outcomes flowing from the historic Paris climate change agreement. This report is the culmination of nearly two years of research, analysis and policy consideration. It builds on...

In July this year, South Australia experienced a series of high wholesale electricity price spikes in one week, which some politicians and media commentators simplistically linked to the state’s high proportion of renewable energy, particularly wind (For example, Australian Financial Review 2016; The Advertiser 2016a; The Australian 2016). This was incorrect. The mistaken attack on...

The South Australian wholesale electricity market had a volume-weighted average price of $433/MWh for the first two weeks of July. By way of comparison, the volume-weighted average wholesale price in South Australia for the last eight calendar years has been $64/MWh. Extraordinarily high prices (greater than $2,000 per MWh) occurred in July for numerous half-hourly...

Solar households in Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales will this year cease to be paid for power they export into the electricity grid. In South Australia, some households will lose 16 cents per kilowatt-hour (c/kWh) from September 31. Some Victorian households will lose 25 c/kWh, and all NSW households will stop receiving payments...