News & Media

When the power went out in Broken Hill last month after a storm, it would have been reasonable to expect the nearby renewable energy super-array of solar, wind and big battery to come to the rescue.

The company of Gina Rinehart spent a speedy six weeks assessing whether to move on the energy assets of her friend and fellow Perth-based mining billionaire Chris Ellison before opting to take the plunge and outlay $1.1bn on the Mineral Resources energy business.

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.

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

 

 

 

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.

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.

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.