It may be Australia’s biggest power buildout since electrification in the 1920s and 30s. And, if successful, could be replicated across the 80% of the world’s population that lives in the so-called sun belt — which includes Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, India, southern China and Southeast Asia, says Professor Andrew Blakers, an expert in renewable energy and solar technology at Australian National University. That, in turn, would go a long way to halting climate change.
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Overall, the cost could be a staggering A$320 billion ($215 billion), and the money is starting to flow: Brookfield Asset Management Ltd., Macquarie Group Ltd., and billionaires Andrew Forrest and Cannon-Brookes have all been involved in headline-grabbing energy deals in recent months. New government support for renewables has also improved investor sentiment, according to the Clean Energy Investor Group, which includes project developers and financiers.
Australia’s great coal switch-off is coming. New South Wales, the most populous state and home to Sydney, will lose one massive plant this month, followed by Eraring, the country’s largest, in 2025. Victoria, the second most populous state, saw a major site shuttered in 2017. Next up is Yallourn Power Station, which dates back more than a century and is scheduled to close in 2028.
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The election last May of the center-left Labor Party has reassured the country’s financiers and investors about clean energy policy. Investment in renewables jumped 17% in 2022, mostly late in the year, after the new government announced emissions cuts and acted to enshrine them in law, according to the Clean Energy Council, an industry group.
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The original Tesla battery, owned and operated by France-based renewables group Neoen SA, is now a cornerstone of South Australia’s grid. It also served as a prototype for a much bigger installation: The Victorian Big Battery, comprised of 212 white boxes in a field west of Melbourne, capable of dispatching as much power as a giant coal turbine on a split-second’s notice.
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But Abbott’s and Morrison’s Liberal National coalition, now in opposition, isn’t convinced renewables and storage are enough. After years of backing coal and gas, it has started campaigning to overturn the national ban on nuclear power, a proposal that the Labor government has rejected.
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