According to The Australian Financial Review, Japan’s giant energy trading houses would consider helping to pay for a nuclear rollout in Australia in return for decades-long investment returns, industry insiders say.
The Coalition’s announcement that it would build seven nuclear power plants sparked a flurry of conversations in Tokyo this week around how Japan’s largest power players could become involved. Investment bankers, trade liaisons and energy company representatives are understood to be quietly costing out how development of a nuclear supply chain in Australia might work, should Peter Dutton’s plan eventuate. https://www.afr.com/world/asia/japanese-eye-investment-in-australian-nuclear-rollout-20240620-p5jnb7
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According to The Australian Financial Review, Origin Energy chief executive Frank Calabria says the country’s largest electricity utility will minimise the company’s ownership of wind and solar generation assets as part of a strategy to boost investor returns.
The strategy, unveiled in a briefing for Origin investors, is a marked departure from plans outlined by Brookfield last year. The Canadian investment giant, which made a $20 billion takeover bid with EIG Global Energy Partners, said it would invest up to $30 billion to double the company’s renewable generation portfolio. Briefing investors, Mr Calabria said the transition away from fossil fuels, and increased price volatility, presented a major opportunity for the company. The pitch to investors positions Origin as a company that can manage that volatility – its “core DNA”, Mr Calabria said – with a mix of renewable energy purchase contracts, rooftop solar, and firming assets like batteries and gas peaking plants. https://www.afr.com/companies/energy/origin-energy-goes-lean-on-wind-and-solar-ownership-boosts-returns-20240612-p5jl2l
According to The Australian Financial Review, Japanese conglomerate Itochu has missed a self-imposed deadline to exit its Australian thermal coal investments.
Itochu announced in January 2021 that exiting thermal coal mining would be a strategic priority for the three-year period to March, and that it would fully divest its four thermal coal assets by that deadline. Itochu has sold three of those four thermal coal assets, but continues to own 15 per cent of Whitehaven Coal’s Maules Creek mine, after observing a “change in decarbonisation trends” since global energy markets were roiled by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. https://www.afr.com/companies/mining/japan-s-itochu-delays-plans-to-exit-australian-thermal-coal-20240610-p5jknm
According to The Australian Financial Review, an Australian start-up developing a vaccine against one of the world’s most prolific bacterial pathogens – one which is responsible for causing a wide range of illnesses from middle ear infections to life-threatening pneumonia – has scored a $300 million valuation as part of its latest funding round.
GPN Vaccines has raised $US12 million ($18 million) in a round led by New York-based Forepont Capital, San Francisco’s Kern Capital and the founding partner of local fund Shearwater Capital, Mike Gregg. The company has already conducted a phase-one trial of its Streptococcus pneumoniae vaccine in 50 to 69 year olds, which found it was safe and well tolerated at a variety of dosages and able to induce an antibody response relative to the dosage. https://www.afr.com/companies/healthcare-and-fitness/aussie-vaccine-start-up-scores-300m-valuation-20240530-p5ji1w
According to The Australian Financial Review, Queensland Labor has pledged a sharp jump in spending on renewable energy projects – to $26 billion over the next four years – as Premier Steven Miles seeks to reverse a collapse in the polls heading into the state election.
Ahead of his first budget as premier and less than 150 days from a predicted election drubbing, Mr Miles said Labor would increase the four-year spend on the energy and workforce transition by about $7 billion. https://www.afr.com/companies/energy/labor-to-splash-26b-on-green-energy-projects-in-qld-20240606-p5jjpj
According to The Australian Financial Review, Brookfield will emerge as the largest owner and operator of renewable energy in Australia after unveiling a $10 billion bid to buy France’s Neoen – six months after Origin Energy shareholders dismissed a takeover offer from the Canadian investment giant.
Including projects in development and expected to be delivered over six to 10 years, Neoen’s domestic pipeline of projects over the next decade is nearly 10 gigawatts. https://www.afr.com/policy/energy-and-climate/brookfield-lands-origin-energy-plan-b-in-10b-neoen-takeover-20240530-p5ji1g
According to The Australian Financial Review, it’s the brick wall that renewable energy projects have been running into for more than a decade – community opposition. Now French utilities giant Engie has turned to one of the few levers that seem to yield results: cold hard financial benefits for the families and businesses that will have their views disturbed by one of its new wind turbines near Hay, NSW.
Engie will offer an annual electricity rebate of $1000 for residents and businesses within 20 kilometres of its huge The Plains renewables development, which could have as many as 188 wind turbines and nearly 1 million solar panels. It will roll the scheme out to all its future renewable energy assets in the country. https://www.afr.com/companies/energy/energy-group-offers-1000-annual-rebate-to-wind-farm-neighbours-20240526-p5jgq7
According to The Australian Financial Review, Queensland industries have pleaded with the state and federal government to address a critical workforce shortage through targeted visas, after Premier Steven Miles threw his support behind a migration clampdown.
Mr Miles has backed federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s proposal to slash migration in a bid to ease the pressure on housing. But industry leaders in Queensland said a reduction in new arrivals risked compounding a shortage of workers in sectors reliant on overseas staff, particularly tourism, agriculture and skilled international fields in health. Queensland’s medical peak body said half of the state’s doctors were trained overseas, and it feared a reduction in migration would place further broad strains on the workforce. https://www.afr.com/companies/agriculture/queensland-industries-fear-migration-cut-will-worsen-worker-shortage-20240521-p5jfib
According to The Australian Financial Review, hydrogen projects backed by large companies like Fortescue and Woodside are set to be early beneficiaries of the federal budget’s $6.7 billion production tax credit, but one developer says the measure will attract a lot of international investment and could blow past its allocation.
Michael Myer, a member of Melbourne’s wealthy Myer family and chairman of Sunshine Hydro, said two projects the developer is pursuing in Gladstone and northern NSW could yield enough hydrogen to earn $730 million in production tax credits at the $2 per kilogram rate. “I think they’ve been conservative on what [it] will cost them, but I think the benefit to the national economy will far outweigh what might be a cost in the forward estimates – massively outweigh it in terms of jobs, export earnings, bringing down the wholesale price of energy and green fuels,” Mr Myer said. “It’ll pay for itself many times over.” https://www.afr.com/policy/energy-and-climate/hydrogen-credit-could-blow-its-6-7b-budget-20240515-p5jdqg
According to The Australian Financial Review, GPG Renewables Australia, the 4.7-gigawatt renewable platform that parked its $4 billion sale last month, is marching ahead with a $1.6 billion debt refinancing.
Sources said GPG is in advanced discussions with several banks to come in on a $1.1 billion refinancing of its existing facilities, and is aiming to reach the finishing line by June 30. In tandem, it has put a circa $500 million new-money deal to lenders to bankroll construction at projects. GPG was already in discussions with bank lenders, including the Aussie Big Four and Japanese lenders, as part of a $2 billion staple debt package being put together by Macquarie Capital for the bidders. It is understood Macquarie Capital and GPG’s sale adviser, Morgan Stanley, pivoted from the takeover financing to the current deal when owners Wren House Infrastructure and Naturgy cancelled the sale. https://www.afr.com/street-talk/big-four-japanese-banks-circle-gpg-renewables-1-6b-refinancing-20240515-p5jdts |
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