Renewables influx a cooler change to summer energy mix

An influx of renewables into Australia's main energy grid has driven down emissions while helping counter price pressure from expensive coal, hydro and gas.
Solar and wind chipped in 43 per cent of the main grid's supply in the first three months of 2025, up from 39 per cent over same period in 2024, while coal availability slipped to new first-quarter lows.
Large-scale battery generation reached an all-time high, with output jumping 86 per cent to 98MW when averaged across all hours.
Wholesale prices were higher in the southern states and lower in the north during the summer months, electricity system updates showed from both the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) and Australian Energy Regulator.
AEMO's report found dry conditions impacting Tasmanian hydro were largely responsible for the nine per cent increase in overall wholesale electricity prices compared to the same period in 2024, averaging $83/MWh.
Yet mainland region averages slipped from $78/MWh to $76/MWh.
Compared to the last three months of 2024, average wholesale prices were six per cent lower.
Upward forces in coal and hydro prices were largely offset by downward pressures from higher renewable energy availability and fewer periods of extreme price volatility, AEMO executive general manager of policy and corporate affairs Violette Mouchaileh said.
"Additionally, the frequency of negative pricing increased during the quarter, particularly in the NEM's (National Electricity Market) northern regions, which was largely attributable to grid-scale solar and wind setting prices more often," she said.
Electricity prices tend to be very low or negative when the wind is blowing and sun is shining, allowing solar panels and turbines to generate.
Price spikes occur during unusually high demand or when lower-priced generation is not available, leaving dispatchable coal, gas hydro and batteries to fill the gap at higher levels.
AEMO said less coal in the energy mix and more from solar and wind drove greenhouse gas emissions to new first-quarter lows.
Total emissions dived 5.1 per cent compared to the same quarter in 2024.
The ongoing growth of rooftop solar continued to take pressure off the grid despite underlying demand breaking new first-quarter records as Victorians and South Australians fired up their air conditioners on hot days.
The quarterly snapshot of the energy system follows a convincing federal Labor victory at the polls that should continue the transition to renewables and the retirement of coal generators.
The opposition posited a nuclear pathway to an energy grid free from climate-warming emissions, yet a second term for the Albanese government should shut the door on the alternative technology for now.
East coast downstream gas market spot prices sunk by 2.8 per cent from the previous quarter, to $13.17 per GJ, but were 13.7 per cent higher than the same time in 2024.

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No backing out now for Labor. Chalmers has set the tone, and the goal, for term two

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Sydney Morning Herald

5 hours ago

• Sydney Morning Herald

No backing out now for Labor. Chalmers has set the tone, and the goal, for term two

At base, this is about making the budget add up – people can ask for tax cuts, but only if taxes are raised elsewhere or spending is cut. Mostly, though, Chalmers has, quite properly, reminded us that tax reform is unavoidably a political project. 'Trade-offs' are, traditionally, the very essence of politics: something is gained and something is lost. Crucially, this is a very different type of politics for the Albanese government. Labor's first term was not much about trade-offs. With a couple of exceptions, it was mostly about shepherding change through quietly: making sure that nobody was losing enough that they would complain. Now, it seems, the government will contemplate policies with much more dramatic impacts – impacts everyone will notice. Significant losses will be matched by equally significant gains. The political complexity lies in who bears the losses and who gets the gains. It was a strikingly bold – and potentially historic – moment for Labor. Loading Two weeks ago, the Coalition's finance spokesman, James Paterson, insisted the Coalition was up for talking to the government about tax reform, including reducing taxes and then collecting 'that revenue in less distortionary ways'. That sounded a lot like higher taxes in some areas. But, he also said, the opposition would not help Labor 'increase taxes'. 'But isn't that tax reform?' asked the ABC's David Speers. 'You're gonna have to put something up to cut somewhere else.' Paterson insisted, 'We are not interested in increasing taxes'. You can perhaps, if you squint, make sense of this – it will be up to new opposition leader Sussan Ley, in her own turn at the Press Club this week, to try. The likelihood is that Chalmers will face a version of what Keating faced: support for some bits, but not for the others that make them politically plausible. Chalmers talked a lot about consensus in his speech. Reaching agreement would be 'everyone's responsibility'. It's an important point. It is also a useful point to make at this stage of the process: after all, it is Chalmers' job to push everyone towards agreement by making clear the government shouldn't be expected to do all of this by itself. Loading But what if, in the end, there is not consensus? Or what if consensus forms only around a very limited set of changes? Chalmers declared, 'if we fail it won't be because of a shortage of ideas, options or choices. It won't be a shortage of courage – but a shortage of consensus.' Ultimately, though, if there is not consensus, courage will be required. If you read Chalmers' words as a persuasive tactic, they are fair enough. If, on the other hand, the government thinks it has given itself an alibi, it is kidding itself. The goal has been set. Political embarrassment would not be the only consequence of a retreat on tax reform. Keating's mentions of Medicare and superannuation are reminders that economic reform does not have to be only about tax. Instead, tax changes can take their place within a grander Labor project, alongside other concrete policies, the benefits of which voters more readily grasp. But it is hard to see how that larger Labor project works if tax reform fails.

The Advertiser

6 hours ago

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Mr Steel stresses the situation is changing for the better under the Albanese government, instead pinning the blame on the previous coalition government for a "decade of underinvestment" in Medicare and general practice. Tuesday's ACT budget will include measures to boost frontline services too, such as payroll tax changes that incentivise bulk billing, intended to take pressure off hospitals. In exchange for a better funding deal, the territory government could help its federal counterpart control the spiralling cost of the NDIS by providing more foundational supports for young males, who are signing up to the scheme at a rate of more than one in 10. "But we also need the Commonwealth to recognise that beyond the NDIS pressures, the major pressure that governments face in this country is about pressure on our acute hospital systems, and that is something that has to be addressed," Mr Steel says. The ACT budget has a health problem. 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Mr Steel stresses the situation is changing for the better under the Albanese government, instead pinning the blame on the previous coalition government for a "decade of underinvestment" in Medicare and general practice. Tuesday's ACT budget will include measures to boost frontline services too, such as payroll tax changes that incentivise bulk billing, intended to take pressure off hospitals. In exchange for a better funding deal, the territory government could help its federal counterpart control the spiralling cost of the NDIS by providing more foundational supports for young males, who are signing up to the scheme at a rate of more than one in 10. "But we also need the Commonwealth to recognise that beyond the NDIS pressures, the major pressure that governments face in this country is about pressure on our acute hospital systems, and that is something that has to be addressed," Mr Steel says. The ACT budget has a health problem. When Treasurer Chris Steel, fresh in the job after Labor's seventh straight election win, provided a mid-year budget update in February, he was forced to make an embarrassing admission. The territory's budget deficit had blown out to $971 million, more than 50 per cent higher than predicted just seven months earlier. The government's anaemic revenue stream is falling behind what's needed to meet the growing demand for health services of its ageing population. Health spending accounted for less than 30 per cent of the ACT budget in the 90s, Mr Steel says. Now it accounts for 36 per cent. "All of us are facing this massive fiscal challenge from the growth in demand and cost on our hospital systems," the treasurer tells AAP. "That is something that we want to address with the Commonwealth sitting down and getting underway with negotiations on a new five-year National Health Reform Agreement." The agreement lays out how much funding the federal government doles out to states and territories to run their hospital systems. The current agreement runs out on June 30 and the Commonwealth has only guaranteed funding for one more year in a stop-gap deal for 2025/26. While the interim agreement gives the ACT a 16 per cent funding increase from the current financial year, Mr Steel says it's not enough. "The extent of demand and cost in the healthcare system is not being acknowledged by the Commonwealth," he says. Current funding arrangements would result in the federal government contributing to 33 per cent of ACT hospital funding, when the Albanese government has promised to raise their contribution to 45 per cent by 2035. A spokesperson for the federal Department of Health said the Commonwealth was working on finalising negotiations by the end of 2025. Mr Steel stresses the situation is changing for the better under the Albanese government, instead pinning the blame on the previous coalition government for a "decade of underinvestment" in Medicare and general practice. Tuesday's ACT budget will include measures to boost frontline services too, such as payroll tax changes that incentivise bulk billing, intended to take pressure off hospitals. In exchange for a better funding deal, the territory government could help its federal counterpart control the spiralling cost of the NDIS by providing more foundational supports for young males, who are signing up to the scheme at a rate of more than one in 10. "But we also need the Commonwealth to recognise that beyond the NDIS pressures, the major pressure that governments face in this country is about pressure on our acute hospital systems, and that is something that has to be addressed," Mr Steel says. The ACT budget has a health problem. When Treasurer Chris Steel, fresh in the job after Labor's seventh straight election win, provided a mid-year budget update in February, he was forced to make an embarrassing admission. The territory's budget deficit had blown out to $971 million, more than 50 per cent higher than predicted just seven months earlier. The government's anaemic revenue stream is falling behind what's needed to meet the growing demand for health services of its ageing population. Health spending accounted for less than 30 per cent of the ACT budget in the 90s, Mr Steel says. Now it accounts for 36 per cent. "All of us are facing this massive fiscal challenge from the growth in demand and cost on our hospital systems," the treasurer tells AAP. "That is something that we want to address with the Commonwealth sitting down and getting underway with negotiations on a new five-year National Health Reform Agreement." The agreement lays out how much funding the federal government doles out to states and territories to run their hospital systems. The current agreement runs out on June 30 and the Commonwealth has only guaranteed funding for one more year in a stop-gap deal for 2025/26. While the interim agreement gives the ACT a 16 per cent funding increase from the current financial year, Mr Steel says it's not enough. "The extent of demand and cost in the healthcare system is not being acknowledged by the Commonwealth," he says. Current funding arrangements would result in the federal government contributing to 33 per cent of ACT hospital funding, when the Albanese government has promised to raise their contribution to 45 per cent by 2035. A spokesperson for the federal Department of Health said the Commonwealth was working on finalising negotiations by the end of 2025. Mr Steel stresses the situation is changing for the better under the Albanese government, instead pinning the blame on the previous coalition government for a "decade of underinvestment" in Medicare and general practice. Tuesday's ACT budget will include measures to boost frontline services too, such as payroll tax changes that incentivise bulk billing, intended to take pressure off hospitals. In exchange for a better funding deal, the territory government could help its federal counterpart control the spiralling cost of the NDIS by providing more foundational supports for young males, who are signing up to the scheme at a rate of more than one in 10. "But we also need the Commonwealth to recognise that beyond the NDIS pressures, the major pressure that governments face in this country is about pressure on our acute hospital systems, and that is something that has to be addressed," Mr Steel says.