Emission Control: Australia’s clean energy transition throttled by years of policy uncertainty

Emission Control is Stockhead’s fortnightly take on all the big news surrounding developments in renewable energy.

Australia’s clean energy transition is in desperate need of policy certainty despite reaching a new record for investment commitments in large scale projects, according to the Clean Energy Council (CEC).

While commitments were received for 14 projects worth more than $2bn, the Clean Energy Council said this was the only bright spot in its quarterly report on the sector adding that just one renewable energy project – ACEN Australia’s 400MW Stubbo Solar Farm in NSW – had reached financial close in the third quarter

Another three projects started construction, adding 902MW of capacity to network, while two other projects were commissioned – adding a further 127MW.

“This report makes it abundantly clear that Australia’s clean energy transition has been throttled by year of policy uncertainty,” CEC’s CEO Kane Thornton says.

“The amount of quarterly commissioned capacity continues its downward trend of the last few years and is now at its lowest level on record at 127MW.”

Focus needed on energy transition from ALL governments

While industry confidence to invest is growing, CEC says the investment trend over the past year shows we need a sustained focus on the energy transition from all governments.

“We need to see more projects coming more quickly through state planning systems and policy settings that send consistent signals for ongoing investment,” Thornton explains.

“We need to fix the connection and commissioning process to get projects through all the hurdles and actually start producing power.

“The connection process was designed years ago to account for a few hundred megawatts connecting every few years.”

The Clean Energy Council is working collaboratively with the Australian Energy Market Operator to achieve this through the Connections Reform Initiative.

Here’s how ASX renewable energy companies are tracking:

CODE	COMPANY	PRICE	% WEEK	% MONTH	% YEAR	MARKET CAP
AST	AusNet Services Ltd	0	-100%	-100%	-100%	$9,919,608,019
AVL	Aust Vanadium Ltd	0.026	-10%	-26%	-4%	$105,765,178
BSX	Blackstone Ltd	0.16	-11%	-9%	-74%	$75,716,036
DEL	Delorean Corporation	0.082	-4%	-6%	-63%	$17,689,115
ECT	Env Clean Tech Ltd.	0.016	0%	14%	-71%	$27,460,027
FMG	Fortescue Metals Grp	18.94	-5%	16%	6%	$58,315,595,547
PV1	Provaris Energy Ltd	0.051	-9%	-7%	-56%	$27,962,304
GNX	Genex Power Ltd	0.175	0%	-13%	-8%	$242,406,000
HXG	Hexagon Energy	0.0175	-3%	17%	-80%	$8,976,028
HZR	Hazer Group Limited	0.7	5%	28%	-49%	$119,310,620
IFT	Infratil Limited	8.06	1%	12%	5%	$5,844,905,463
IRD	Iron Road Ltd	0.125	-7%	-14%	-40%	$99,982,663
LIO	Lion Energy Limited	0.036	0%	9%	-51%	$15,339,968
MEZ	Meridian Energy	4.45	2%	7%	2%	$5,622,639,245
MPR	Mpower Group Limited	0.018	-14%	-14%	-57%	$5,286,659
NEW	NEW Energy Solar	0.185	15%	10%	41%	$59,308,777
PGY	Pilot Energy Ltd	0.017	6%	-6%	-80%	$10,894,443
PH2	Pure Hydrogen Corp	0.22	-2%	-12%	-56%	$76,601,812
PRL	Province Resources	0.066	-14%	-24%	-59%	$77,978,547
PRM	Prominence Energy	0.0015	0%	0%	-86%	$3,636,913
QEM	QEM Limited	0.175	-3%	-13%	-13%	$23,650,125
RFX	Redflow Limited	0.03	-6%	-14%	-42%	$53,484,698
SKI	Spark Infrastructure	0	-100%	-100%	-100%	$5,036,718,784
VUL	Vulcan Energy	7.08	-4%	3%	-33%	$1,014,813,931
CXL	Calix Limited	5.31	7%	-4%	-24%	$956,681,396
KPO	Kalina Power Limited	0.022	-4%	16%	-19%	$33,334,307
RNE	Renu Energy Ltd	0.063	5%	43%	-43%	$22,967,659
NRZ	Neurizer Ltd	0.12	9%	14%	-4%	$131,708,685
LIT	Lithium Australia	0.052	-2%	4%	-58%	$63,501,967
TNG	TNG Limited	0.094	3%	9%	24%	$130,511,313
SRJ	SRJ Technologies	0.43	0%	0%	0%	$38,345,359
NMT	Neometals Ltd	1.01	-6%	-11%	-11%	$558,268,588
MR1	Montem Resources	0.04	0%	0%	-46%	$12,893,190
FGR	First Graphene Ltd	0.12	-4%	9%	-41%	$69,130,216
EGR	Ecograf Limited	0.31	-5%	-13%	-63%	$139,603,372
EDE	Eden Inv Ltd	0.006	0%	-14%	-74%	$16,267,374
CWY	Cleanaway Waste Ltd	2.75	1%	5%	-7%	$6,121,500,330
CPV	Clearvue Technologie	0.19	6%	0%	-16%	$40,481,657
CNQ	Clean Teq Water	0.375	1%	-21%	-52%	$19,220,638
M8S	M8 Sustainable	0.009	-10%	13%	-53%	$4,418,176
EOL	Energy One Limited	4.5	-2%	-3%	-31%	$134,664,804
LNR	Lanthanein Resources	0.035	3%	-3%	35%	$33,698,895
FHE	Frontier Energy Ltd	0.52	18%	14%	300%	$130,421,838
LPE	Locality Planning	0.06	0%	7%	-60%	$10,540,124

Which ASX renewable energy stocks have news out?

AGL Energy (ASX:AGL)

On Thursday, AGL announced the early closure of its last remaining three generation units – the ageing Torrens Island B gas generator in South Australia almost a decade earlier.

According to AGL, the move had been driven, in part, by the planned completion of the Project Energy Connect interconnector between South Australia and New South Wales in mid-2026.

Over the past four years, AGL has invested d $475 million in major energy projects on Torrens Island and has recently announced a feasibility study into the development of a green hydrogen facility.

RENU ENERGY (ASX:RNE)

RNE completed a $4.5m capital raising to advance its suite of green hydrogen projects and opportunities including the project at Brighton in Southern Tasmania and those recently announced at Launceston Airport and in the Riau Archipelago in Indonesia.

“This capital raise improves our balance sheet and strengthens our financial position,” RNE CEO Greg Watson says.

“The raise allows us to boost our internal team to increase our ability to deliver on our project plans and build our portfolio of strategic renewable and clean energy investments.”

CALIX (ASX:CXL)

Calix is working with CEMEX on accelerating its implementation of technology and several new carbon capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS) projects throughout its global cement operations.

CEMEX is currently running several CCUS innovation projects that aim to accelerate the creation of new technologies and to enable de implementation of current ones at an industrial scale.

In total, current projects have the potential to avoid more than 3 million tons of carbon emissions a year.

Three Front End Engineering (FEED) studies to scale CCUS technologies at CEMEX plants in Germany, Poland, and the US.

The studies fall under the scope of a new global license agreement with Leilac, a subsidiary of Calix.

The agreement enables CEMEX to leverage Leilac’s highly efficient direct separation technology, to capture CO2 at a low cost in its operations.

PROVARIS ENERGY (ASX:PV1)

PV1 has appointed Darwin-based Lindsay Whiting as Tiwi H2’s facilitation manager, fast-tracking the Tiwi H2’s 2023 development program across key streams which will lead to project feasibility, land agreements and environmental approvals.

The company has also appointed EcOz as lead environmental consultant for all territory and federal approvals, including the preparation of the required EIS submission in 2023, and CE Partners as owner’s engineer to cover the detailed design of the renewable generation component of the project.

This comprises the solar farm, battery energy storage system, substations, and transmission line connection to the H2 Production Precinct.