Climate & Energy Program

Imagine if petrol prices went up from $1.29/litre to $180/litre for brief parts of the day on a few days of the year. Worse still, imagine drivers had no way of knowing what price they were paying until after they’d filled up.

[This article was first published by Crikey here]

New report identifies ‘virtual power plants’ could provide energy security faster and cheaper than new power stations, echoing parts of the Finkel review that have been largely ignored.

“Australian governments can fight all they like over what new generation capacity to build. Regardless of who wins, none of it will be built for years, while the energy security crisis will be back next summer,” said Australia Institute strategist and report author, Dan Cass.

[Full report see PDF below]

Instead, demand management can be rolled out rapidly. As the Finkel review said. 

The Australia Institute has released the Electricity Update of the National Energy Emissions Audit (The Audit*) for July 2017.

The report, by renowned energy analyst Dr Hugh Saddler, reveals a stunning correlation between domestic electricity prices and gas prices, despite gas making up only 10 percent of electricity generation.

Australian gas prices have risen significantly, as predicted, upon the development of export terminals and the linking of domestic gas to the Asian market.

New polling of seven electorates belonging to senior Cabinet Ministers, including the Prime Minister, reveals strong opposition to a federal subsidised loan for Adani’s coal project, and support for instituting a moratorium on new coal mines.

The Australia Institute commissioned ReachTEL to conduct surveys of 4,712 Australian residents across the electorates of Wentworth (Turnbull), Cook (Morrison), Curtin (Bishop), Dickson (Dutton), Flinders (Hunt), Kooyong (Frydenberg) and Sturt (Pyne) on the 8th of June 2017.