Highlights from the Australian market
- The Victorian Coalition promised to scrap the VNI West transmission project if it wins November’s election, citing a $7.6–11.4bn cost and proposing gas reserves and urban solar parks instead.
- NSW became the first state to put hard numbers on data centre connections, releasing its NSW Data Centre Guidelines alongside a fast-track planning pathway for compliant projects.
- With the ESOO 2026 imminent, WattClarity revisited the CIS-awarded project pipeline to check how much awarded capacity is actually on track to be delivered.
- The AER found that batteries — now 6.1 GW across the NEM, up from 261 MW five years ago — are splitting “one market into many”, easing wholesale price pressure but leaving evening and overnight prices well above pre-2022 levels.
- On the other side of that ledger, BloombergNEF reported that realised battery arbitrage spreads on the NEM fell 84% in Q2 2026 as the grid-scale fleet expanded and competition compressed the spread.
- Energy Policy WA opened consultation in its Power System Security and Reliability Standards Review, reconsidering the security and reliability standards that govern the SWIS.
- NSW will cut battery costs by 20–40% for businesses and apartment buildings from 1 September, for systems from 20 kWh to 30 MWh and stackable with the federal rebate.
- Origin’s grid-forming 650 MWh Mortlake battery entered commercial operation in western Victoria, while Ausgrid started construction on the 200 MW/400 MWh Steel River East BESS in Newcastle and won approval for a second 400 MWh project at Homebush.
- APA Group took FID on a $259m, 72 MW solar farm plus 52 MW/104 MWh battery at Mount Isa, contracted to Evolution Mining out to 2046, and Windlab and Squadron referred their 500 MW solar / 500 MW storage Bungaban project for federal assessment.
News from Japan
- Itochu (major Japanese trading firm) will be entering the data centre business and aims to develop up to 10 data centres by 2030: 伊藤忠がデータセンター参入 数千億円投じ10棟開発、JR東と協業視野 Each site will be ~50 MW in size, and the investment capital for the 10 data centres to be developed is estimated to be several-hundred billion yen (several billion AUD). As data centres require large plots of land, Itochu is planning on partnering w/ JR East (major train company) which holds strategic lots of land across the Greater Tokyo and Eastern Japan.
- JAPEX (major Japanese petroleum exploration firm) is now driving a 2nd pile underground to conduct geological survey for potential CO2 sequestration in Tomakomai City, Hokkaido: 石油資源開発、CO2地下貯留に向け試掘2坑目 北海道苫小牧で
- Tomakomai has Japan’s largest industrial area aptly called Tomatoh (“eastern Tomakomai”), where various trials are being conducted such as CCS / CO2 sequestration and hydrogen/ammonia co-firing, alongside existing thermal power plants: 日本最大の産業地域「苫東」：TOMATOH―苫小牧東部地域 産業用地―
- Kansai EPCO says that at its Oi nuclear plant Unit 3 (1.18 GW), which has been shut down since last week due to the loss of magnetic field generation for the turbine, a part called a “diode module” broke apart, most likely due to wear-and-tear: 停止中の大飯原発3号機、部品に損傷 異常警報で関西電力が調査 The diode module was installed in 1991 and hasn’t been replaced since then (so it was over 35 years old).
- Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (“MAFF”) is proposing new legislation for agrivoltaics to have a max shading rate of 30%: Japan’s proposed shading rate for agrivoltaics is unreasonable, says think tank Public comments are to be submitted by 22nd Aug, w/ the proposed legislation to be implemented from Sep-end onward. Developers as well as think tanks such as the Renewable Energy Institute (“REI”; for some reason in the English article they call it the Renewable Energy Foundation) have voiced concerns that implementing a “non-scientific” arbitrary threshold of 30% for the shading rate would be detrimental for the agrivoltaics industry.
Podcast of the week
In the debut episode of Zugzwang, Oliver and Jack tackle the perception that market modelling is an impenetrable black box and start pulling it apart.
Listen now on your favourite podcast platform:
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0346ILtbXgKJJIlOy64p1i
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/zugzwang/id6801348317
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQ3gvq2Ccils