Fuel’s Gold

In this Weekly Dispatch:

1. Australia’s emissions fell 2.1% in 2025, with renewables hitting a record 46.5% of NEM generation in Q1 2026. Battery discharge nearly tripled, gas hit its lowest share since 2000, and wholesale prices dropped 12% year-on-year to $73/MWh.
2. The Guardian’s interactive feature on the household battery revolution examines how falling storage costs are cutting energy bills and reshaping the global energy transition.
3. CSIRO launched FlexCost — a framework to quantify the cost of activating demand-side resources (EVs, home batteries, ACs) during grid stress. Generation costs are well understood; flexibility costs have not been, until now.
4. CommBank’s Vivek Dhar calls global oil markets a “calm before the storm” — Brent has eased from ~$120 to the mid-$90s on Hormuz tension, but stockpile buffers are finite. Prices could hit $150 if supply disruptions persist, or fall to $80 if a deal is reached.
5. Kansai EPCO (Greater Osaka) is targeting a 30% capacity expansion by 2040, including new LNG builds and a potential next-gen nuclear unit at Mihama — Japan’s first new nuclear build since Fukushima.
6. Podcast of the week: Let Me Sum Up has its 100^th episode.