Highlights from the Australian market
- Anthropic has signed a lease for Australia’s largest data centre, the $32 billion Western Downs Digital Park near Dalby in Queensland, which will power Claude AI inference and, once built, draw electricity equivalent to 1.5 million households.
- Australia’s dependence on gas generation during the evening peak has fallen by almost 70% in the year to August 2026, with batteries now covering 49% of evening dispatchable power, up from just 0.4% in 2020.
- In the same vein, new ANU modelling finds Australia doesn’t need more gas-fired generation to meet future energy needs, showing pumped hydro and batteries can balance a fully renewable grid at a comparable cost.
- NSW’s renewable transmission delivery agency EnergyCo has underspent its budget by $939 million over the past two years, a symptom of approval delays that now leave the state roughly 7.9GW short of its 2030 renewable energy target.
- ARENA has committed $8.2 million to a home electrification trial that aims to make the transition from gas to electricity easier, letting up to 1,000 Canberra households bundle solar, batteries and EVs onto one digital platform.
- IEEFA and Green Energy Markets’ Australian Renewable Energy Scorecard finds Australia has enough wind and solar in the pipeline – 34GW of solar and 17GW of wind fully approved – to hit the 82% 2030 renewables target, but actual construction is falling far short.
News from Japan
- Chubu Electric Power has withdrawn its restart applications for Hamaoka Units 3 and 4 after an independent committee found staff had for years manipulated seismic safety data submitted to Japan’s nuclear regulator, leaving it unclear if or when the reactors will ever restart.
Podcast of the week
Zugzwang: Episode 3 – What is transmission really worth?
The latest episode of Zugzwang: The market modelling podcast is now available!
Jack Simpson, Oliver Nunn and Jabez Wilson discuss modelling philosophy and put it to work on one of the NEM’s most contested assets: transmission. Listen now on your favourite 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