Highlights from the Australian market
- Locals near Dalby are pushing back on a proposed $32 billion hyperscale data centre in the Western Downs, with a petition against the project drawing more than 21,000 signatures as residents fear the state could fast-track approvals over their heads.
- The High Court has dismissed MACH Energy’s appeal, keeping its Mount Pleasant coal mine expansion on hold after ruling the NSW planning commission should have considered the emissions from burning the mine’s exported coal overseas.
- Singapore’s energy regulator says Sun Cable’s $35 billion plan to export NT solar power to Singapore faces major cost, distance and approval hurdles, with cheaper short-haul imports from Malaysia and Indonesia competing for the same market.
- Wagga Wagga residents have launched a petition against CDC’s proposed $15 billion, 1.4 GW data centre, which is expected to use as much electricity each year as 1 to 1.5 million NSW homes.
- Australia’s public charging network is falling well behind surging EV sales, with the ratio worsening to one charger for every 52.7 EVs and operators warning of long queues on busy summer road-trip days like Boxing Day.
- Tesla and major energy retailers are fighting a proposed “EV charger tax” that would let grid operators install EV chargers on their power poles and recover the cost from all electricity customers, including people who don’t drive EVs.
- Nvidia-backed AI data centre builder Firmus has pulled its $44 billion ASX float, which would have been the biggest since Telstra, after investors balked at its valuation and debt levels.
- The ACCC reports that large east coast gas buyers have contracted more gas under long-term agreements than at this point in any of the previous four years, with prices for 2027 and 2028 supply holding steady at around $12–13/GJ despite elevated international prices.
News from Japan
- Paywalled: METI is considering a new framework within the Capacity Market to pay ageing thermal plants slated for decommissioning to stay online for at least another one to three years ahead of expected tight supply conditions.
- Paywalled: Kansai EPCO and Tohoku EPCO will join TEPCO and Japan Atomic Power at the interim spent nuclear fuel storage facility in Mutsu City, Aomori, adding 600 tons to fill the facility’s 5,000-ton capacity and maximise the city’s tax revenue from the site.
Podcast of the week
To tax or not to tax EVs (ABC Business Daily): Carrington Clarke and the e61 Institute’s Amy Tramontozzi explain what surging EV uptake and falling fuel excise revenue mean for the budget and how vehicles on our roads should be taxed.