Albanese government announces ‘largest-ever’ tender for renewable energy projects
Ben Smee
The Albanese government has announced Australia’s “largest-ever” tender to build renewable energy projects, which will be underwritten by the commonwealth.
The climate change and energy minister, Chris Bowen, says the release of a tender for 6GW of new power generation includes a new renewables deal with New South Wales that will provide at least 2.2GW of power supply for the state.
In November, the government announced an ambitious 32GW plan to underwrite renewables in pursuit of Australia’s target of 82% renewable generation by 2030, amid an “alarming” slowdown in private investment. The tender aims to trigger a first tranche of projects.
In addition to 2.2GW of power earmarked for NSW, 300MW has been earmarked for projects in South Australia, subject to an agreement between governments.
The government says it plans to release tenders from its capacity investment scheme about every six months until 2027. Selected projects will be offered long-term underwriting agreements that include agreed “floor” and “ceiling” revenue for investors.
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Good morning
Emily Wind
And welcome to a new week on the Australia news live blog. I’m Emily Wind, and I’ll bring you our rolling coverage for most of today.
The Albanese government has announced the country’s “largest-ever” tender to build renewable energy projects, to be underwritten by the commonwealth. The climate change and energy minister, Chris Bowen, says the release of a tender for 6GW of new power generation includes a new renewables deal with NSW to provide at least 2.2GW of power supply for the state. More on this soon from Ben Smee.
International traffic is now closer to pre-pandemic levels at Sydney Airport, more so than domestic. In a statement, the airport said this is due to lower domestic business travel. Sydney Airport’s CEO, Scott Charlton, said:
The Q1 passenger data shows us that on the domestic front, higher airfares, lack of capacity and a downturn in discretionary business travel has affected demand.
This is contrasted with relatively higher seat capacity and competition on major international routes which underpinned strong international passenger volumes for the quarter.
Sydney Airport’s international travel has had a 96.6% recovery rate to pre-pandemic levels, compared to domestic and regional, which has had a 91.9% recovery rate.
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