Australia’s Queensland unveils renewable power scheme

Spanish Market: Coal, Electricity
07/06/23

The coal-dominated Australian state of Queensland is calling for billions of dollars in new wind and solar power investment, as its government outlines ambitious renewable energy goals.

Draft laws requiring 50pc of the state's electricity to be generated by renewables by 2030 and 80pc by 2035 were revealed on 3 June by the state government, which will require an additional 22,000MW of wind and solar and 12,000MW of storage and firming power in the next 11½ years. Coal-fired power stations accounted for 72pc of Queensland's electricity generation in 2022 compared with renewables' share at 22pc.

The government promised A$500mn ($333mn) to Queensland state-owned utility CleanCo to support the development phase of up to 2,300MW of solar and wind projects in the state's central region. The money will go towards completing environmental, engineering and procurement plans, as well as approvals for transmission connections to ready the projects for construction.

The proposed legislation pledges to support 100pc public ownership of all transmission and distribution networks, while maintaining state-owned utilities' market share, averaging 54pc. A new organisation will be set up to oversee the plans, the government said, while it will also open public consultation on the draft legislation to close on 30 June.

Australian states and territories rely heavily on fossil fuels for power generation, aside from the sparsely populated states of Tasmania and South Australia. Queensland has a National Electricity Market-connected generation capacity of around 15,500MW, of which 8,126MW is comprised of coal-fired power plants, according to the state government.

By Tom Major

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15/04/26

Japan's chemicals sector likely to reduce coal demand

Singapore, 15 April (Argus) — A slowdown in petrochemical production in Japan is likely to cut the sector's demand for thermal coal imports. Naphtha-fed crackers in the country have mostly avoided any halt in production caused by supply disruptions, but a few firms have reduced output. Some of the firms that have reduced production include Mitsui Chemicals and Idemitsu. Japan relies on the Middle East for naphtha imports, but supply has been disrupted by the US/Israel-Iran war. But the country is ready to meet domestic requirements for petrochemical products derived from naphtha for at least six months, Japan's ministry for economy, trade and industry (Meti) said. Firms running naphtha-fed crackers are expected to reduce their procurement of thermal coal because of the slowdown and the tight supply of feedstocks, a Japanese trader that supplies thermal coal to chemical firms in the country said. Petrochemical firms usually import bituminous NAR 6,000 kcal/kg coal from Australia for their captive power plants. Thermal coal imports by Japan's petrochemicals sector are estimated to be around 4.5mn t/yr, according to market sources. This is a small percentage, around 3pc, of the country's overall coal imports of 140mn-160mn t/yr, according to customs data from Japan's ministry of finance. A potential cut in coal imports by the sector due to run cuts could be expanded by the shift away from coal by petrochemical companies to using alternative fuels for operations to reduce CO2 emissions. Japanese petrochemical firm Tosoh will start its captive 74MW biomass-fired power plant by end of April the company told Argus on 10 April. The plant is expected to co-fire 50pc of biomass with coal before transitioning to 100pc biomass in 2030. The captive power plant is designed to utilise a combined 360,000-410,000 t/yr of imported wood pellets, construction waste, paper and plastic waste, and coal, according to Tosoh. Tosoh also reduced its coal consumption by shutting down its aging 62MW thermal coal captive power plant, which began operations in 1963. The petrochemical company halted its cracker in central Japan on 4 March for regular maintenance, which was scheduled before the US-Iran war. The cracker was originally planned to restart around 20 April. Tosoh has ensured that it will resume its cracker's operations around the end of April , said the company on 8 April. Power sector demand in Japan But Japanese demand for thermal coal from the power sector is likely to increase in the near term on the back of Meti's temporary removal of restrictions on the operations of inefficient coal-fired power plants in the 2026-27 fiscal year. The removal of restrictions has already led to some enquiries from Japanese utilities. Thermal coal demand from Japan over the past week was focused on increasing annual term supplies. A Japanese utility sought about 2.8mn t of imported thermal coal for a year through a term contract, which likely remains under negotiation. It is seeking another 500,000t of coal in addition to the annual supplies under discussion. Another Japanese utility sought up to two June-July-loading Panamax cargoes of high-CV coal for one of its older, less efficient power plants, a market source said. The utility may have awarded Indonesian high-CV coal for this tender, but details and prices could not be confirmed. By Nadhir Mokhtar Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2026. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.

France pushes for electrification on Mideast Gulf war

13/04/26

France pushes for electrification on Mideast Gulf war

London, 13 April (Argus) — French prime minister Sebastien Lecornu has called for rapid electrification in response to the rise in fossil fuel prices caused by the Middle East war, and unveiled new measures to reach the goal. "As long as we depend on crude and gas we will continue to pay for others' wars," he said on Friday, 10 April presenting his electrification plan that the government began working on before the Iran crisis. France will double its annual spending on electrification to €10bn ($11.8bn) from €5.5bn, Lecornu said on 10 April. For residential heating, gas boilers will be banned in new buildings from the end of the year. Heating systems relying solely on gas were already de facto banned in new builds, and hybrid systems were becoming increasingly less common. The government will also choose 100 local areas to put on a "zero gas" trajectory by 2030. It aims to reduce gas consumption by 85 TWh/yr by 2030, or roughly a quarter of current consumption. The government wants to install 1mn heat pumps a year by 2030. Sales previously reached this level over 2021-23 before falling back, and French president Emmanuel Macron in 2023 announced a previous target to reach 1mn heat pumps produced in France each year by 2027. The government also wants two-thirds of new vehicles to be electric by 2030, compared with 28pc in March, a record high. And French manufacturers should build 400,000 EVs a year by 2027, and 1mn by 2030, up from about 200,000 last year. A new subsidised EV leasing scheme covering 50,000 vehicles will be introduced, alongside an existing scheme that leases 50,000 vehicles/yr to people on low incomes. By Rhys Talbot Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2026. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.

EU eyes gas filling and oil stock co-ordination

13/04/26

EU eyes gas filling and oil stock co-ordination

Brussels, 13 April (Argus) — EU-wide co-ordination of gas storage filling and oil stock releases are among measures the European Commission will present on 22 April to tackle the energy crisis, said commission president Ursula von der Leyen on Monday. Von der Leyen said bloc-wide co-ordination of gas storage filling is aimed at preventing member states from competing against each other, and co-ordinated oil stock releases are intended to achieve the largest possible effect on markets. The bloc's fossil fuel import bill has increased by more than €22bn ($25.8bn) since the start of the US-Iran war on 28 February, von der Leyen said after discussions with EU commissioners. She said the "smallest" part of energy costs comes from the emissions trading system (ETS). Von der Leyen will "shortly" consult with EU states on updated ETS benchmarks using "all the flexibilities" the legal text allows, she said. The commission is "on track" to present the full review of the ETS in July, and will put forward legal proposals on electricity taxes and grid charges in May, with an "ambitious" new target on electrification. "The grim reality is that fossil fuels will remain the most expensive options in the years to come," von der Leyen said. She added that renewables and nuclear together now account for over 70pc of EU electricity generation. By Dafydd ab Iago Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2026. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.

Vietnam leans on coal-power as US-Iran war escalates

13/04/26

Vietnam leans on coal-power as US-Iran war escalates

Singapore, 13 April (Argus) — Vietnam's reliance on coal-fired generation increased in March on stronger electricity demand, with coal output dwarfing other power sources while the Middle East conflict intensified energy security concerns. The southeast Asian nation's coal-fired output was at 16.09TWh last month, up by 44pc from February — marking its sharpest month-on-month increase in two years and underscoring a push to secure stable power supplies since the outbreak of the war in late February. Coal-fired output was also up by 1pc on the year in March, and accounted for 56pc of total generation, the highest since mid-2025, according to data from state-owned utility EVN. The month-on-month jump was amplified by the nine-day lunar new year holiday in February. Vietnam's heavier reliance on coal-fired generation is in line with earlier directive to government departments and utilities to bolster coal stocks and prepare for a harsher dry season ahead . The country has been active in the seaborne coal market lately, even though the US/Israel–Iran conflict has pushed up delivered costs across the wider energy basket, boosting seaborne coal prices and making alternatives such as imported LNG expensive. With gas-fired capacity limited, coal-based power continues to anchor Vietnam's electricity system as the country's economic growth trajectory also supports power demand. Vietnam likely imported 4.1mn t of thermal coal in March, up from 2.8mn t in February, but down from 5.2mn t a year earlier, data from analytics firm Kpler show. Output from gas-fired utilities totalled 2.1 TWh, up 7pc on the year, the data show. Gas- and gasoil-fuelled turbines together accounted for about 7pc of total electricity generation. This represents only a small share of installed capacity, underscoring its limited role in meeting demand growth. Hydropower output rose to 4.96TWh in March, up 11pc on the year and also higher than February's 4.08TWh, the data show. Wind power output edged down on the month in line with typical seasonal patterns, while electricity imports increased modestly but continued to account for a limited share of total supply. Quarterly mix Coal-power output was little changed on the year at 40.64TWh in the January-March quarter, with the 14-22 February holiday weighing on coal burn and industrial and residential power demand. Coal-fired generation during the quarter was up from 30.22TWh in the fourth quarter last year, the data show. The increase in coal-fired generation was reflected in the country's recent demand for seaborne coal. It likely imported 10.29mn t of thermal coal in the first quarter, up from 8.31mn t in October-December 2025, according to Kpler estimates. The country's hydro-fired generation rose to 14.92TWh in the first quarter, up from 13.76TWh from a year earlier, the data show. By Saurabh Chaturvedi Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2026. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.

Q&A: Australian firms explore Regos on low LGC prices

13/04/26

Q&A: Australian firms explore Regos on low LGC prices

Sydney, 13 April (Argus) — Australian environmental services provider Ecovantage registered the first renewable electricity facility under Australia's guarantee of origin scheme, and plans to soon start exploring a new market for the upcoming renewable guarantees of origin (Regos). Chief executive Aaron Jenkins spoke with Argus about expectations for the new product and how historically low large-scale generation certificate (LGC) prices have been impacting the market. Edited highlights follow: Ecovantage registered the first facility that will be able to generate Regos, a small 0.17MW solar installation in New South Wales state . Why did you decide to register early into this voluntary scheme when the Large-scale Renewable Energy Target (LRET) scheme will last until the end of 2030 ? Certificates in environmental commodities are the core business of Ecovantage. We've already had a lot of interest from ESG-type consumers on time-stamped renewable energy certificates, and Regos fit that brief. We've had interest for years from multinationals who operate under various frameworks outside Australia, where time stamping is a valuable option. With the LGC market being in a very bad way and with participation in the LRET falling, we thought it was a good opportunity to explore what alternatives are there. LGC prices being so low is causing quite a lot of headwind for the commercial solar industry in particular. Business cases are not being approved. Solar deployment is slowing. What are your expectations for these intervening years, where LGCs and Regos will coexist together , and for further ahead? Regos are likely to have a higher value than LGCs depending on the time of the day that they're generated. If they are worth more, we think there could be more engagement from businesses who have generating assets but who don't want to create an LGC for a negligible amount, or from companies looking to make a business case for deploying new rooftop solar assets. At the moment, the Clean Energy Regulator (CER) is letting us register the same power station for the LRET and the Rego programme. We can't create Regos and LGCs against the same MWh, but we can have assets register on both frameworks and pick and choose which one they participate in on a quarter-by-quarter basis. There will be a lot of other entities testing this as well. How do you see the transition from the LRET, a compliance market, to the fully voluntary Rego scheme? It is probably 10 years too early to go forward as a voluntary programme. We've been very vocal in saying it should be a compliance mechanism until the country reaches its 82pc renewables goals . The opportunity we see with Regos is for generation assets which are being underappreciated under the LRET to reap greater financial benefit, by being more transparent and providing more granular certificates to the market. How much of an increased benefit that is, we have to wait and see. How do you think the granularity will work out? LGCs work with annual vintages, while with Regos we're going down to hourly timestamps. But it's left up to industry as to how we stratify them. We see such demand to a small part already with LGCs, for entities that want to purchase certificates generated in a certain month, in a certain region, from a certain type of renewable technology. However, it relies heavily on the certificate creator as to how they put the data into the registry, how detailed they go in tagging it. I think the stratification is going to be much bigger with Regos because of its complexity. One of the things that will be interesting to see is how ESG frameworks recognise the ability to have this granularity, because the voluntary markets are very closely tied to these frameworks. If Climate Active or some of those other major programs don't require time stamping and granularity, then one could make the argument of why would you ever bother buying a nighttime Rego? Even if you're a data centre that runs 24 hours a day, why wouldn't you just buy twice the amount of daytime Regos when they're cheap? I think how ESG frameworks are written are going to have a real direct market impact on what we see Regos selling for. The main ESG frameworks in Australia currently recognise LGCs and not Regos, but voluntary demand for LGCs has been increasing , correct? A lot of the LGC demand at the moment is only there because the LGC price is so low. We work with a lot of organisations which have chosen not to deploy their own renewable assets at this point in history because LGCs are so cheap. They'd rather just buy cheap LGCs than take real action. LGC spot prices in the secondary market were declining steadily but have been hovering around the A$3/MWh mark in recent weeks . Is that mostly because of resistance from some sellers to go below that level due to costs? There's a cost to create. By the time you create the LGCs, pay metering subscriptions to get the data, pay the CER to register them, pay a broker to find a buyer or a seller, and then spend time validating them, it's not worth going below A$3/MWh. Can you please elaborate on those costs? Some market participants mention an issuance fee of A$0.08/MWh as the main cost. You're paying a monthly or an annual metering subscription on every data connection you've got. You're paying someone to sit there and create the LGCs because there's no automated API into the registry, so a human has to do it. You're then paying a broker to find a buyer and a seller and line them up. And on the other end, a company has to pay someone to handle or surrender the LGCs — in our case, we'll surrender them on behalf of the organisations that engage us in that voluntary market. That also takes time. The LGC market as it remains is non-viable. There needs to be a policy update there. If there was a relevant policy update, do you think we could see LGC prices moving up again? If the government wants a rapid mobilisation of commercial and industrial renewables, especially behind-the-meter facilities, they need to get certificate prices above A$20/MWh. Get the price above that, and you will see a flood of new renewables being deployed. By Liang Lei and Juan Weik Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2026. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.

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