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Australia to boost battery subsidy scheme for residents
Australia to boost battery subsidy scheme for residents
Sydney, 15 December (Argus) — Australia's federal government will now spend A$7.2bn ($4.8bn) on subsidies for households and small businesses to buy battery storage systems as it grapples with increasing small-scale solar power installation. The programme will grow from the prior A$2.3bn, which was the previous amount allocated to the initiative, because of over-subscription to the scheme so far, Australia's energy minister Chris Bowen said on 13 December. The initiative provides discounts of about 30pc for the upfront installation costs for small-scale battery storage systems with a range of 5-100kWh. The discount has already been taken up by 155,000 customers, Bowen said. The expansion will see 2mn batteries totalling 40GWh capacity installed by 2030, the government estimates. Canberra will tier the subsidy starting May 2026. This means that the discounts are applied to the first 50KWh, for systems up to 100KWh. This links the discount to the number of certificates the system will generate under Australia's small-scale renewable energy scheme. The certificates work by a retailer or installer applying for the credits, which will then be sold on behalf of the buyer, reflected in a discount on the quoted cost of a battery system. After 1 May 2026, the general number of certificates created by each KWh of a battery will be cut from 8.4 to 6.8, with the additional adjustments for medium and large systems. Australia's retail energy prices have soared despite large-scale take-up of rooftop solar in the sun-drenched nation's suburbs, with one in three households in Australia having a rooftop solar array. Canberra is hoping that switching energy usage to the hours in the middle of the working day could help alleviate rising bills, which are a political problem for the government. By Tom Major Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2025. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
EU agrees recycled content for cars
EU agrees recycled content for cars
Brussels, 12 December (Argus) — The European Parliament and EU states have provisionally agreed on the end-of-life vehicles regulation. It will set mandatory targets for recycled content in new vehicles, phasing in 15pc recycled plastics content in 6 years and 25pc in 10 years. Targets for recycled steel and aluminium should also be established two years after the entry into force, after the European Commission undertakes feasibility studies. The regulation further stipulates that 20pc of the recycled plastics content targets will be achieved by plastics from end-of-life vehicles (ELVs) or from used parts and components. The provisional agreement still needs to be formally adopted over the coming months by majorities of EU states and also by the whole parliament. It will extend the regulation's provisions for collection, de-pollution and removal of parts, to all regular heavy-duty vehicles, motorcycles and both small and heavy-duty special purpose vehicles (SPVs). Danish environment minister Magnus Heunicke said the deal closes loopholes and "ensures valuable materials are kept within the EU economy, and curbs the export of polluting, non-roadworthy vehicles to third countries". Three years after entry into force, the regulation will establish a cross-border extended producer responsibility (EPR) scheme. Manufacturers will be financially and organisationally responsible for their vehicles over the entire lifecycle. And the new rules aim to better distinguish used from end-of-life vehicles (ELVs). Five years after entry into force of the regulation, exports of non-roadworthy used vehicles will be banned to in order to retain recycled materials within the EU. "This agreement sets realistic targets and minimises administrative requirements," said German centre-right EPP's Jens Gieseke MEP, parliament's lead negotiator from the environment committee. By Dafydd ab Iago Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2025. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
Australia offers support to Rio Tinto’s Tomago Al plant
Australia offers support to Rio Tinto’s Tomago Al plant
Sydney, 12 December (Argus) — The Australian government has offered support to UK-Australian producer Rio Tinto to operate its 600,000 t/yr Tomago aluminium smelter beyond 2028 through a long-term power purchase agreement. Rio Tinto subsidiary Tomago Aluminium will work with Australia's federal and New South Wales (NSW) governments over coming months on an energy solution to support the 600,000 t/yr smelter from 2028, Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese said today. The deal will include a fixed-price power purchase agreement and a commitment from Tomago Aluminium to invest A$1bn ($670mn) into the plant over 10 years, he added. A long-term power purchasing agreement is in the interest of continued long-term investment into the industrial future of Tomago, Australia's minister of industry and innovation Tim Ayres said at a press conference. But Ayres declined to comment further on the specifics of the deal. Rio Tinto in October warned that it may need to close Tomago at the end of 2028 when its current electricity contract ends because of unsustainable energy costs. It had been looking for a new energy solution since 2022, but was not able to find one, it said at the time. The company began talks with NSW state and federal officials over energy cost support for Tomago in June. It has run the smelter normally over 2025. It produced 426,000t of aluminium on a 100pc basis at Tomago in January-September, down by 2.2pc on the year. Australia's support for Tomago comes one day after Tim Ayres defended the government's industrial policy record. Industrial policy is "a rational, pragmatic response to the acute challenges of this moment," he said at a speech to the Sydney Institute on 11 December. The government's support packages for the Whyalla steelworks , global producer Glencore's Queensland copper operations , and global producer Nyrstar's lead and zinc smelters were informed by its obligation to preserve and strengthen economic conditions for Australian workers, he added. The government may also offer support to another Rio Tinto aluminium smelter. Tasmanian state officials have called on the federal government to back the company's 190,000 t/yr Bell Bay aluminium smelter through low-carbon production subsidies in November. By Avinash Govind Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2025. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
EU may crank up coal and steel research funds in 2027
EU may crank up coal and steel research funds in 2027
London, 11 December (Argus) — The European Commission could fund a much larger share of research in the coal and steel industry from 2027, according to a staff working document published yesterday. The EU Research Fund for Coal and Steel (RFCS) would fund 70pc of corporate research and 100pc of academic research into green initiatives if the EU moves forth with the proposal. It currently funds 50pc of both corporate and academic research projects, but has struggled to attract participants or meet its spending targets, noting that the "underspending of the project is rooted in a lack of attractiveness of certain aspects of the programme". RFCS spent 57pc of its €43mn ($50mn) budget for large coal projects and only 31pc of its €208mn budget for steel research from 2021 to 2024. Brussels, troubled by a lack of applications, consulted companies and academics this year and found that its spending requirements were the largest barrier. Most were unable or unwilling to fund 50pc of large research projects themselves. RFCS has supported a number of groups hoping to repurpose old coal mines for clean energy. GreenJOBS and Mine-TO-H2, two funding recipients, both plan on making green hydrogen from mine water, while GrEnMine received pilot funding worth €3.5mn to research new ways to store gravitational energy in abandoned mines. Others, such as REM and GI-mine, are working on new methods to capture methane from coal mines. In the steel sector, RFCS has awarded funds to hydrogen power projects such as ProSynteg and HYDREAMS and research groups such as BIOCODE, which hopes to replace up to 10pc of the coal in coke ovens with biomass. The EU dissolved the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) — an agency tasked with making a common European steel market, which eventually led to the creation of the EU — in 2002. The EU used revenues from ECSC assets to launch and fund the RFCS in the same year, and boosted the programme in 2021 by tapping into the assets themselves. By Austin Barnes Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2025. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
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