News & Media

Mining magnate Gina Rinehart has lauded Donald Trump as “incredibly patriotic and courageous”, and a model for other world leaders, while playing down the prospect of a global trade war that could harm Australia should the former Republican president win this week’s knife-edge presidential election.

When the power went out in Broken Hill last month after a storm, it would have been reasonable to expect the nearby renewable energy super-array of solar, wind and big battery to come to the rescue.

The company of Gina Rinehart spent a speedy six weeks assessing whether to move on the energy assets of her friend and fellow Perth-based mining billionaire Chris Ellison before opting to take the plunge and outlay $1.1bn on the Mineral Resources energy business.

The Silverton Wind Farm and Broken Hill Solar plant were supposed to produce enough electricity to power 117,000 homes. They’re supported by AGL’s 50MWh battery facility at Pinnacles Place, one of the largest in Australia. Yet Broken Hill, population 19,000, has been in a semi-permanent state of blackout since a storm brought down the transmission line connecting the town to the east coast grid.

The chief executive of the Australian Energy Market Operator has conceded there is no guarantee the country’s transition will deliver cheaper power bills.

 

 

 

The doyen of ALP energy policy, Martin Ferguson, has called for a gas-driven power station in the Latrobe Valley in a direct policy confrontation with current Energy Minister Chris Bowen.

Australia is falling behind Qatar and the US in the race to become the dominant supplier of LNG and the country’s dwindling ranking should stoke alarm bells in Canberra if it is to address the looming domestic gas supply crunch, one of the world’s largest energy companies has warned.