Spark Club Podcast

Intro -  The Resources, Energy & Industry Innovation Forum (REIIF) in Dubbo The Highlights * Tim's TED X Sydney * Net-Zero Export Target Proposal: ANU’s Frank Jotzo and Annette Zou * Heavy Equipment Decarbonisation: BHP signs MoU with China’s XCMG * China's Cleantech Outbound Investment (OFDI): China building cleantech infrastructure abroad (e.g., 10GWh EV battery plant in France for Renault). $170B tracked in cleantech OFDI since 2023 The Lowlights * For a 2nd time - The Albanese Government approved the North West Shelf expansion. The decision will put 4.4 billion tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere in the coming decades. That’s the equivalent of approving 12 new coal fired power stations The Big Story this week * Australian Wind Conference is coming up on the 17 & 18th July in Melbourne. * Australia has commissioned just 14GW of wind in the last decade, China did 20GW of new wind in just the first four months of 2025. * Much more needs to be done in the onshore wind sector in Australia if we're going to hit our 82% RE target by 2030.  What's coming up * Climate Capital Forum – Federal Parliament – Late July

The Highlights * Labor's re-election  * Bradfield recount - a celebration of the integrity of our voting system * Labor's Residential Battery Program - Minister Bowen re-commits to his election pledge of $2.3bn home and business BESS subsidy * Australia on track to see utility BESS increase 8x to 16GW by end 2027 The Lowlights * The Albanese Government approved the North West Shelf expansion. The decision will put 4.4 billion tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere in the coming decades. That’s the equivalent of approving 12 new coal fired power stations * Queensland Deputy Premier rejecting a 450MW Wind farm and BESS - climate science denialism in the LNP strikes again The Big Story this week * China emissions peaked in March 2024, and now for 12 months have plateaued and marginally declined * 4MCY2025 thermal power generation in China down 3.6% yoy  * China installs 46GW of solar in just the single month of April 2025 What's coming up * A carbon market price path towards an Asian CBAM - new Climate Energy Finance report released next week

Great conversation recorded at the How to Lobby Canberra at the live Spark Club event at EnergyLab in Sydney. Thanks to Kylea (Pronounced Kylie) Tink and Blair Palese for an open and honest scorecard on how the cleantech and climate sector is performing in Canberra. The 'Shine Baby Shine' side shone on the night. The Cleantech / Climate industry has work to do in;  1. Aligning our message 2. Funding our positive message directly to the public, and in Canberra 3. Maturing as an industry, if we're going to be taken seriously This is a REDACTED podcast of our conversation on the night. As you'll hear, it's always worth coming along to the live Spark Club events in Sydney if you're able to.  Thanks again to Kylea and Blair for coming along to Spark Club and sharing this valuable conversation in the public domain.   

Tim Buckley joins the Spark Club regular podcast in the lead up to the Australian Federal Election on the 3rd May 2025.  Highlights China 1QCY2025 electricity statistics. Battery Energy Storage BESS announcements continue at a rapid speed and scale, with proposals advancing across Australia almost daily. China’s response to the US trade war Lowlights Rolled into the Main Story this week.  Main Story New Climate Energy Finance report: “COALITION’S NUCLEAR FOLLY WOULD COST AUSTRALIAN ECONOMY AT LEAST $4.3 TRILLION BY 2050” What’s coming up? The Australian Federal election on the 3rd of May, will Labor win? 

In our first Live Spark Club event for 2025 Danny Kennedy joins us to share his recent experience on the ground in Pakistan and Bangladesh where he witnessed first hand the Energy Transformation underway with rapid deployment of solar PV.  Danny shares the positive effect of China's Five Year Plans and the flywheel effect of low cost solar PV, battery storage and EV's deployed in new markets.  We also discuss Australia as a beacon of successfully integrating high renewable energy assets onto our grid and how our leadership should be seen as an opportunity to build strong commercial relationships with our immediate Asian neighbours. And the opportunity for Australian to unlock the value of low cost energy in processing our iron ore, polysilicon etc, to bolster our economy and much needed exports.     Danny remains a solar rooftop revolutionary and shares great stories of optimism, and challenges from his time travelling and learning from economies moving from energy transtion to energy transformation.  Links to books mentioned in our convesation; More and More and More https://www.penguin.com.au/books/more-and-more-and-more-9780241718896 Stellar https://www.amazon.com.au/Stellar-world-beyond-limits-there/dp/1067046402 Spark Club Live Event - How to Lobby Canberra https://events.humanitix.com/how-to-lobby-canberra Enjoy the podcast  

Tim Buckley joins the Spark Club regular podcast on the day the Australian Federal Election is announced for 2025.  Highlights Federal election has been called this morning - for 3rd May 2025 Budget - not much climate or energy information in the budget, perhaps there's more to be announced during the election.   BYD’s amazing stats. Matt Pollard's oped in RenewEconomy. 120,000 R&D staff!!! EV momentum Tim shares overall EV market stats, perhaps a lowlight for Tesla.  Caroline’s Wang work on electricity generation stats. Highlighting the first two months of 2025 performance. Lowlights Tim Buckley article in the Guardian.  Peter Dutton’s new energy plan sounds like a gas. In reality it means more emissions – and more profits for industry Main Story Harry Martin's International Solar PV and Bess Manufacturing Trends. See Climate Energy Finance report.  What’s coming up? The Electrification of everything announcement - National Household battery strategy.     

It's great to welcome Dr Zhengrong Shi onto the Spark Club podcast. We had some time before a UNSW Fireside Chat event with Professor Martin Green and Dr Shi. We open our conversation with Dr Shi’s thoughts on entrepreneurship and the six principles of what it takes to build a successful business. We discuss solar manufacturing from its infancy in China and Suntech’s contribution as a cornerstone, ‘root company, of the solar sector. We then explore the distributed solar manufacturing potential for Australia, and other Nations, and how new markets are emerging in Pakistan for example. Dr Shi shares the progress he is making with his new hydrogen venture based in Australia and its potential to leverage the his experience gained in silicon solar cells. We wrap up with the changes in solar policy in China in 2025 and the impact expected to the deployment numbers before and after the June change this year. And lastly Dr Shi shares his views on the future of the energy sector over the next decade. Enjoy the podcast. 

This week Tim shares his highlights, lowlights and main story with us starting with; Highlights Green iron report by Deloitte & WWF. The Fifth Estate forum with Matt Kean and Martijn Wilder hosted at the Greenhouse. China's massive US$11bn 19GW (85% RE) Qaidam Golmud East Desert Base Power Project.  Canadian Solar's reported CY2024 BESS shipments surged 505% yoy to 6.5GWh. Engie pulls out of a Texas gas project as the numbers no longer stack up. And EV highlights for BYD, not so much for Tesla Lowlights Gas cartel stitch up. Story by Royce Kurmelovs via Drilled Media. Main Story ENGIE of France reconfirming its NZE by 2045 commitments and aims to invest €21-24 billion in growth capex over the next 3 years Coming up Climate Action Week Sydney - over 200 events in Sydeney and online. Link to Tickets.  End

This week Tim shares some good news from Canberra with the Climate Capital Forum leading a delegation to meet with politicians across the spectrum and share a positive message. Our focus this week on the South Australian State government working in partnership with the PM Anthony Albanese Federal Government to put the financially distressed Sanjeev Gupta GFG Alliance's OneSteel Manufacturing division into administration, and to offer a A$2.4bn rescue and modernisation package to transform Whyalla into a potentially world leading green iron and steel centre. For more information, refer our detailed Linkedin post here: https://lnkd.in/gkxY-hCE And Climate Energy Finance's Matt Pollard published his key thoughts in RenewEconomy here: https://lnkd.in/g3J6HxQK Enjoy the podcast. 

Welcome to episode 45 of the Spark Club podcast. Tim Buckley is back to take us through our regular format of Highlights, Lowlights, The Main Story and What Coming Up.  In this episode we open with good news from the Middle East as large scale solar and battery storage deployment hits new records. Tim shares news on the $2Bn Green Aluminium production tax credits, Labor's 2025 Build Australia's Future plan and big BESS installations numbers across across the world. Amazing.    In the Main Story for the week we discuss China's headline energy and economic growth numbers in 2024 and China's carbon emissions stats filtering through from Lauri Myllyvirta at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.  To wrap up Tim shares what he's up to in Canberra this coming week.   The Spark Club Live events will continue, so stayed tuned for our next one. Enjoy the podcast.