Australia might boast about the uptake of renewables in recent years, but its major energy utilities still trail their global peers, and have been given a relatively poor rating for the speed of their transition to green energy. Bloomberg NEF has rated 98 power utilities across the world, and the report focuses on the large, influential power generators in most major markets on their preparedness for a low-carbon world. Two Australian utilities were included in its utilities transition scores, and both fell below the median, with AGL at number 52 and Origin at number 60.
According to BNEF the main reason is their thermal power sources (particularly coal) which account for a large share of both companies’ overall capacities. AGL recently rejected joint bids from Australian tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes and Canada’s Brookfield, who wanted to accelerate that company’s exit from coal, while Origin recently fast tracked the closure of its one coal generator, Eraring, to 2025. “Emissions intensity of power production is a major differentiator between utilities and is the highest-weighted metric in our model,” a BNEF spokesperson said. “Additionally, neither is adding renewables capacity […]
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Photo credit: AGL Energy
