In today’s talking points: South Australia set to launch world’s largest battery; Rio Tinto and Sinosteel Corp extend their agreement at the Channar mine in Western Australia; Liquefied natural gas producers benefiting from China’s pollution cuts; Development of the northern parts of Australia.
South Australia set to launch world’s largest battery
South Australia’s $530m energy plan to bring stability to the state’s energy network is coming into fruition as Tesla’s lithium ion battery enters into its final stage of testing. The battery, installed at Jamestown, is being charged and tested to ensure it meets all government regulations. Following on from this, the battery, which is the world’s largest to store renewable energy, will be launched next week in an effort to avoid a repeat of last year’s blackout that affected the whole state due to severe storms and load shedding across Adelaide.
Read more at: The Guardian
Rio Tinto and Sinosteel Corp extend their agreement at the Channar mine in Western Australia
Rio Tinto and China’s Sinosteel Corp have again extended their agreement to include the mining of an additional 10 million tonnes (Mt) of iron ore from the Channar mine in the Pilbara, Western Australia. This extension will see Sinosteel make a $US15 million ($19.7 million) upfront payment and production royalties linked to the iron ore price. According to Rio Tinto Iron Ore chief executive Chris Salisbury, “This extension represents another milestone in our 30-year partnership that has seen more than 250Mt of iron ore delivered from the Pilbara to China.”
Read more at: Australian Mining
Liquefied natural gas producers benefiting from China’s pollution cuts
Winter in China is known for its higher than normal pollution levels, largely due to its additional energy needs for heating. However, China is looking to curb this through the use of cleaner burning fossil fuels, such as LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas). As part of its policy to shift to cleaner forms of energy, China plans to increase gas usage from around 6% of its total energy mix currently, to 10% over the next few years. This increase in demand has seen the LNG price rise sharply and hit 3 year highs on the North Asian LNG spot price.
Read more at: ABC
Development of the northern parts of Australia
A high-level investment forum was held this week in northern Queensland, as part of an effort to attract more foreign investment to develop the northern part of Australia. The invitation only forum saw more the 500 delegates attend from all over the world. Keynote speaker, Ning Jizhe, vice chairman of China’s National Development and Reform Commission, proposed further China-Australia investments. Further to the point, the Australian government believes the plan to develop the northern parts of Australia and China’s ‘Belt and Roads initiative’, have strong commonality and alignment, and the opportunity exists for future developments.
Read more at: Xinhua