Spark Club Podcast

We invited Killian Daly, CEO of Energy Tag, on to the Spark Club podcast on the 10th October. We recorded the podcast in London at an industry event.  The reason for having Killian on is it’s an important time for ensuring the policy settings are right for updating the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Scope 2 Guidance. The discussion paper will be released next week, with a two month public consultation period.  It's a great conversation about a common sense approach, grounded in the physics of energy, and how we need to make it accessible to everyone, even my Mum and Killian's Dad.  Everyone in the cleantech industry in Australia, and around the globe, is advised to follow this important update to GHG Protocal Scope 2. The changes will deterime how future large corporate emissions will be reported. The accounting standards need to be updated to meet the needs of ongoing deployment of wind, solar and batteries into the 2030's and beyond.   You can follow Killian Daly on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/killianpd

Spark Club Podcast recorded on the 3rd October 2025 Highlights China’s Envision announces a green passport for wind turbines Envision Energy, announced this week that its main wind turbine has been internationally certified via the Environmental Product Declarations (EPD) platform.

Highlights China Cleantech Exports Boom Lauri Myllyvirta @CREA notes value of China’s exports of clean energy technologies hit a new all-time record in July, passing the previous high from March 2023. China exported $18.4bn worth of solar and wind power equipment, EVs and batteries during the month. Australia Brazil Chamber of Commence Forum ABCC business forum in the lead up to COP30, Organised by the wonderful Mara Bun. We also head about Brazil looking to develop world leading green iron projects. Lowlights Qld LNP State Government Capture by the Fossil fuel Industry looks complete Climate science deniers in the State LNP have stopped Queensland’s powerful progress towards energy transition and decarbonisation, taking heart at the stupidity of Trump in the US to replicate his corruption of democracy Last week’s decision to pull legislation enabling the development of Westwind’s 1.2GW Forest Wind project in a state pine forest – a monoculture with low biodiversity – creates massive investor uncertain

Highlights Adelaide Green iron conference Tim attends and presents at the WEF / Greenhouse green iron event, with almost 200 people from government, industry, think tanks and finance talking about the opportunities for green iron projects. A key need is for Australia to get a couple of proposals to FID and into construction, and this is a key opportunity should Australia win #COP31 – to announce bilateral agreements and public-private support for a German-Australia, a China-Australia and a Japan-Korea-Australia trilateral deal into FID. China’s emissions down - Clean-energy growth helped China’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions fall by 1% year-on-year in the first half of 2025, extending a declining trend that started in March 2024. Lowlights Canberra - Not getting allocated funds off the table and out the door Energy Renaissance goes into receivership BHP  BHP Results this past week shows a distinct lack of pressure for BHP to show any serious climate effort, claiming EV technologies aren’t ready, and BHP

Spark Club - Linda Romanovska Introduction to Linda to provide context for the conversation Highlights Recent trip to Canberra with Climate Capital Forum International Court of Justice Opinion and the visit of Simon Stiell to Australia Lowlights The confusion and unproductive distraction cause by the “Omnibus” process – formally aimed at “simplification”, but realistically is “deregulation” of corporate sustainability. Main Story Europe Repeated, and unrelenting commitment to the EU Green Deal Objectives re-enforced on key recent policy documents, such as the “Competitiveness Compass”. It sets the new direction of the EU organised under 3 pillars: Pillar I: Closing the innovation gap Pillar II: A joint roadmap for decarbonisation and competitiveness – Clean Industrial Act Pillar II: Reducing excessive dependencies and increasing security. What’s coming up? Finalisation of the 2040 target - amending the Climate Law to include a legally binding target of net 90% GHG emissions reduction by 2040 (in time for

Highlights Australia’s Federal Senate Disinformation inquiry ARENA award to Calix $45m Allegra Spender Productivity and Tax Roundtable Lowlights Lithium Hydroxide Refinery Write-off by IGO Main Story The Race to 82% Renewables  AEMO’s Quarterly Energy Dynamics 2QCY2025 Methane gas generation plays an important but small and progressively declining role 25% upscaling of the CIS Big BESS News What’s coming up? CEF hoping Minister Bowen will go the top end of the CCA’s 65-75% reduction target. Australia is yet to win the presidency of #COP31, if we do, that will be a key priority for CEF’s Caroline Wang over the coming 15 months. End

Highlights Our first highlight  - the Capacity Investment Scheme.  South Australia’s high RE % record Green Steel subsidies from South Korea US invests MP Materials a US Rare Earths materials Lowlights Labor can’t seem to kick the fossil fuel habit heat pump numbers in NSW Main Story – China China's State Grid Energy Research Institute expects amazing deployment numbers EU is shifting on China Govt intervention on disorderly low-price competition Prime Minister Albanese's official visit to China from July 12 to 18, at the invitation of Chinese Premier Li Qiang.  What’s coming up? Climate Capital Forum to Federal Parliament 28-29th July. And milestone coming up for Nicolette Boele, MP for Bradfield.  Enjoy the 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'

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 Fin

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

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 p

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. In our main story this week Tim shares the details behind the Whyalla Federal and State government intevention to save the South Australian steel works. A facinating story. 

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.

Welcome to episode 44 of the Spark Club podcast. A large part of our conversation on this podcast is about solar PV as the engine behind the global energy transition. Traditional media still maintains solar as a rounding error, a technology in its infancy.  Well the stats tell a different story, which is why I'm delighted to have Andrew Birch 'Birchy', onto the podcast.  Birchy shares his start in the solar industry, way back when, and how his career has informed the work he's doing on the S-Curve. Birchy has distilled the noise down to one key idea, and a number of important stats, for our community in the energy transition to know deeply and share with anyone who'll listen.  The best way to learn more is on ebirchy.com This YouTube link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9VvXzvffq8&t=1s And Birchy mentions the Global Solar Council. https://www.globalsolarcouncil.org/ Enjoy the podcast. 

Welcome to episode 43 of the Spark Club podcast, and the 10th in our new Regular Podcast series. Tim Buckley, our regular guest is back for the final episode for 2024. In this episode we discuss the highlights and the lowlights for the week and then go onto discuss the recent Climate Energy Finance report - Australia is seeing an Acceleration in our Electricity Sector Transition, putting our 82% Renewables by 2030 Target in reach.  See link to report below; https://climateenergyfinance.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/CEF_82-Renewables-by-2030_17Dec2024-1.docx.pdf We will also discuss what stood our in energy in 2024 and what 2025 holds for Australia and ambitions for China in the coming year.  The Spark Club Live events will continue, so stayed tuned for our next one. Enjoy the podcast.

Welcome to episode 42 of the Spark Club podcast. This the 9th episode in our Regular Podcast series. This time we welcome Professor Renate Egan, Executive Director at the Australia Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics at UNSW to Spark Club. In this episode we discuss the discuss the opportunity for solar pv manufacturing in Australia and how UNSW remains at the leading edge of global solar innovation. Renate shares updates on early signs of progress and how Australia holds a global advantage for high volume, low cost solar PV manufacturing. We discuss the delicate balance for solar in Australia at this moment of complicated geopolitics, in the battle between molecules and electrons.  The Spark Club Live events will continue, so stayed tuned for our next one. Enjoy the podcast.