Spain's crippling blackout shows need for gas in a greener world: Woodside CEO
While authorities are still searching for the cause of the unprecedented loss of power in Spain, Portugal and southern France on April 28, Woodside, the largest Australian gas producer, has seized on the consequences of the disruption to drive home the importance of ensuring reliable energy supplies.
'What we can see with certainty is that these events reinforce the need to focus on energy security and energy affordability as well as – and not instead of – emissions reduction,' Woodside chief Meg O'Neill will tell the Australian Energy Producers conference in Brisbane on Tuesday.
'When we lose sight of any one of these, all three are at risk.'
As investigations continue, some analysts and commentators have raised questions about the Spanish grid's rapid shift to solar farms and wind turbines, which account for more than half of the country's electricity, and which can make it more challenging to balance fluctuations in supply and demand.
Loading
Rystad Energy analyst Pratheeksha Ramdas said: 'Spain's high renewable penetration exposed difficulties in balancing intermittent supply, while Portugal's complete reliance on imports underscored its lack of flexibility and energy storage.'
Spain's grid operator, Red Electrica, and government leaders have denied any link to the expansion of wind and solar power.
O'Neill's comments on the European blackouts come as Australian oil and gas executives seek to press the Albanese government to focus in its second term on making it cheaper and easier to drill for fossil fuels. Actions they are seeking include cuts to red tape, a simplification of environmental permitting and greater clarification on who must be consulted over offshore oil and gas projects to avoid ambiguity and 11th-hour lawsuits that force costly delays.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sydney Morning Herald
7 minutes ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘Frosty on Trump': Australians eager for more independence from the US
Australians are voicing a strong desire for the country to assert more independence from the United States amid Donald Trump's turbulent presidency, with most voters saying they do not blame Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for failing to secure a meeting with the US President. The latest Resolve Political Monitor survey of more than 2300 people, conducted for this masthead, found that most Australians continue to have strongly negative views of Trump six months after he re-entered the White House. Fewer than one in five Australian voters believe Trump's election was a good outcome for Australia. When asked whether it would be a good or a bad thing for Australia to become more independent from the US on foreign policy and national security, 46 per cent of respondents said they believed it would be a good thing, compared to 22 per cent who said it would be a bad thing. When compared along political lines, 56 per cent of Labor voters said they supported Australia adopting a more independent foreign policy and just 12 per cent opposed the idea. Coalition voters were evenly split, with 34 per cent favouring more distance from its closest security partner while 35 per cent said it would be bad to become more independent of the US. Since returning to the White House, Trump has imposed a 10 per cent tariff on all Australian goods, as well as a 50 per cent tariff on steel and aluminium imports. The Trump administration has also called for Australia to dramatically increase defence spending to 3.5 per cent of gross domestic product, while launching a review into the AUKUS nuclear-powered submarine pact. Since his re-election, Albanese has stressed the importance of Australian sovereignty and said his government would not commit to joining the United States in a hypothetical war with China over Taiwan.
Sydney Morning Herald
7 minutes ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
ASX set to slip, Wall Street hits record; US-EU reach trade deal
Wall Street ended the week on a positive note, with stocks hitting fresh all-time highs, while on Sunday, the United States struck a framework trade deal with the European Union, averting a spiralling battle between two allies which account for almost a third of global trade. The trade deal announcement came after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen travelled for talks with US President Donald Trump at his golf course in western Scotland to push a hard-fought deal over the line, which will see a 15 per cent US import tariff imposed on most EU goods. 'I think this is the biggest deal ever made,' Trump told reporters after an hour-long meeting with von der Leyen, who said the 15 per cent tariff applied 'across the board'. 'We have a trade deal between the two largest economies in the world, and it's a big deal. It's a huge deal. It will bring stability. It will bring predictability,' she said. The deal, that also includes $US600 billion ($914 billion) of EU investments in the United States and significant EU purchases of US energy and military equipment, will indeed bring clarity for EU companies. However, the baseline tariff of 15 per cent will be seen by many in Europe as a poor outcome compared to the initial European ambition of a zero-for-zero tariff deal, although it is better than the threatened 30 per cent rate. The deal mirrors parts of the framework agreement the United States clinched with Japan last week. On Friday, the S&P 500 rose 0.4 per cent to set an all-time high, the fifth time it did so this week. The Dow Jones climbed 208 points, or 0.5 per cent, and the Nasdaq composite added 0.2 per cent to its own record set the day before. A closely watched gauge of equity volatility – the VIX – closed below 15. The Australian sharemarket is set to slip, with futures, set before the US-EU trade deal was announced, pointing to a slide of 5 points, or 0.1 per cent, at the open.
Sydney Morning Herald
7 minutes ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Ansett Australia is back. But not as you know it
It was once Australia's second-largest airline, ferrying more than 10 million passengers around the country every year before it collapsed into administration in 2002. More than 20 years after its final flight, Ansett is making a comeback. Melbourne-based technology entrepreneur Constantine Frantzeskos has revived the Ansett brand, bringing back the iconic Australian airline as an AI-powered travel agency. The Ansett Travel platform, which is now live, is designed as a hyper-personalised travel concierge that will offer predictive trip recommendations and itineraries based on a customers' preference, budget and calendar events. 'Ansett was such a wonderful, innovative brand. It was a pioneer of great service, they were the first ones to bring business class to Australia, and they were loved by their customers,' Frantzeskos said in an interview. 'I thought wouldn't it be a cool thing to genuinely bring this brand back to life. And that's what I'm doing, I'm building the personal travel agent of the future. 'This will be a travel agent that understands you, your family, your needs, your budget and where you've been. That's the vision.' Ansett had operated for 65 years and was the nation's second-largest airline before it was grounded in late 2001, with some 16,000 jobs lost as a result. Its downfall was seen at the time as a 'perfect storm' of poor culture, financial strain, union issues and fleet mismanagement.
