The Old Double-Reverse-China: Australia’s Solar Industry Strategy?

Support us on Patreon... Tennant, Luke and Frankie are calling all Summerupperers to come join the expanded LMSU universe and support our Patreon! Sign up for access to coveted BoCo like bonus episodes, our notes on papers read, custom memes and climate mash ups of 70s soul hits! Head on over to https://www.patreon.com/LetMeSumUp.—If there’s one thing your intrepid hosts love it’s an acronym! PM Anthony Albanese served up fresh fodder for the LMSU crew in the form of A Future Made In Australia or as it shall henceforth be known, FuMiA! At this stage all we have are the tasty tantalising morsels of pre-budget delights in the billion dollar investments announced for the Solar Sunshot program and critical minerals investments with much MUCH more coming our way. Will the Government go big or go home in backing home-grown advantages and sovereign capability?  Our main paperThis week we picked a winner and tackled the ARENA-funded study by the Australian PV Institute, Silicon to Solar, which informed the so-far $1Bn the government is tipping in to the Solar Sunshot program aimed at creating an end-to-end solar PV industry in Australia. A dispassionate, objective look at whether we should establish a domestic solar industry THIS IS NOT! Your intrepid hosts tallied the arguments for ‘making PV in Australia is sensible’ vs ‘making PV in Australia is crazy’ and tackled the totally-not-fraught topic of what-do-we-do-about-China. Which one stacks up? Definitely not our current costs of production at any stage of the supply chain! One more thingsTennant’s One More Thing is “Everything Must Go”, a history of stories about the end of the world (featuring an excellent climate section) by Dorian Lynskey, host of the Origin Story podcast. Tennant’s real motivation for the shout out is that it situates Soylent Green as a climate movie. Cue *not listening* emojis. For a taster, listen to the Origin Story podcast's bonus episode on the book!Frankie’s One More Thing is the ISSB’s recent announcement that they are commencing projects to look at disclosure about risks and opportunities associated with nature and human capital. Signalling expansion to human rights and TNFD is super fast compared to climate risk which was a slower burn - exciting times!Luke’s One More Thing is the EEC’s Industrial Decarbonisation Summit and National Conference, featuring global energy efficiency legend Amory Lovins. Not to mention a gala dinner co-hosted by podcast superstars Frankie Muskovic and Tennant Reed!And that’s all from us Summerupperers! Support our Patreon at patreon.com/LetMeSumUp, send your hot tips and suggestions for papers to us at [email protected] and check out our back catalogue at letmesumup.net.