Every Australian government decision about land, energy, hazards or growth ultimately rests on a stack of place data — cadastre, generation traces, vegetation, exposure layers, tenements, addresses. This report is the first independent map of who runs what: 8 federal custodians, 8 state spatial agencies, 100+ datasets across 14 thematic buckets. The energy market — 200 TWh, 83 GW, ~25 GW behind-the-meter — is the live case study throughout.
100+
Australian place-data sources catalogued
Across 14 thematic buckets — energy, gas, mining, land, environment, demand
200 TWh
Annual NEM electricity sent out
Plus ~25 GW behind-the-meter rooftop solar
~83 GW
Installed grid-connected capacity
NEM + SWIS + NT/regional islanded
6,000 PJ
Australian primary energy consumption
Transport 30%, industrial 40%, residential + commercial 30%
215
Safeguard Mechanism facilities (>100 ktCO2-e)
Baselines decline ~4.9% per year to 2030
8
Federal place-data custodians
Finance · ONDC · GA · CSIRO · ABS · BOM · DCCEEW · ABARES
8
State / territory spatial agencies
All on ANZLIC + ICSM
6
Structural data gaps with no current owner
Each gap is a story
Every policy claim about Australia eventually meets the ground. Where are the dwellings, the smelters, the bushfire-exposed homes, the rooftop-solar postcodes, the gas pipelines? Who owns the layer that answers that — and on what licence? This report walks the stack from the rules-of-the-road in Finance down to the council GIS team that re-creates the state cadastre because the national version is too coarse.
The energy market is the live case study. It is the part of the stack that moves daily, has the most public datasets (~100 catalogued), the clearest accountability gaps (CIS contract pricing redacted; days-of-cover opaque), and the loudest industrial users (Tomago, Bell Bay, BlueScope) saying the data they need to plan investment is incomplete.
Three patterns this map shows
1. Coordination & policy
Sets the rules. Owns the Data and Digital Government Strategy (2023–2030), data.gov.au, and the legal route for cross-agency sharing.
2. Producers — the place-data heart
Produces the foundational national layers — cadastre, geodesy, vegetation, climate grids, exposure, EO. The Digital Atlas is the closest thing to a national integrator.
3. State, territory & local
Owns the cadastre, zoning, addressing and most of the day-to-day delivery. Best-resourced metros run their own analytics on top.
Department of Finance
Portfolio: Finance
Owner of the Data and Digital Government Strategy (2023–2030), the Australian Government Data System and data.gov.au. The 'rules-of-the-road' layer.
Senator Katy Gallagher
Minister for Finance & the Public Service
Office of the National Data Commissioner
Portfolio: Finance
Runs the DATA Scheme — controlled cross-agency data sharing between Commonwealth, states and accredited universities. The legal route for place-data sharing.
Andrew Lalor
Acting National Data Commissioner (from 3 Nov 2025)
Flagship asset
Dataplace — the data-request gatewayGeoscience Australia
Portfolio: Industry, Science and Resources
Australia's national geological and geospatial agency. Produces foundational national layers, runs the Digital Atlas, chairs ANZLIC.
Melissa Harris PSM
CEO (from Feb 2025)
Flagship asset
Digital Atlas of AustraliaCSIRO
Portfolio: Industry, Science and Resources
Centre for Earth Observation + Data61 + Land & Water. Turns reference layers into missions: AquaWatch, Digital Earth Australia, the analytics on top.
Dr Alex Held
AquaWatch Mission Lead · 2026 CEOS Chair Team
Flagship asset
AquaWatch Australia — water-quality forecastAustralian Bureau of Statistics
Portfolio: Treasury
The integration hub. PLIDA + BLADE + Census + DataLab — the only way to ask 'what's the lived outcome at SA2 level'. 354 active research projects in Jan 2026.
Dr David Gruen AO
Australian Statistician · Head of APS Data Profession
Flagship asset
PLIDA — person-level integrated dataBureau of Meteorology
Portfolio: DCCEEW
National weather, climate and water-information. Owns the most heavily-used time-series geodata in the country — gridded climate datasets, flood forecasts.
Nichole Brinsmead
CIO & Group Executive, Data and Digital
Flagship asset
Bureau Data Services + Water InformationClimate Change, Energy, Environment & Water
Portfolio: Climate / Energy / Environment / Water
Houses Environment Information Australia (EIA), the National Vegetation Information System (NVIS), State of the Environment, plus the energy-policy machinery.
Mike Kaiser
Secretary (from Jul 2025)
ABARES
Portfolio: Agriculture
The land-use and natural-resource economics shop inside DAFF. Owns the authoritative Australian Land Use and Management (ALUM) classification — the spine of any rural-vs-urban analysis.
Dr Jared Greenville
Executive Director, ABARES
Flagship asset
ALUM — Land Use and Management ClassificationSpatial Services (DCS)
Narelle Underwood
Surveyor-General & Executive Director
Deepest foundational data work in the country.
Land Use Vic + DEECA Spatial
Craig Sandy LS GAICD
Surveyor-General · Chair of ICSM
Two surfaces — fragmentation cost is real.
Spatial Information (NRMMRRD)
Queensland Spatial Information Council
Peak coordination body (QSIC)
Strong web GIS, machine-of-government churn in 2024.
Landgate
Trish Scully
CEO (5-year term from Sep 2024)
The country's most ambitious state digital-twin commitment.
DEW MapLand · Location SA
Sandy Carruthers
ANZLIC Co-Deputy Chair
Clean collaboration model — environment-led.
Land Tasmania (NRE Tas)
Matthew Reid
Surveyor-General (from Dec 2025)
Small team, strong cadastre coverage.
OSGLI · ACTmapi
Stuart Fletcher
ANZLIC Co-Deputy Chair
Smallest jurisdiction, cleanest open-data licensing.
DLPE · NTLIS
Department of Lands, Planning & Environment
NTLIS is Australia's oldest land-info system (1980)
Strategy refresh underway for next 5 years.
Energy transition
Who has what generation, where, and what's retiring when?
Owner stack
AEMO + CER + GA + NNTT + state planning portals
Editorial take
Seven federal/state custodians — no single national map of the grid.
Datasets that answer this question (7)
OpenNEM
Clean Energy Regulator
Geoscience Australia
Australia's energy market is the part of the place-data stack that moves daily — 5-minute settlement on the NEM since Oct 2021, millions of trades, ~100 catalogued public datasets, and the largest single capital-allocation programme any Australian government runs (the Capacity Investment Scheme contracts ~32 GW by 2030). It is also where the gap between data exists and data is usable bites hardest.
NEM generation mix · 2024 (% share)
Black coal
38%
↓↓Brown coal
14%
↓Rooftop solar (BTM)
13%
↑Wind
13%
↑↑Utility solar
9%
↑↑Hydro
7%
→Gas
6%
→Black + brown coal still ~52% of NEM generation. Wind, utility & rooftop solar collectively 35%. Gas plays peaking/firming role only.
Source: AEMO NEMWeb · OpenNEM reconciliation
SWIS (WA) generation mix · 2024
Gas
50%
→Other / standby
17%
→Wind
12%
↑Coal
10%
↓↓Solar
8%
↑Battery
3%
↑↑Gas-dominated. Coal closing (Muja, Collie). Synergy commissioning 500 MW / 2,000 MWh Collie BESS.
Source: AEMO WEM data
Coal retirement schedule — 17.3 GW closing by 2047
Bar width = nameplate MW. Color = jurisdiction. Bayswater (NSW) is the single largest — 2,640 MW retiring 2033. Eraring (2027) is the first big shoe to drop and triggers most of the AEMO Reliability Standard tightening.
NSW · Eraring
Origin (with NSW Govt subsidy)
2,880 MW
2027
scheduled
VIC · Yallourn
EnergyAustralia
1,480 MW
2028
scheduled
QLD · Callide B+C
CS Energy + InterGen
1,580 MW
2030
scheduled
NSW · Bayswater
AGL
2,640 MW
2033
scheduled
NSW · Vales Point
Delta Electricity
1,320 MW
2033
scheduled
VIC · Loy Yang A
AGL
2,210 MW
2035
scheduled
QLD · Tarong + N
Stanwell
1,843 MW
2037
scheduled
NSW · Mt Piper
EnergyAustralia (review)
1,400 MW
2040
scheduled
QLD · Stanwell
Stanwell (review)
1,460 MW
2046
scheduled
VIC · Loy Yang B
Alinta
1,170 MW
2047
scheduled
Source: AEMO Generation Information (May 2026 update) · operator AGMs · state retirement notices
Top 7 industrial demand sites — the smelter / refinery cluster
Four aluminium smelters alone = ~15% of national electricity demand. Every six months these become the same four recurring stories. Industry maps this internally; the public version is what's missing.
Aluminium smelter
950 MW load
Rio Tinto JV. ~10% of NSW demand. Contract expiry 2028.
Aluminium smelter
920 MW load
Rio Tinto. Gladstone — coal-fired Gladstone Power Station co-located.
Aluminium smelter
660 MW load
Alcoa JV. On multiple government-supported deals.
Aluminium smelter
600 MW load
Rio Tinto. Hydro-powered baseline.
Alumina refinery
500 MW load
Alcoa. Gas-dependent industrial heat — VicGSR replacement TBD.
Steel + iron ore
350 MW load
Nationalised 2025. Hydrogen-hub future contingent on offtake.
BlueScope steel
400 MW load
Blast-furnace re-line decision pending; energy cost is biggest risk.
106
Datasets
energy-data corpus
54
Machine-readable
51% — CSV / JSON / API / shapefile
34
Partial
32% — tables in CSV, rest PDF
18
PDF-only / scrape
17% — human web pages only
Pick a bucket to see every dataset in it, its publisher, machine-readability and a link straight to the source.
Wholesale electricity
10
Generation, capacity, location
10
Transmission & networks
5
Gas market
9
Liquid fuels
9
Carbon, emissions, RE certs
8
Forecasting & outlooks
10
Industrial / manufacturing / mining
9
Demand, consumption, behaviour
7
Infrastructure consent registers
7
Mineral tenements (per-state)
7
Land, biodiversity, native title
6
International benchmarks
4
Civil society
5
A. Wholesale electricity
AEMO
Reading the audit — Bucket B (Generation, capacity, location) is the cleanest: every dataset fully machine-readable. Bucket J (Infrastructure consent registers) is the worst: mostly PDF-only — exactly where the federation seams hurt most. Bucket N (Civil society) is also weak — IEEFA / Climate Council / BZE publish PDFs that would be far more useful as live data.
These datasets do not existin publicly usable form. Each one is the difference between writing about a policy and being able to verify it. The number on each card is how many of YourGov's existing reports would change if the dataset existed.
1. National address-level industrial energy consumer register
We know there are 215 Safeguard facilities and ~7 anchor smelters/refineries; we have no single address-level dataset showing every site that draws >5 GWh/year, by ANZSIC, geocoded.
2. Real-time unified EV-charger utilisation feed
Plugshare, BP Pulse, NRMA, Evie, Chargefox all run their own APIs. Nobody publishes 'national chargers in use right now' — a key input for the grid integration story.
3. Council-level energy consumption + emissions register
We have facility-level NGER and state-level Australian Energy Statistics, nothing at LGA. 537 councils have to net-zero plan without data on their own territory.
4. Cross-jurisdictional REZ landholder payment data
NSW, VIC, QLD each publish patchy aggregate data. Nobody publishes per-landholder payments under host-community benefit schemes. Land-use trust story.
5. Capacity Investment Scheme contract pricing transparency
DCCEEW publishes aggregate CIS contract volumes; per-contract strike prices are redacted. The most consequential public energy spend of the decade.
6. SA2-level federal + state infrastructure pipeline
Federal MDPR + 8 state pipelines exist separately. Nobody can answer 'what's being built where I live' in one query.
7. Integrated cadastre × zoning × dwelling-approvals chain
Each leg exists per state. Joining them — for housing-supply analysis — is a state-by-state DIY project that every council and journalist redoes.
8. Strategic Petroleum Reserve days-of-cover by product
Australia holds ~26 days of IEA-equivalent stock (well below the 90-day obligation). Stock-by-product detail is opaque — petrol vs jet fuel composition matters.
Tomago Aluminium (Rio Tinto JV)
“Securing 24/7 firm renewable supply at competitive prices is the binding constraint. Wholesale price volatility threatens the smelter's viability beyond 2030.”
AFR interview series 2023–24; Senate Standing Committee submission
BlueScope Steel
“AEMO's reliability-standard tightening is welcome but transmission build is too slow. Energy costs are the largest single risk to the Port Kembla blast-furnace re-line decision.”
FY24 results commentary; AEMC Reliability Panel submissions
Alcoa Australia
“Pinjarra and Wagerup alumina refineries depend on gas. The Vic Gas Substitution Roadmap is inadequate on industrial heat transition.”
Alcoa Sustainability Report; Victorian Treasury engagement
BHP / Rio Tinto / FMG
“Diesel-replacement pathways for haul-truck fleets need a viable hydrogen + electric grid solution. The Pilbara is grid-isolated.”
BHP Climate Change Report 2024; Rio Tinto Climate Change Report 2024
Office of the National Data Commissioner (implied accountability)
“DDGS scorecard — three years in, what's actually shipped vs slipped? Implementation Plans give measurable claims to test.”
Finance 2025 Implementation Plan; ONDC published metrics
Council GIS leads (composite — NSW + VIC metros)
“We re-create state cadastre locally because the national version is too coarse or too old. Addressing fails at the boundary.”
YourGov scan of council GIS team interviews · 2026
Make the Digital Atlas a real national front door
Pull dynamic feeds (AEMO Generation Information, CER NGER, NNTT) into the Digital Atlas as first-class layers, not external links. Set a measurable target: 80% of the 14 catalogue buckets discoverable via the Atlas by Dec 2027.
Publish the place-data catalogue itself
Take this report's 100+ dataset entries and publish them as a versioned CSV at data.gov.au with the same machine-readability scorecard. Update quarterly. Public scorecard is the accountability.
Force per-facility CIS contract pricing into the public record
Aggregate-only CIS reporting is not consistent with the Public Data Policy. Treat strike prices the same way the AEMO Reliability Reserve does — published with a six-month embargo if commercial sensitivity is real.
Build the SA2 infrastructure pipeline view
MDPR + Infrastructure NSW + MTIA Vic + state pipelines joined at SA2. ABS already maps the geographies. The plumbing is a one-engineer project; the politics is the constraint.
Mandate a council energy + emissions register
ALGA + DCCEEW + ARENA fund a national LGA-level energy consumption / emissions data return. 537 councils currently writing net-zero plans without data — the gap is structural.
Replace 'two front doors' with a federation pact
data.gov.au · digital.atlas.gov.au · FED · DataLab · state portals. The DDMM should commission a federated-search layer so a citizen typing 'bushfire risk Penrith' gets the right dataset, not seven.
Read the companion insight
The Energy Data Front-Door Problem — short-form companion arguing the case for one of these recommendations.
Each idea below maps a specific problem from this report or the DCCEEW department profile to a concrete proposal, tagged with the existing budget pot that could fund it and the owner who would deliver it. Filter by theme to see the cluster, or scan all 14.
CIS Strike-Price Transparency Register
Problem
Per-contract Capacity Investment Scheme strike prices are redacted. Aggregate volumes only.
Evidence
~32 GW of CIS contracts targeted by 2030 — the single largest energy capital-allocation programme any Australian government runs. Citizens cannot independently verify value-for-money.
Proposal
Publish strike price, MW, technology and counterparty per contract with a 6-month commercial embargo (mirroring the AEMO Reliability Reserve disclosure model). A single dashboard at energy.gov.au.
DCCEEW administered, no new appropriation needed. Powering the Regions Fund admin would underwrite.
DCCEEW + Clean Energy Regulator
Ship within FY26
Council-LGA Energy + Emissions Open Data
Problem
No public LGA-level energy consumption or emissions data — only facility-level NGER and state-level Australian Energy Statistics.
Evidence
537 councils across Australia writing net-zero plans without data on their own territory. NGER covers ~215 facilities; NSW alone has 128 councils with bespoke spreadsheets.
Proposal
Mandate a quarterly LGA energy + emissions return modelled on NGER. Open CSV at data.gov.au. Geocode to LGA boundary via ABS ASGS.
$1.9B Powering the Regions Fund — carve out $15-20M for data infrastructure.
ALGA · DCCEEW · ARENA
FY26 data pipeline, first release FY27
Snowy 2.0 Quarterly Cost-and-Schedule Dashboard
Problem
Snowy 2.0 has gone from $2B (2017) → $12B+ (2025) → $20B+ analyst forecasts. Seven completion-date revisions. No public accountability cadence.
Evidence
Each cost revision arrives via media leak or AGM commentary. ANAO has flagged delivery risk three times. Citizens fund the overrun via consolidated revenue.
Proposal
ASX-style continuous-disclosure regime for Snowy Hydro: any cost movement >5% or schedule slip >3 months triggers a public notice within 14 days. Quarterly delivery dashboard published.
Snowy Hydro internal — under $500K p.a. Self-funded.
Snowy Hydro · ANAO oversight
Could ship Q4 2026
Smelter Lifeline Power Auction
Problem
Tomago, Bell Bay, Boyne, Portland — 4 smelters = ~15% of national demand — have contract expiries from 2028 with no clear firm-renewable PPA path.
Evidence
Tomago (950 MW, Rio Tinto JV) public position: 'wholesale price volatility threatens viability beyond 2030.' BlueScope, Alcoa say the same. Loss of any one = single-region shock.
Proposal
A standalone CIS auction tranche targeting 24/7 firm-renewable PPAs for the four anchor smelters. Strike-price floor + tax credit stacking under Future Made in Australia.
Future Made in Australia ($6.7B critical minerals + $1B hydrogen). Carve $400-600M as the smelter underwrite.
DCCEEW · Treasury · DISR
Auction design 2026, first awards FY27
Industrial Heat Transition Atlas
Problem
Alcoa Pinjarra + Wagerup (alumina) and BlueScope Port Kembla (steel) need industrial heat decarbonisation paths. Vic Gas Substitution Roadmap is silent on industrial heat.
Evidence
~30% of Australian primary energy is industrial. Six anchor industrial heat users represent ~5% of national emissions. Each has different fuel-substitution economics.
Proposal
Site-by-site decarbonisation atlas: technology options, capital cost, transmission/gas dependency, biomass availability. Modelled on ARENA's heavy-industry studies but published as a live dashboard.
$1.9B Powering the Regions Fund. $25M sufficient for the atlas + first three deep dives.
ARENA · CSIRO · DCCEEW
FY26 atlas, FY27 site reports
Renter Solar + Battery Access Program
Problem
30% of households are renters — excluded from rooftop solar, batteries and the Cheaper Home Batteries rebate. 'The transition is great if you own your home' (DCCEEW citizen voice).
Evidence
336,615 households in energy debt (avg $1,367). 185K Cheaper Home Batteries installed in 6 months — but all on owner-occupier roofs. Rentals locked out structurally.
Proposal
Landlord-side tax incentive + tenant-side bill-share scheme. Pilot in NSW (largest rental pool) with Energy Made Easy as the bill-split rails. Targets 50K rental dwellings in year one.
Cheaper Home Batteries program reweighting + state ESS/VEEC scheme alignment. ~$120-180M to launch.
DCCEEW · AER · state energy ministers
Pilot 2026, scale 2027
National Citizen Energy Advisor
Problem
Tariffs, rebates, solar feed-in, battery options are confusing even for engaged consumers. Elderly and low-literacy households just see the bill rise and ration heat.
Evidence
DCCEEW citizen voice: 'I worry about my elderly parents. They don't understand the new plans and tariffs. They just see the bill going up and turn the heater off.' 84% of households surveyed concerned about costs.
Proposal
Energy Made Easy v2 — a personalised advisor that takes postcode + bill + heating type and returns a ranked plan + battery economics + rebate eligibility in plain English. Phone channel for over-65s.
AER + Energy Consumers Australia operating funds. ~$8-12M build, $3M/yr run.
AER · ECA · DCCEEW
Public beta Q3 2026
EPBC Public Notices API
Problem
EPBC Public Notices register is HTML-only. Zero of seven infrastructure consent registers are machine-readable. Every analyst, council and developer redoes the scrape.
Evidence
Bucket J of the catalogue audit: 0/7 fully machine-readable, 5/7 PDF-only. Determines whether HumeLink, Sydney Ring, EnergyConnect Stage 2, 32 GW of CIS contracts get built.
Proposal
Public REST API + downloadable CSV mirror of every notice (referral, decision, controlled-action) within 24 hours. Schema versioned. Existing AusGov API pattern is sufficient — no new tech.
DCCEEW digital admin. ~$2-4M one-off + $400K/yr.
DCCEEW · DTA
FY26
REZ Landholder Benefit Register
Problem
NSW, VIC, QLD each publish patchy aggregate data on host-community benefit schemes. Per-landholder payment data is unpublished. Trust is the binding constraint.
Evidence
REZ rollout depends on landholder consent. Communities allege payments are inequitable. Without disclosure the rumour fills the gap and consent stalls — which slows the energy transition.
Proposal
Standardised national register: payment amount, term, type (host vs neighbour), REZ name, asset class. Same disclosure regime as the Federal Lobbyist Register.
AEMO Services + state EnergyCo/VicGrid budgets. ~$5M/yr nationally.
NSW EnergyCo · VicGrid · AEMO Services
Requires DDMM alignment 2026, register 2027
National Cadastre × Zoning × Approvals Stitch
Problem
Cadastre is state-owned, zoning is council-owned, dwelling approvals are ABS-collected. Joining them — basic for housing-supply analysis — is a state-by-state DIY job.
Evidence
Place-Data gap #7: 'Every council and journalist redoes the cadastre × zoning × dwelling-approvals join.' Federal Housing Accord targets sit on top of unstitched data.
Proposal
ANZLIC + ABS + state Surveyors-General + Treasury commission a single GeoPackage release per quarter: parcel + zoning + approval status, national. Modelled on the Foundation Spatial Data Framework but actually integrated.
$3.4B Resourcing Australia's Prosperity program (GA) — $15-25M would underwrite the integration layer.
Geoscience Australia · ANZLIC · ABS
2027 first release
Reef Tourism Conservation Premium
Problem
$6.4B Great Barrier Reef tourism economy contributes nothing structured back to reef conservation. 6th mass bleaching event in 2025 (most extensive on record).
Evidence
DCCEEW citizen voice: 'I'd pay $20 to visit the Reef if I knew it went directly to conservation.' Estimated $20-50M/yr potential at modest levy rates. GBRMPA programme funding cut 15%.
Proposal
Statutory levy ($10-25 per visitor) collected at tour-operator point of sale, ringfenced for GBRMPA + AIMS reef restoration. Sun-set + renew every 5 years.
Self-funding once legislated. No appropriation needed.
GBRMPA · Queensland Treasury · DCCEEW
Legislation 2026, collection 2027
Real-Time Reef Health Dashboard
Problem
Reef health data lives in AIMS, GBRMPA, Reef Census volunteer surveys, satellite EO at GA/CSIRO. No single citizen-facing dashboard.
Evidence
Great Reef Census got tens of thousands of citizen-scientist photos in one season. Tourists want to know what they're visiting. Scientists need cross-feed integration. Everyone benefits.
Proposal
AquaWatch-style mission applied to the Reef: live water-temperature + bleaching index + coral cover at 50 indicator sites, updated weekly. Public web + API for tour operators.
CSIRO AquaWatch existing investment + $1.2B Reef program. ~$8-15M build.
CSIRO · AIMS · GBRMPA
MVP Q2 2027
Murray–Darling Environmental Flow Receipts
Problem
Basin Plan implementation has eroded irrigator trust because buybacks are perceived as one-way. The environment doesn't 'receipt' the water it receives.
Evidence
DCCEEW Water citizen voice (positive): 'Environmental flows brought the Coorong back to life... native fish breeding in numbers we haven't seen in 20 years.' But this story is invisible to irrigators.
Proposal
Public 'environmental water receipts' — for every ML of buyback, publish what it watered, when, and the measurable ecological response. Restores symmetry to the trade.
MDBA + state environmental water-holder budgets. ~$3-5M/yr.
MDBA · Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder
FY26 pilot at Coorong + Macquarie Marshes
National Real-Time EV Charger Utilisation Feed
Problem
Plugshare, BP Pulse, NRMA, Evie, Chargefox each run their own APIs. Nobody publishes 'national chargers in use right now' — critical for grid integration planning.
Evidence
25K+ chargers nationally. AEMO operational demand traces show evening EV charging is becoming a meaningful peak driver. ARENA-funded chargers already report utilisation as a grant condition.
Proposal
Mandate utilisation reporting for any charger that received public funding (ARENA, state schemes). Aggregate to a federated public feed. Existing AEMO data infrastructure can host.
ARENA grant-condition tightening. Marginal cost — ARENA already collects the data.
ARENA · AEMO · DCCEEW
Grant-condition update 2026, feed live 2027
14
Ideas surfaced
6
Low-difficulty (ship soon)
13
National-impact
6
Themes
The supply story (how many GW of solar, wind and storage, by when) gets the headlines. The demand story decides who wins. Three things fall out of the industry data:
Where it all is — the industrial map of Australia
Iron ore, lithium, aluminium smelters, alumina refineries, LNG, steel, dairy, wheat, cattle, the minerals-processing plants that capture the value-add — and the Renewable Energy Zones that decide where the next round lands. Filter by commodity; tap a marker for the detail and the raw → processed multiplier.
📍
Tap any marker
38 sites shown — iron ore, lithium, aluminium, alumina, LNG, steel, dairy, wheat, cattle, minerals processing and the Renewable Energy Zones. Use the chips above to filter.
The four aluminium smelters — every one now a government-supported asset
Tomago
NSW · Hunter
~590 kt/yr — largest in Australia
Under active rescue negotiation. Up to ~$470M federal subsidy-backed power deal being negotiated for the 2026–2029 contract window. Wholesale prices threaten viability beyond 2028.
Boyne Smelter
QLD · Gladstone
~530 kt/yr
$2B combined Commonwealth + Queensland (50/50) commitment to a renewable-energy transition; operations supported through 2040.
Portland
VIC
~360 kt/yr
New 9-year, 287 MW contract from 1 July 2026; with the existing 300 MW AGL deal (2023) it supports operations to mid-2035.
Bell Bay
TAS
~190 kt/yr aluminium
Hydropower-supplied; one of the world's lowest-emission smelters. The structurally most secure of the four.
Source: Australian Aluminium Council · Grattan · DISR Resources & Energy Quarterly (Dec 2025) · IEEFA
The heavy load today — and where it's heading
The existing platform the transition rests on. Toggle the year to watch each sector's indicative trajectory — LNG and refining fall away, chemicals, food and mining grow into them. Bars in PJ-equivalent/yr (electricity converted at 3.6 PJ/TWh).
LNG production
Gas (self-fuelled)
430 PJ
↓Mining (excl. LNG)
Diesel + electricity
210 PJ
↑Aluminium smelting (×4 smelters)
Electricity
90 PJ
→Alumina refining (×6 refineries)
Gas
85 PJ
→Agriculture
Diesel
85 PJ
→Food & beverage manufacturing
Gas + electricity
50 PJ
↑Iron & steel (Port Kembla + Whyalla)
Coal + gas
45 PJ
↑Refining (Lytton + Geelong)
Gas + electricity
35 PJ
↓Cement & lime
Coal + gas
30 PJ
→Basic chemicals (ammonia, fertilisers)
Gas
25 PJ
↑Pulp & paper
Gas + biomass
25 PJ
→2026 from AES 2025 + sector reports. 2035/2050 are YourGov indicative projections — direction is grounded in AEMO ISP and DISR trends; magnitudes are illustrative. Electricity-led loads in teal.
The coming demand wave — 2026 vs 2035 plausible
Data centres + AI compute
~4 TWh→25–35 TWh
Real vs phantom demand (44 GW applied, ~6 GW real)
Renewable hydrogen (production)
<0.5 TWh→5–15 TWh
Whether export off-take actually holds
Critical-minerals processing
~1 TWh→5–10 TWh
Global demand + processing scale-up
Green ammonia
0 (new clean)→3–8 TWh
Tied to hydrogen + marine-fuel demand
Green steel (Whyalla converted)
0→2–4 TWh
Whether the SA hydrogen plan revives
Defence + pharma
~1 TWh→2–4 TWh
AUKUS execution pace
EV battery cell manufacturing
<0.1 TWh→1–3 TWh
Whether AU manufactures at scale
40–80 TWh
of plausible new industrial demand by 2035 — roughly the entire current NEM coal fleet.
AEMO 2025 IASR / 2026 ISP · DISR · Hydrogen Headstart · CMPTI
What it costs to compete — the $/MWh each industry actually needs
Sorted easiest-to-hardest. Critical-minerals processing and data centres already clear the bar at today's prices; aluminium and green steel need the REZ + storage + federal-incentive stack to all land at once.
| Industry | Needs (firmed, delivered) | Australia today | 2030 plausible | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Critical-minerals processing | $60–90 | Meeting today | Meeting comfortably | Meeting |
| Data centres | $80–140 | Meeting today | Meeting comfortably | Meeting |
| Food processing (electrified heat) | $80–100 | $90–120 retail | $70–90 in REZ zones | Closing the gap |
| Glass, cement, ceramics | $50–80 + carbon | $80–110 | $50–80 | Closing the gap |
| Hydrogen for export | $25–35 at electrolyser | $50–80 in REZ zones | $25–40 in best corridors | Closing the gap |
| Aluminium smelting | $35–50 firmed | $90–130 (subsidised) | $50–70 if REZ delivers | Real gap |
| Green steel (DRI-EAF) | $40–50 + H₂ $2.50/kg | n/a yet | $50–60 + H₂ $3/kg w/ HPTI | Real gap |
Source: AEMO wholesale data · Utilizer Q1 2026 · sector cost models. Delivered C&I price = wholesale + network + environmental schemes + retail margin.
The value-add prize — raw export vs processed export
Australia exports raw commodities and imports finished products. Cheap firmed clean power is the wedge that moves the energy component in our favour for the first time in 40 years. Bar = value multiplier from raw to processed — click a chainfor how it works, the processing options, prices & capacity, and the export upside.
Lithium spodumene → LiOH
~$1,000/t → ~$22,000/t
22×
Milk → cheese / powder
~$0.55/L → ~$8–12/kg
10×
Bauxite → alumina
~$50/t → ~$450/t
9×
Iron ore → green steel
~$120/t → ~$900/t
7×
Alumina → aluminium
~$450/t → ~$3,200/t
7×
Iron ore → green HBI
~$120/t → ~$500/t
4×
Cattle → processed beef
~$2,200/head → ~$5,500/head
2.5×
Wheat → flour
~$300/t → ~$650/t
2×
Lithium spodumene → LiOH · 22×
Hard-rock spodumene concentrate is roasted, acid-leached and crystallised into battery-grade lithium hydroxide. The energy and chemistry are the moat. Australia mines most of the world's spodumene but historically shipped it raw to China for this step — cheap firmed clean power plus the CMPTI credit is what keeps the refining onshore.
Source: DISR · DFAT trade data · sector reports. Multipliers are indicative price-per-unit ratios, not margin.
Where industry lands — the next 5 years, ranked
Overlay three layers — renewable-resource quality (BOM grids), REZ transmission build-out (state EnergyCo + AEMO), and legacy industrial assets (GA + state cadastre) — and the regions that win the next round of industry rank like this.
Pilbara
Resource + capital + miners already there. Scale problem if export markets don't materialise.
Hunter
Transmission, Newcastle port, workforce, REZ overlap, existing chemicals (Orica), data-centre proximity.
Gladstone–Bowen
Port, gas + LNG sunset, aluminium (Boyne), bauxite/alumina (Yarwun), potential critical-minerals processing.
Kwinana–Kemerton
Lithium processing already running, port, SWIS-connected and growing fast.
Western Sydney + Melbourne West
Data centres + AI. Needs transmission and transformers, not new energy industries.
Latrobe Valley
Transition urgency; G-REZ coming; existing transmission and coal-plant workforce.
Spencer Gulf (Whyalla–Pt Augusta)
High solar, port — but the green-steel commitment was walked back to gas in 2026.
Bell Bay
Hydro-firmed; needs Marinus Link + an export anchor to unlock.
Source: NSW EnergyCo · VicGrid · Qld REZ Roadmap · AEMO 2026 ISP · state Geological Surveys
If the demand side decides which industries we want, the supply side decides whether we can power them in time. The AEMO draft 2026 ISP has ~11 GW of coal retiring this decade, demand up ~28% by 2035, a 67 GW grid-connection queue (~46% batteries), 24 GW of grid-scale storage by 2030 and a $128B+ transmission roadmap. Three things fall out:
Eight technologies — speed × scale × certainty
Sorted fastest-to-slowest. Solar + BESS dominate the build because they have all three. Click a technologyfor the detail and a map of where it's being built now.
| Technology | Now | 2035 | Capex $/kW | LCOE | Cap. factor | Decision → energise |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Grid-scale battery (BESS) Wherever there's transmission — ~46% of the 67 GW connection queue is batteries | ~4.4 GW | 24+ GW | $500–1,600 | $60–110 dispatched | dispatched | 2.5–3 yrs |
Utility solar PV Wheatbelt NSW, NW Vic, inland Qld, WA Mid-West, SA Eyre/Riverland | ~13 GW | 50+ GW | $800–1,100 | $40–55/MWh | 22–28% | 3–4 yrs |
Gas peaker Tallawarra B, Kurri Kurri (660 MW), Hunter Power Station | ~12 GW | flat to +3 GW | $1,500–2,500 | $150–300 (low CF) | 5–15% peaker | 4–5 yrs |
Onshore wind NSW Tablelands, SW Vic, SA Spencer Gulf, Tas Central + NW | ~12 GW | 25–35 GW | $2,200–2,800 | $60–80/MWh | 30–40% | 5–7 yrs |
Offshore wind Gippsland (only confirmed buyer); Southern Ocean Vic; Bunbury WA | 0 (6 declared zones) | 5–15 GW | $5,500–7,500 fixed | $130–180/MWh | 45–55% | 10–12 yrs |
Pumped hydro Snowy 2.0 (2028), Borumba (2033), Tas Tarraleah + Cethana | ~2.6 GW (Snowy 1) | +5–8 GW | $3,000–6,000 | $60–110 dispatched | dispatched | 12–15 yrs |
Conventional hydro Tas, Snowy, far-north Qld upgrades only — new dams effectively impossible | ~8 GW | flat to +1 GW | n/a — built out | n/a | dispatched | built out |
Nuclear (Coalition policy) 7 proposed sites: Liddell, Mt Piper, Loy Yang, Tarong, Callide, Northern, Muja | 0 | 0 (Labor) / 1 SMR (Coalition) | $8,500–17,000 | $150–250/MWh | ~90% baseload | 18–25 yrs |
Source: AEMO draft 2026 ISP · CSIRO GenCost · project registers. “Decision → energise” is realistic Australian lead time including approvals.
Grid-scale battery (BESS)
The fastest-growing category in the NEM — 4.4 GW operating, 33 GW in the pipeline, 24 GW forecast by 2030 (≈9 GW more than the 2024 ISP). It's location-agnostic and sits wherever the grid needs it, most often at coal-closure sites (Eraring, Liddell) where transmission already terminates. ~74% of the pipeline now uses grid-forming inverters that supply the system strength and inertia closing coal plants used to. New builds are shifting from 2-hour to 4-hour as standard, with 8-hour the next default by 2028.
What it needs
Approvals
Low — small footprint, often co-located with existing infrastructure; fire safety is the main community concern.
Capex
$500–1,600 $/kW
LCOE / LCOS
$60–110 dispatched
Capacity factor
dispatched
Decision → energise
2.5–3 yrs
Capacity now
~4.4 GW
Plausible 2035
24+ GW
Where Grid-scale battery (BESS) is being built now
Operating
Construction
🗺️
7 sites on the map
Tap a marker for capacity and build status.
A coal plant closes in 2027. To replace it you needed to start:
Solar + BESS
by 2024
Onshore wind
2020–22
Offshore wind
mid-2010s
Pumped hydro
early 2010s
Nuclear
not relevant to 2027
Most of the next decade is the already-decided portfolio playing out. The only levers left for the 2027–2035 window are solar, batteries, gas and transmission throughput.
What's missing — the four bottlenecks (none are generation hardware)
Workforce
32,000–42,000 more electricians needed by 2030 (85,000 by 2050)
A Pilbara mine, a NSW REZ wind farm and a Sydney apartment retrofit all want the same electrician on the same Friday. Add transmission linesworkers, electrical engineers (unis produce ~half what's needed), marine + offshore-wind technicians (near-zero domestic capacity). Skilled-trade wages up 15–20% (2022–25); supply isn't catching up.
What policy could do
Triple apprenticeship incentives for electrical trades · fast-track overseas-qualified electricians + linesworkers · direct Commonwealth TAFE funding in REZ regions.
Transformers & supply chain
24–48-month lead times for large grid-tie transformers; ~25% of global renewable projects delayed by transformer supply
Australia imports almost all large transformers (Hyundai, Hitachi, Siemens, ABB); one local maker (Wilson, Melbourne) does smaller units, not the 500 kV class. HVDC subsea cable (Marinus) competes with Europe + US for a 3+-year supplier queue. Switchgear lead times 12–24 months.
What policy could do
Commonwealth strategic-reserve transformer programme (pre-purchased, stockpiled) · domestic manufacturing subsidies · Future Made in Australia hooks for transmission equipment.
Approvals & social licence
Most non-REZ projects wait 18–24 months for state EIS; EPBC reform stalled
Community pushback + slow approvals is the single biggest deceleration of the 2026 build. No national Aboriginal cultural-heritage framework — it's project-by-project. Wind-farm visual impact is an increasingly successful refusal ground. Hunter, Illawarra and Bass Strait offshore-wind zones were all wound back for lack of bidder + community confidence.
What policy could do
One-stop-shop assessment per declared REZ · national cultural-heritage framework with pre-authorised zones · statutory deadlines on assessing authorities.
Benefit sharing
No national framework for who gets what
Wind, solar and transmission concentrate in regional areas; the benefit (cheaper power, industrial growth) often flows to cities. Land-use change hits multi-generational holdings; traditional owners are asked to consent without consistent equity. Best practice exists (NSW/Vic per-km payments, some First Nations equity partnerships) — consistency doesn't.
What policy could do
Standard per-MW / per-km landholder + traditional-owner benefit-sharing · First Nations equity partnerships · community benefit funds + regional housing/childcare alongside the REZ build.
Australia has the resource, the technology and (broadly) the political consensus on direction. Every other thing about the transition is downstream of these four.Fix them and the build delivers; don't, and the 2027–2035 coal-closure window becomes the hardest decade Australian electricity has had.
The previous section asked where the build could land. This one asks what's actually in the queue right now — from AEMO's Q1 2026 Connections Scorecard, the CIS Tender 7 award (May 2026), the Draft 2026 ISPend-state, the named megaprojects, the federal & state capital deployed against them, and what should be in the pipeline but isn't.
Three things fall out: batteries are now the centre of gravity (49% of pipeline, up from 20% two years ago); CIS auctions have replaced corporate PPAs as the primary build driver; and the constraint has moved from finding projects to delivering them — workforce, transformers, transmission, social licence.
AEMO Q1 2026 Connections Scorecard — 67.3 GW in the NEM pipeline (▲33% YoY)
The pipeline grew from 50.5 GW (Q1 2025) → 67.3 GW (Q1 2026). Batteries did almost all the lifting. Gas applications fell 74%. Source.
Grid batteries (BESS)
Operating 4.4 GW
▲ 12.7 GW YoY
33.2 GW
49% of the pipeline. Up from 20.5 GW Q1 2025 — the standout growth category.
Utility solar PV
Operating 13 GW
▲ 3.0 GW YoY
20.7 GW
~30 projects under construction or committed. Curtailment risk in already-congested NSW Riverina + Qld Western Downs.
Onshore wind
Operating 12 GW
▲ 1.4 GW YoY
9.75 GW
Boosted by CIS Tender 7 (4.8 GW awarded May 2026). ~3.5 GW in actual construction.
Pumped hydro
Operating 2.6 GW
flat
3 GW
Steady. Snowy 2.0 + Borumba + Kidston dominate. Pioneer-Burdekin cancellation removed 5 GW from this line.
Offshore wind
Operating 0 GW
flat
2.2 GW
Star of the South only — 5 of 6 declared zones wound back or no progressing applications.
Gas peakers
Operating 11 GW
▼ 0.6 GW YoY
0.2 GW
Down 74% YoY. Only firm new gas: Kurri Kurri 660 MW + Tallawarra B 316 MW + Hunter Power. Pipeline thinner than AEMO ISP needs.
MAY 2026
7.8 GW
in a single round — more than the previous six tenders combined
AEMO Draft 2026 ISP — what 2050 needs vs today
The full system end-state. Largest gap-to-plan: flexible gas, at 0.2 GW in the queue vs 14 GW needed.
Utility wind + solar
120 GW
Today: ~25 GW utility (38 GW with rooftop)
Five times today's utility fleet. ISP 'Step Change' baseline; 'Constrained Delivery' scenario reaches only 75% renewables by 2030.
Grid batteries
32 GW
Today: ~4.4 GW
Seven-fold expansion. 2030 sub-target: 27 GW utility storage — AEMO calls it 'achievable only at accelerated pace'.
Flexible gas
14 GW
Today: ~11 GW
Slight growth — but the pipeline today is 0.2 GW. Largest gap between plan and queue.
Pumped hydro
12 GW
Today: ~2.6 GW (Snowy 1)
Quadrupling. Hinges on Snowy 2.0 (2028) + Borumba (2033+); both schedules slipping, costs blown out.
AEMO Draft 2026 ISP (Dec 2025) extends fleet retirement to FY2049 (was FY2038). Two-thirds of remaining coal still closes by 2035 — the next decade is where the build has to land.
The 25 megaprojects — ~60% of the entire pipeline
From project-pipeline/04_megaproject_profiles.md. The Australian energy build is concentrated — 25 projects across 7 owners cover the bulk of capacity. Filter by category to see only that slice; tap a marker for site detail.
Operating
Construction
Early / development
Proposed
🗺️
25 sites on the map
Tap a marker for capacity and build status.
Who's writing the cheques — federal + state capital deployed
~A$30B/yr peak-build investment expected 2027–30. Federal CIS underwriting now dominates new build; CEFC concessional debt + Rewiring the Nation underwrite the transmission spine; PTIs (hydrogen + critical minerals) are the structural lever for the value-add prize.
| Fund / scheme | Size | Biggest deployment | Focus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capacity Investment Scheme (CIS) | ~32 GW awarded T1–T7 | Tender 7 — 7.8 GW, ~$30B implied | Generation + storage underwriting. Replacing corporate PPAs as the primary build driver. |
| CEFC (Clean Energy Finance Corp) | $30B+ committed | Marinus Link — $3.8B (largest single CEFC commitment) | Concessional debt across renewables, transmission, household upgrades. +$2B in 2025–26 Budget. |
| Rewiring the Nation | $19B | Marinus, VNI West, HumeLink | Federal underwriting of priority transmission identified in the AEMO ISP. |
| Future Made in Australia Innovation Fund | $1.5B (ARENA-administered) | Green metals + low-carbon liquid fuels rounds | Bridging FOAK industrial decarbonisation projects. |
| Hydrogen Production Tax Incentive | $2/kg · 2027–28 to 2039–40 | ~$8B+ value if Murchison + Hunter + R2 all deliver | Per-kg production credit for renewable hydrogen, up to 10 years per project. |
| Critical Minerals PTI | 10% of refining costs · 2027–28 to 2039–40 | ~$7B+ value over the period | Down-stream processing of 31 critical minerals — the value-add lever. |
| NSW LTESA | Multi-billion contracts-for-difference | CWO REZ + New England REZ projects | State long-term energy service agreements with strike-price underwriting. |
| Qld Energy & Jobs Plan | $26B (2022–2035) | Borumba PH ($18.4B) · CleanCo build-out | State-owned generation expansion + pumped hydro. |
| VicGrid + VRET | Multi-billion VRET auctions | Star of the South enabling + REZ build | Victorian REZ planning + offshore wind transmission. |
Annual investment trajectory (renewables + storage + transmission)
2024–25
~$15B/yr
2025–26
~$22B/yr — CIS T7 + state schemes ramping
2026–27
~$25B/yr
2027–30
~$30B/yr — peak build
2030–35
~$25B/yr — levels off as targets met
2035–50
~$15B/yr — replacement + offshore + next-gen storage
At-risk + cancelled — the build that's slipping
Capacity that was meant to be in this pipeline and is now paused, cancelled, walked back, or uncertain. Each line moves a major plank of the transition story.
WA
Murchison Green Hydrogen
6 GW scale
March 2026 pause. HPTI cannot fix offtake gap on its own — green hydrogen offtake markets have not formed at the assumed scale.
QLD
CQ-H2 (Central Queensland)
3 GW electrolyser
Cancelled 2025 after Stanwell + JBIC consortium withdrew. Export-oriented hydrogen thesis broke.
SA
Whyalla green steel
DRI-EAF (2027 plan)
SA walked the hydrogen plan back to gas-DRI. Anchor for the Spencer Gulf green-industrial story.
NSW
Tomago Aluminium
590 kt/yr (~25% of AU output)
Viability beyond 2028 hinges on 24/7 firm renewable PPA at competitive price. Under active federal rescue negotiation.
QLD
Pioneer-Burdekin PHES
5 GW · 120-hr storage
Removed by Crisafulli LNP government 2024. Took ~50% of national long-duration storage pipeline with it.
SA
SA Office of Hydrogen Power
Hydrogen Jobs Plan
Office disbanded May 2026 — the state's flagship hydrogen industry policy effectively ended.
TAS
Bell Bay aluminium
Hydropower smelter
Post-Marinus economics uncertain — long-term firm hydro pricing not yet locked in.
VIC/NSW
VNI West (Vic)
$3.2B transmission
Vic energise pushed to Nov 2030. Holds back 3.4 GW of new generation that's queued behind it.
What's NOT in the pipeline — and why it matters
From project-pipeline/08_gaps_and_missing.md. The technologies AEMO modelling assumes will exist but no-one is queuing.
Long-duration storage (8+ hours)
Iron-air / flow / gravity batteries are early-commercial globally; almost zero AU deployment beyond a small Form Energy pilot. Pioneer-Burdekin cancellation removed 5 GW + 120 hr.
Synchronous condensers
ElectraNet (SA) and Transgrid have a handful operating; no new dedicated builds queued. System-strength gap as coal retires.
Concentrated solar power (CSP)
Vast Renewables' Port Augusta concept paused for capital. No utility CSP in the Australian queue despite world-class solar resource.
Offshore wind beyond Gippsland
5 of 6 declared zones wound back (Hunter, Illawarra, Bass Strait, Southern Ocean partial). Star of the South is the only credible 2030s offshore.
Geothermal
Cooper Basin hot-dry-rock work ended 2014. No commercial pipeline.
Marine renewables (tidal/wave)
King Island + Albany tests historical. No commercial-scale build.
Cultural heritage assessment infrastructure
Bottleneck on most >500 MW projects. Aboriginal Cultural Heritage frameworks are 4 different state regimes + EPBC. Workforce is dozens, not hundreds.
Renewable + transmission workforce
Jobs and Skills Australia + ARENA modelling exists; ~60–90k workers needed by 2030. No coordinated federal funding pipeline matched to it.
AEMO 2025 IASR
Data-centre connection applications vs credible demand
44 GW
Connection apps
6 GW
Credible demand
AEMO 2025 IASR — data-centre connection applications vs credible demand. 7× over-stated. AEMO →
What's over-supplied
What named operators are saying — public submissions + AGMs
Six named voices from 09_industry_complaints.md + 10_lobby_groups.md + 11_citizen_voice.md. Public positions, not paraphrase.
Tomago Aluminium (Rio Tinto JV)
Wholesale price volatility threatens the smelter beyond 2030. 24/7 firm renewable supply at competitive prices is the binding constraint.
Ask: CIS to underwrite firm 24/7 PPAs · faster HumeLink + Sydney Ring · reliability standard rethink
AFR; Rio Tinto AGM; Senate Standing Committee submissions
BlueScope Steel (Port Kembla)
AEMO's reliability tightening is welcome but transmission build is too slow. Energy cost is the single largest risk on the blast-furnace re-line decision.
Ask: Faster transmission; clearer firmed-supply pathway before FID
BlueScope FY24 results; AEMC Reliability Panel submissions
Alcoa (Portland + Pinjarra)
Portland on multiple government-supported electricity deals; current expires. Pinjarra alumina is gas-intensive — Vic Gas Substitution Roadmap inadequate on industrial heat.
Ask: Long-tenor firm contracts; industrial heat transition pathway
Alcoa Sustainability Report; Victorian Treasury engagement
Australian Energy Producers (ex-APPEA)
Opposes east-coast gas reservation. Says onshore gas (Beetaloo, Surat-Bowen, Cooper) is required to firm the transition.
Ask: No reservation; expedited onshore approvals; PRRT status quo
Federal Lobbyist Register ✓ · public submissions
Clean Energy Council
Connections queue and social-licence are the binding constraints, not generation capex. CIS auctions delivering but workforce + transmission throttle delivery.
Ask: Standing CIS rounds; transmission-aligned approvals; workforce funding
AEMC + AER submissions; AGM
Energy Consumers Australia
Bill shock from time-of-use defaults; falling solar feed-in tariffs without notice; hardship-program access inconsistent retailer-to-retailer.
Ask: Better ToU defaults; FiT transparency; hardship-program standardisation
AER Annual Retail Markets Report; ECA Consumer Sentiment Survey
Geoscience Australia and the states produce the foundational layers. CSIROis where most of the “answering hard questions with spatial data” actually happens — turning those reference layers into missions, analyses and modelling.
CSIRO — the analytics layer
CSIRO Centre for Earth Observation
Dr Alex Held — leads Australia's 2026 CEOS Chair Team
Institutional home for CSIRO's earth-observation work. Runs Australia's contribution to international EO programs; Australia chairs the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites in 2026.
AquaWatch Australia Mission
Dr Alex Held (Mission Lead) · Janet Anstee (Office Head)
A 'weather forecast for water quality' — satellite + in-situ sensors + ML forecasting algal blooms, sediment and dissolved oxygen across inland and coastal waters. The cleanest live case of a problem solved by geodata.
Flagship
AquaWatch AustraliaCSIRO Data61
Prof Liming Zhu — Acting Director
The digital, data, AI and cyber-physical-systems unit. ML, knowledge graphs, simulation and privacy-preserving analytics that touch place-data; a strong voice in responsible AI.
Flagship
EASI · Open Data Cube analyticsCSIRO Land & Water
Prof Paul Bertsch — Chief
Integrates land, water, ecosystems and environmental modelling. Less visible than EO but underpins water accounting, soil mapping and biodiversity policy science.
Flagship
Water accounting & soil mappingMethodology. This report synthesises the YourGov internal Research/energy-data/ corpus (13 working notes) and its three sub-folders — geo-ecosystem/ (geospatial custodians + CSIRO), industry-energy/ (industrial demand, cost-to-compete, siting) and where-to-build/ (generation technologies, lead times and the four delivery bottlenecks) — all May 2026. Every dataset listed has been spot-checked for current URL and licence at publication. The 14-bucket catalogue audit covers 100+ datasets from the energy-data corpus only; the broader place-data ecosystem is approximated through custodian-level summaries. The industry figures are order-of-magnitude from the Australian Energy Statistics 2025, DISR Resources & Energy Quarterly and AEMO ISP scenarios; plant-level precision needs the NGER scheme. Machine-readability ratings are YourGov-applied per the rubric in 08_data_sources_catalogue.md. Where we cite individuals, the source is a public role page or named interview.