Power couple: green energy, gas giant bet on renewables

An Italian renewable energy giant and Japan's largest oil and gas company are plugging into Australia's clean energy resources under the banner of a new company.

Potentia Energy will be launched at the Sydney Opera House on Monday as an Australian renewable energy firm co-owned by Rome-headquartered Enel Green Power and INPEX.

With rights in place for a development pipeline of over seven gigawatts across the country, Potentia is most focused on developing and acquiring assets in NSW, Queensland and Western Australia, chief executive Werther Esposito told AAP.

The company is not deterred by the risk of political change, with opinion polls favouring the coalition ahead of the 2025 federal election.

"The energy transition will go ahead in any case. There could be an acceleration or slowing down in the process," Mr Esposito said.

"Renewables represent, from a technical and economic perspective, the solution for climate change," he said.

"I don't think any government could deny that today wind and solar are cheaper than other technologies, and are faster in reaching the phase of deployment and construction and then supply of renewable energy."

NSW had suffered some planning delays that had hit investment but there had been a "strong improvement" in the past 12 to 18 months, he said.

The company also has a stake in Queensland, particularly in the north's Copperstring area, where the recently elected LNP government has pledged to stick by a massive transmission project begun under Labor.

Enel won the bidding in 2024 to develop renewable energy to power a vanadium mining and processing project, which is one of a number of giant resources projects intended to be connected to the $9 billion Copperstring transmission line from Townsville to Mt Isa.

WA offered a "huge opportunity" for the deployment of wind farms and battery energy storage systems, Mr Esposito said.

With a decades-long footprint in Australia's north and west, INPEX is Japan's largest fossil fuel exploration and production company.

Under pressure to reduce its global contribution to climate change, INPEX is already developing the production of liquid hydrogen and ammonia.

"They elected Australia as the market to start diversification of the energy mix and huge investment in renewables," Mr Esposito said.

"Of course in this regard, Australia is the place to be," he said.

Enel and INPEX joined forces in a share purchase agreement in 2023, with the renewables business operating plants comprising 310 megawatts of solar capacity across South Australia and Victoria and a 75MW wind farm in Western Australia.

A 93MW solar farm is under commissioning in Victoria and financial close was recently announced for a hybrid 98MW solar and 20MW battery project in NSW.

But with international firms lining up to exploit clean energy resources, Australians living alongside projects are demanding a share of future profits through community funds, power bill rebates and other benefits.

"The energy transition should be just. To be just it means that you need to support the communities and involve the communities in a proper way," Mr Esposito said.

He said Enel was proud of its legacy in providing support to areas facing a changing landscape and the impact of new infrastructure, including community funds, a focus on local hiring and providing training to support new jobs.

"It's an approach that is, for us, absolutely a pillar of our strategy," he said.

"We are still facing some regulatory ambiguity in what a social licence means, and we are trying to be a leader in the industry in helping and supporting all the key stakeholders in determining and defining what it is."