IT'S been labelled by critics as a "spit in the ocean", "spare change", "modest", "a cheap and insulting thought bubble" and "an absolute joke".

Renewable energy company Maoneng intends to build a $1.6 billion, one gigawatt solar and battery hub at Merriwa in the Upper Hunter.

The availability and effectiveness of retraining programs for displaced workers would be a key factor in the the success of the Hunter's energy transition, the head of Australia's peak career development body believes.

Extreme weather, the early closure of coal plants, and a world moving to cut carbon emissions have shifted regional Australians' views on moving away from fossil fuels, a new report says.

The ALP has held the NSW electorate at every election since 1910. But with seismic changes under way, the valley’s miners are eyeing the future with unease.

Energy Estate and Japan's Eurus Energy have signed an agreement that will have the renewable energy developer take an investment stake in the $2 billion Hunter Hydrogen Network (H2N).

Shock, denial, stress, anger. Workers are struggling to comprehend the early closure of Australia’s largest coal-fired power station and the plan for what comes next. 

Renewables and battery developer Maoneng has revealed ambitions to build an almost one gigawatt solar and battery farm in NSW’s Upper Hunter region in a $1.6 billion project that chief executive Morris Zhou says has attracted interest from infrastructure investors and construction groups.

The Hunter Valley could become a world-leading green energy hub, with thousands of new jobs sparked by a $82 million funding commitment. A job windfall awaits the Hunter Valley under a Coalition plan to make the region a global leader in green energy production and export with a $82 million investment to kickstart a hydrogen “super hub”.

AGL Energy has signed an historic agreement with waste site remediation company NuRock to investigate the feasibility of converting millions of tonnes of coal ash at Bayswater power station into into construction bricks.

The Hunter's coal mines may have generated billions of dollars in regional and national income over recent decades, but a figure which rarely receives attention is the cost of cleaning up and rehabilitating the land once mining ends.

Australia’s energy sector is evolving at a breakneck pace. But what will become of the communities that underpin it?

Energy economists are warning coalmining regions to make urgent changes to diversify, with a Chinese slowdown in coal consumption "imminent".

NEARLY 65 per cent of the Hunter Valley floor between Broke and Muswellbrook is taken up by mining leases, according to research from the University of Newcastle.

Everything is upturned ... the importance of coal to other sectors is diminished

Ampcontrol chief executive Rod Henderson is one of many business leaders in the New South Wales Hunter region who want more from the major parties this election than a fear campaign about job losses in the coal industry.

WHOLE communities have been wiped off the map in the Upper Hunter as a result of the expansion of the region's mining boom and urbanisation.Some that remain, like Bulga, only exist because defiant and determined residents fought tooth and nail to save the areas where generations of their families have lived.

AGL would be required to give an extra 18months notice of its intention to close Bayswater Power Station under a rule change proposed by the federal government.

A Hunter Renewable Energy Industrial Precinct could attract $28 billion in private investment, support 34,000 new jobs and earn $11 billion annually by 2032, an economic analysis of the project shows.

Infrastructure giant IFM Investors intends to raise $4 billion by the end of next year for a new clean-energy focused fund to capitalise on voracious demand from clients to invest in green assets.

The latest national pollution data shows several Hunter and Central Coast power stations have reported significant increases in toxic emissions while overall power generation dropped.

Bananas and lantana have been highlighted as natural resources that can be harvested to help establish a zero-carbon economy. Professor James Murray-Parkes, a world-class applied physicist based in Newcastle, said using nature in a sustainable way would reduce energy use.

The Hunter is at an historical crossroads. How the region meets the imminent challenges associated with the closure of coal-fired power stations coupled with the decline of its economic lifeline, the coal industry, will shape its destiny for generations to come.

MORE than 2.78 billion tonnes of coal have been gouged out of the Hunter Valley since the year 2000, enough to fill Lake Macquarie more than three times over.

On the tarmac near Scone airport, readying to squeeze into the back of a Cessna 182 (which is a very small plane), I can see a thoroughbred galloping along a white fence on the hill, a few paddocks over.

Michael White's picturesque Wybong property is a far cry from the pits where he spent four decades building a successful career as a mining engineer and manager.

EX-MINER Pete Kennedy lives "a 303 rifle shot" from what he describes as 'Mt un-Pleasant", which he can see over the back fence of his suburban Muswellbrook home.

The first of Liddell power station's four 500 megawatt turbines will be shut down on Friday, marking a major milestone in the state's clean energy transition.

The federal government's $100 million investment in the development of Port of Newcastle's energy precinct will also supercharge plans to create a $3.1 billion hydrogen hub capable of creating 5000 jobs.

The Hunter and Illawarra regions are set to become the centre of hydrogen production in the state after a government plan to produce energy there ended up attracting production proposals more than eight times its target.

An independent Hunter authority is needed to coordinate the economic, social and environmental challenges associated with the region's clean energy transition, a regional delegation has told the state's political powerbrokers.

The transformation of AGL's Liddell Power Station into a world-leading clean energy and employment hub has taken a significant step forward with the state government's approval of a 500 megawatt grid-scale battery for the site.