Kent Lundberg

Neoen's Collie Battery Stage 2 goes operational in WA Renewables giant Neoen has commenced operations at the 341MW/1,363MWh Collie Battery Stage 2 in Western Australia.

15 months to get Stage 2 of Collie Battery in Australia going. 👀 Combined capacity = 560MW. esdnews.com.au/neoens-colli...

It's 2025 and our economic model is still reliant on maintaining a decent bufferstock of unemployed people. This model was *designed* to ensure that employers have the upper hand (and labour could be uberised). Govt distract us from this reality by bashing beneficiaries and abdicating responsibility

There are a lot of these in Costa Mesa, CA. In some cases the alley was condemned and removed.

Deloitte to refund government, admits using AI in $440k report Deloitte will issue a partial refund to the government after admitting that artificial intelligence had been used in the creation of a report littered with errors.

Report “littered with errors including three nonexistent academic references” www.afr.com/companies/pr...

New NPR pitchbot

🧐

Urbanists OUTSIDE North America Worth Following! Join the conversation

NEW STARTER PACK! This time I’m hoping to encourage and support global urbanists from OUTSIDE North America here on Bluesky, so hopefully this will help! Who’ve I missed? Just joined? Let me know! I’ll keep updating, so please keep checking & sharing this pack! And let’s try using #GlobalUrbanists.

It's difficult to imagine Trump ruling any country other than America. If he did, he would be an international pariah. But because he is the President of the United States, foreign leaders are forced to pretend that he isn't an absolute lunatic. It's really something

Morning rush-hour near London's Oval station. Trains pass underground every few minutes and there's a continuous flood of bicycles, but still there's one lane of gridlocked traffic. Your city will always have exactly as much gridlock as it makes room for.

YouTube video by Oh The Urbanity! How This Small City Built Light Rail For Cheap

The most underappreciated issue in urbanism is the Anglosphere’s transit construction cost problem.

It’s not just that we’re spending too much money on any particular project.

It’s that we could be getting *much more transit* for the *same amount of money we’re currently spending*.

“Adding capacity for development in higher-demand locations improves commercial feasibility as developers can have more confidence in buyer interest. This approach also makes better use of existing infrastructure and services, while offering people choice to live closer to what they need.”

Map of Auckland showing land value differences high to low

Demand for housing in Auckland. knowledgeauckland.org.nz/publications...

DJ Annie Mac performing for visitors to Oxford St

Two people are preparing and serving chai at a stall called Amala Chai. One of them is pouring chai from a kettle into a cup in a dramatic, high-pour style.

A dancer is mid-air in a split leap on a colourful street performance stage, with crowds watching and cheering on both sides. The street is decorated with pink banners displaying "This is Oxford St"

A large, lively crowd fills Oxford Street, with people eating, socialising, and walking. Bright pink signs and banners read “THIS IS OXFORD STREET – MAYOR OF LONDON”.

This is Oxford Street, completely transformed & traffic-free. It was fantastic to see community spirit in the heart of the West End. By removing traffic, this created the space to stride, stroll and explore.

This street is for everyone to enjoy with music, art, food and fun.

Great benefits, what about the costs? - Greater Auckland Big infrastructure projects are great if you only count the benefits and none of the costs. That seems to be the position of infrastructure lobby group Infrastructure NZ based on

Volunteers step in. www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2025/09/22/g...

Flooded house in Auckland, surrounded by fencing, being prepared for demolition.

Central Auckland houses condemned after the biblical 2023 flood are starting to be removed

No mention of overall costs, failed PPP, ongoing construction liabilities, just bEniFitS.
The sorry state of media covering infrastructure in NZ.

seems bad

How the Hutt handled housing: The city’s bold intensification push Behind the arguments over ‘shoeboxes’ and property values, the council-owned Urban Plus shows another side to intensification — one of stability, affordability and a sense of home.

Removal of parking mandates and zoning restrictions in Lower Hutt Wellington led to a boom in housing including council owned rentals. www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/3608...

One of the key elements of many European circulation plans is the use of a combination of strategies to create a large "no through traffic" core

Pedestrian and transit-only streets are complemented with loop-y patterns of circulation in isolated pockets, sending traffic back to through itineraries.

>Sydney’s CBD Light Rail project exemplified this type of risk-aversion, where guideway standards “sourced to America… that would befit a coal train” were interpreted as hard rules, excessively applied to a surface tramway – identified as a key driver of the project’s high cost

Zurich. “ The key to developing an urban space that is attractive to everyone lies in the organization of traffic.” 💯 www.stadt-zuerich.ch/de/planen-un...

The ‘exceptionally revolutionary’ National Party plan heard in NZ and now Australia Housing has been NZ’s economic drug of choice for decades. But it’s no longer giving us the buzz it once did. So how does the economy get its next shot in the arm?

Good on NZ’s bipartisan housing reforms. www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360...

Next year is rather vague!

😂

The recent back and forth over a proposed, attractive 11 storey building is a good example of the tension between maintaining status quo (gravel car park?) and a dense, vibrant residential precinct.

YouTube video by NYU MARRON INSTITUTE OF URBAN MANAGEMENT NYU Marron Institute Hosts Nolan Hicks on Momentum Transit Infrastructure Framework

This is super interesting and well explained. The incredible opportunity of speeding up existing train lines by electrification and better stations. youtu.be/Qe10JA9utOw?...

New Zealand’s house prices are finally falling. Could this happen elsewhere? Prices have dropped by up to 30% in some parts of the country – but experts say obstacles to home ownership remain

“At all levels of government, they want to promote housing supply,” Rehm said, adding that as demand slows and supply increases, the perception that housing is a safe investment has slipped.

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...

Great stuff @richardhills.bsky.social 👏🏼

#oneofus

YouTube video by Working Dog Productions When The Government Asks For An Independent Consultation | Utopia

Classic clip from the Australian show Utopia. When the government is looking for an “independent assessment” they know who to call. youtu.be/3M7SzS_5PlQ?...