Regulator says renewable target attainable
The Federal Government body responsible for monitoring the scaled-back renewable energy target scheme believes it’s possible to reach the new 2020 goal.
However, Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane is concerned the sector could fall short of producing enough clean energy to meet the bipartisan target of 33,000 gigawatt hours.
It’s the reason he insisted the scheme be monitored by the Clean Energy Regulator in exchange for scrapping two-yearly legislated reviews of the target.
CER chief Chloe Munro is relatively confident there are enough approved and financed projects in the pipeline to meet the additional capacity.
The new target will double Australia’s current clean energy production of around 16,000GWh by 2020.
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“On the information we’ve seen … it would appear there are sufficient projects for it to be achieved,” Munro told a Senate inquiry into wind farms on Tuesday, noting her information was “only partial”.
Macfarlane believes the Coalition-Labor deal to slash the target will still be an enormous challenge for the sector.
He’s told the industry, especially large-scale wind, to get busy or risk defaulting on the target, which was scaled back from 41,000GWh.
If targets aren’t met penalties imposed on energy companies would likely be passed onto consumers.
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“Those safeguards in place for consumers, it’s open slather for the industry to get out there and build this 33,000 gigawatt hours of generation,” Macfarlane said.
“We have our concerns about the ability of the industry to build in five years, what it’s taken 15 to build already.”
Macfarlane believes the real pressure is on the wind industry, which will struggle to build enough towers and secure agreements in an over-supplied electricity market.
Labor’s environment spokesman Mark Butler admitted the 33,000 target was an ambitious task for an industry that lost more than a year of investment.
“Unfortunately (33,000GWhs) was probably an inevitable result given Tony Abbott’s reckless attack on the industry last year,” he said.
Labor will look at topping-up the target if elected to government.
It will also strenuously oppose the government’s decision to include wood waste fuel as a renewable source.
The government believes it can win crossbench Senate support for the inclusion.
