Green energy promise may fail: industry
Australia may fail to make good on a key climate change promise, the renewable energy industry has warned.
The government has promised to have 20 per cent of electricity come from renewable sources such as wind and solar by 2020.
The commitment, separate to emissions trading, is an incentive to get green technologies off the ground.
The government has released draft laws for the scheme to meet the Renewable Energy Target (RET).
But Matthew Warren, chief executive of the Clean Energy Council (CEC), believes the scheme won’t work.
“There’s a fundamental but easily repaired design flaw and we want that addressed,” he told AAP.
Under the draft laws, 20 per cent of electricity must come from renewable sources by 2020; that is scaled back from 2024 and the RET is scrapped in 2030.
The idea is that emissions trading will result in a high carbon price by 2024, so the RET is no longer needed.
But Mr Warren is worried the carbon price might be low, so scaling back the RET would remove the medium-term financial incentive to invest in renewable energy.
That means the scheme would not achieve its aim of getting new green technologies over the cost hurdle.
The CEC is calling for the 20 per cent target to be in place until 2030.
Mr Warren is also concerned about the new rebate for household solar panels, which is to be part of the RET scheme.
The rebate won’t be bigger for bigger installations, a disincentive for businesses that might contemplate a large solar array, he says.
The scheme will also give more credit to clean energy from solar panels than from sources such as wind.
A spokeswoman for Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said the government had done modelling that showed the RET scheme would meet the 2020 target.
Cathy Alexander
AAP
16 February 2009
Tags: Wind power, Wind energy
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