Australian government has reached an agreement with Labor party to reduce Australia’s renewable energy target (RET) to 33.000 GW/h.
In addition to agreeing to a reduced RET, Australian government also agreed to remove the review provision under which the government proposed to review RET scheme every two years, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.
RET is set to 20 percent of electricity generation from renewables by 2020, which amounts to 41.000 GW/h.
The Australian government proposed the reduction of the RET target to 26.000 GW/h, and the introduction of review provision for RET.
Kane Thornton, CEO of Clean Energy Council, said that since the review of RET target began, it resulted in a collapse of investment in new large-scale renewable energy such as solar and wind farms to levels almost 90 percent lower than the year before.
The renewable industry and Labor party opposed this, proposing to split the differenece set up the RET target to 33.500 GW/h, to get the industry moving again.
“We’re looking forward to the renewable energy industry getting out there and meeting a target which means they have to build more renewable energy generation in the next five years than they’ve built in the last 15,” Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane was quoted as saying by The Sydney Morning Herald.
Instead of two-yearly reviews, the Clean Energy Regulator will publish an annual report outlining the progress of the industry to the RET.
Kane Thornton said that the agreement to remove the review provision was the final major stumbling block for the renewable energy industry.
Thornton added: “I’m confident that a final agreement can now be negotiated which will deliver the necessary bipartisan support for the RET, restoring stability to the policy and allowing the industry to meet the revised target.
“It is important that this in-principle agreement between the two major parties is effectively translated into legislation and that this is passed as quickly as possible, to secure a future for the renewable energy industry. After 15 long months, this is now within reach and we look forward to working with both major parties in the coming days to close out this deal.”
Clean Energy Council is an industry association made up of more than 550 member companies operating in the fields of renewable energy and energy efficiency. CEC member are involved in the development or deployment of clean energy technologies such as bioenergy, cogeneration, energy efficiency, geothermal, hydro, solar, solar hot water, marine energy and wind.
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