Australia’s peak clean energy industry body, the Clean Energy Council (CEC) has warned the idea that Australia’s record level of renewable energy investment will continue in the current federal policy void is an exercise in wishful thinking.
CEC Chief Executive Kane Thornton said a study released by the Australian National University (ANU) was welcome, but the idea that the energy sector would deliver Australia’s entire United Nations sponsored Paris Agreement climate commitments would require renewable energy to maintain or improve on the record levels of activity in 2018.
“The reality is that the conservative Liberal-National federal government’s current approach to the energy sector is undermining confidence in future investment, which is essential to reduce emissions across the energy sector and the entire economy,” Mr Thornton said.
The CEC statement came in response to reports of new research that found Australia was installing renewable energy faster than any other country.
The ANU research said that trend would allow Australia to meet its economy-wide Paris Agreement targets five years ahead of schedule if politics did not derail the trend.
A lead ANU researcher, Professor Andrew Blakers, said Australia was currently installing renewable power four or five times per capita faster than the European Union, Japan, China and the United States.
That finding is based on preliminary data available for installations globally last year.
While emissions have been rising across the economy since the Liberal National government under then Prime Minister Tony Abbott repealed the former Labor government’s carbon price after winning government in 2013, they have been falling in the electricity sector because of the closure of ageing coal plants and the rapid uptake of renewable energy.
Professor Blakers said that trend was expected to continue, unless politics intervened.
“The electricity sector is on track to deliver Australia’s entire Paris Agreement emissions reduction targets five years early, in 2025, without the need for any creative accounting,” he said.
“Australia is on track to reach 50 per cent renewable electricity in 2024 and 100 per cent by 2032,” he said.
The research notes that in the year to June 2018, total Australian emissions increased by 3.4 megatonnes substantially due to increased Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) exports, but predicts that will moderate “because of stabilisation of emissions from LNG, the government’s Direct Action program and increased uptake of electric water heaters and electric vehicles”.
Co-researcher Dr Matthew Stocks said the price of electricity from large-scale solar PV and windfarms was currently about $50MWh “and steadily falling”.
“This is below the cost of electricity from existing gas-fired power stations and is also below the cost of new-build gas and coal power stations,” Dr Stocks said.
Mr Thornton took a more sceptical view saying the Liberal-National government was undermining confidence in future investment.
“The clean energy sector has the potential to make a huge contribution to reducing both emissions and power bills, as suggested by the ANU.
“But one of the biggest drivers of investment, the national Renewable Energy Target (RET), has now been achieved. There is nothing to replace it.
“We need credible bipartisan policy to give investors confidence and to continue the record levels of clean energy investment we are currently seeing.
“We need investment in the electricity network to most efficiently connect the best renewable energy zones across the country and create more capacity to allow new projects to connect.
“And we need batteries and pumped hydro storage from private and public projects such as Snowy 2.0 and Hydro Tasmania’s Battery of he Nation.
“None of this will happen by accident. It needs planning, consultation and political leadership.
“The current lack of federal government climate policy, combined with ad-hoc market interventions, risks squandering the amazing opportunities outlined by the ANU,” he said.
