UPDATED 12/02/2014
Peak solar industry body the Australian Solar Council will be fighting the conservative Liberal-National government over any plans to do away with Australia’s Renewable Energy Target (RET).
To do that it needed funds and launched a campaign to raise $25,000 by next month to help it compete in the debate over the future of the RET.
The solar council defence of the RET comes as the conservative Liberal-National Prime Minister Tony Abbott has again cast doubt on the maintenance of the RET at its current level.
The bipartisan target is to source 20 per of Australia’s energy needs from renewal sources by 2020.
The council’s campaign would only go ahead if $25,000 is raised by March 9, CEO John Grimes said.
Well so far the fund raising has been a rousinding success with the Solar Council already banking $30,000 and support continuing to flow in.
“We will run a nimble and cost-effective social media, public relations, and advertising campaign targeting and influencing local members so they understand how the community feels about access to solar and so they vote to support the Renewable Energy Target,” Mr Grimes said.
He said the funding meant the Solar Council could now engage professional media and government relations experts to help craft key messages and guide its campaign.
Mr Grimes said the council needed to enter the debate ahead of the government’s RET review due later this year.
Mr Grimes said that means no reduction to the value of small-scale certificates, no wind-back on the current 100kW maximum size to qualify under the scheme and maintaining incentives for investment in big solar.
The RET has enjoyed bipartisan support since its introduction by John Howard’s Liberal government in 2001,” he said
“The Renewable Energy Target is under attack. The big power polluters want the Renewable Energy Target abolished and the Government is looking at that option right now,” he said.
“Together, we can save it because it means cheaper power bills and gives more than 3.5 million Australians who plan to go solar over the next two years the chance to go solar and save.”
However, Mr Abbott has again vowed to look closely at changing Australia’s RET, as Queensland’s biggest energy generator warns that the target is pushing up costs in the industry.
The Stanwell Power Company, owned by the Queensland state government, has announced that it will mothball its biggest gas-fired power station and instead resume using a 1980s coal facility.
In its submission to the federal government’s Energy White Paper, Stanwell blames energy policies, including the renewable energy target and the carbon tax, for its soaring costs.
The company made clear it believes that Australia’s energy policies are eroding its competitiveness as a manufacturing and retailing hub.
“These policies appear to have been implemented for ideological reasons with little analysis of the impact on electricity prices and economic growth,” said Stanwell chief executive officer Richard Van Breda.
The company says the target, to source 20 per of Australia’s energy needs from renewal sources by 2020, should be readjusted to reflect current electricity demand which has changed since the target was set years ago.
The Prime Minister Tony Abbott said he agrees the issue needs to be revisited and has reiterated his view that Australia should be the abundant cheap energy capital of the world given its coal and gas resources.
