Ideology was now driving energy policy in Australia according to the Australian solar industry, which has delivered a broadside to the conservative Liberal-National government.
John Grimes, the CEO of the Australian Solar Council (ASC), has said the government is on the brink of breaking key promises on renewable energy.
The ASC warned the government is about to dump its one million solar roofs program, cut the Renewable Energy Target (RET) in half, scrap the last remaining federal subsidies for domestic solar panels and axe more than one billion dollars of funding for research into renewable power.
“Because they have made an ideological choice it is then skewing all of the other decisions they’re making,” MR Grimes told the ABC Radio program RN Breakfast.
“This is poor public policy and not in accordance with what the people of Australia want,” he added.
The ASC has recently taken a strong stand in defence of the RET, setting up a fighting fund to put forward its views to both the government and the public.
Its concerns for the future of both large- and small-scale solar power will dominate the 52nd annual Australian Solar Industry Conference and Exhibition, which opened today in the Victorian state capital, Melbourne.
“It is being supported at the highest levels of the government and this is a campaign to wind back support for renewable energy,” Mr Grimes told ABC Radio.
“We’ve engaged in good faith, we have provided good policy advice to governments over the years.
“We are completely non-partisan, and we will support any party that has good solar policy.”
“Any smart leader, you would think, would not want to stand on the shore and command the tide not to come in, to be wedded to the past.”
“Their answer to too much electricity generation is to cut out solar electricity instead of retiring the oldest, least efficient, most polluting generation sources: the old coal-fired power stations,” Mr Grimes added.
Mr Grimes said the government had either broken or was about to break key promises on renewable energy, including the 2020 Renewable Energy Target that is currently fixed at 20 per cent for large scale wind and solar projects.
“What it is really committed to is a sham 20 per cent,” said Mr Grimes.
“The large scale target is likely to be halved.”
RN Breakfast said Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane and Environment Minister Greg Hunt declined take part.
However, ABC Radio said in a statement, Mr Macfarlane defended the government’s energy policy.
“The government is consulting widely for both the Renewable Energy Target review and the Energy White Paper and won’t pre-empt the findings,” the minister said.
“Australia has a diverse energy mix which includes traditional coal-fired electricity, gas and a range of renewables including wind and solar energy, and exciting new prospects in the form of options like wave energy.
“The Australian government believes this diversity of energy sources will continue into the future,” Mr Macfarlane said
However Mr Grimes said the government was set to cut $1.5 billion from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency and phase out the small scale renewable energy scheme, ending the last remaining federal subsidy for domestic solar installation.
“We think support for the small scale scheme is finished and to soften the blow we expect they will make a concession towards small businesses, that they will phase this out for small businesses over time but close it completely for the general community,” said Mr Grimes.
“For a lot of people it will put going solar out of their reach,” he
