Antinuclear

Australia’s Resources Department overestimates costs of renewable energy

Forecasts prepared last year for the Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism as it helped plan the future electricity network suggest solar and wind power are far more costly than they actually are……The Minister for Resources and Energy, Martin Ferguson, said changes to the cost of renewable energy would be noted

Green energy costs ‘out of date’, The Age, Ben Cubby, May 26, 2011 THE federal government and the power industry have massively overestimated the cost of renewable energy, according to new University of Melbourne research, commissioned by the the government’s own Garnaut climate change review.

Forecasts prepared last year for the Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism as it helped plan the future electricity network suggest solar and wind power are far more costly than they actually are.

In some cases, rooftop solar panels are already cheaper than the prices they were predicted to fall to in the year 2030.

”If you make the international comparisons to the US Department of Energy and the IEA [International Energy Agency], Australia is really relying on information that’s very out of date,” said Patrick Hearps, a University of Melbourne research fellow and technical director at the group Beyond Zero Emissions.

”If you’re looking at how we should be planning energy over the next 10 or 20 years, and you are using the data provided to the government, you are not going to be looking at large-scale renewables. You are going to be looking at gas as an interim measure.”

The report Renewable Energy Technology Cost Review, launched last night, says that the ”cost curve”, dictating that solar, wind and hydro power becomes cheaper as more people use it, has dipped more sharply than predicted five years ago, suggesting that billions of investment could be misdirected……The Minister for Resources and Energy, Martin Ferguson, said changes to the cost of renewable energy would be noted… Research says government overestimates cost of renewable energy

May 26, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, politics