Antinuclear

Rafael Mateo, the global head of energy at Spanish group Acciona, the world’s largest green-only energy developer, says Australia is effectively competing with other countries in Asia, Africa and the Americas to attract capital for investment in clean energy.

Acciona sources about three-quarters of its revenue from its home base in Spain, but is now moving rapidly to flip that figure upside down and is seeking the majority of its revenues in the international market. It has been particularly active in South Africa, where it has won bids to construct wind and solar-energy plants, and in South America, where in Chile banks are financing wind and solar projects even without subsidies and power purchase agreements. India is also looking particularly attractive.

“We are looking for countries with a clear policy about renewables and looking to countries which are looking to install capacity,” Mateo said in an interview with RenewEconomy . 

“We are expanding in emerging countries and we are trying to expand operations in Australia,” he said. “It is clear that the carbon tax is penalising co2 emissions and we are moving to a world with more expensive conventional generation, and thermal generation with less expensive renewables technologies. We are confident about the renewable generation market. The defining feature (of our investment choices) is the policy environment.”

Andrew Thompson, Acciona’s country head in Australia, said the company was concerned about talk of changes to the RET, or even a recent push to change policy incentives to an auctioning system. He said that while the Grattan Institute proposal for a series of capacity auctions was a valid idea (it has been used in South Africa where Acciona is building capacity), it was wrong to suggest the policy should be changed mid stream.

“You can’t just tear up existing policy and start over again,” he said. “It could take several years to debate and agree on how a new policy would look. We’re happy with the RET in its current form. AEMO (Australian Energy Market Operator) may revise demand forecasts. Don’t see a point changing a target every two years just because demand forecast is changed.”………

“There is no other industry that is growing at 40% a year,” Mateo said. “Many countries need to change their fuel capacity and replace it with clean energy, so there are a lot of possibilities in the renewable market. And it is so much quicker and easier to build renewable generation than conventional generation.”…..  http://www.crikey.com.au/2012/07/24/australia-risks-missing-out-on-green-energy-investment/