Antinuclear

The $400 million program, known as the Regional Australia Renewables (RAR) initiative, will be supported via the Australian Renewable Energy Agency. The program will construct at least two large-scale renewable energy plants of 10 MW or greater in Australian regional and remote locations within the next five years.

The initiative is split into two programs – the Industry RAR program and the Community RAR program. The Industry RAR program will support the development of renewable energy solutions, including hybrid and integrated systems in off-grid and fringe-of-grid locations across Australia. The Community RAR program will work directly with electricity distributors to demonstrate technologies that can feed more renewable energy into community electricity grids, such as energy storage systems.

Federal Resources and Energy Minister Gary Gray said in the Pilbara – where the cost of wind energy can be half that of diesel – energy demand is growing faster than in any other part of Australia.

“It’s no secret that in Western Australia we have a lot of remote areas and meeting our growing energy demand is a big issue,” Mr Gray said. “Where there is no grid-connected electricity, many communities and industries truck-in fuels to generate energy.”