Antinuclear

In a presentation to a Macquarie Group conference this week. CEO Grant King argued that Australia’s renewable energy target was already at 16 per cent of national demand, and suggested that to reflect a “true” 20 per cent target, its scope should be drastically reduced……….

King argues that under this scenario only 9Twh more of renewable energy – both large scale and small scale – should be constructed under the renewable energy target, if it continues to exist.

If it is assumed that there is no further rooftop solar (unlikely unless it is removed from the scheme) this still represents a two third cut in the amount of large scale wind and solar farms that could be built out to 2020. If the figure does include small scale solar, it would mean virtually no large scale renewable energy projects between now and 2020.

This would be welcomed by the incumbent generators such as Origin and EnergyAustralia, as well as the state-owned generators such as Queensland’s Stanwell that want the target dismantled completely. They appear to have the ear of the government, and the industry fears it has the ear of the hand-picked and mostly anti-renewable RET review panel.

The argument presented by the utilities – and the Coalition – is one around costs to customers. ……….The real reason that utilities such as Origin are arguing against the RET – both large scale and small scale – is the impact of their incumbent generation. ……