Antinuclear

Time for Tony Abbott to give up his war against renewable energy

Setting aside the widespread voter support for renewable energy, especially solar, the government’s attack on the industry looks like bad economics.

Abbott says 2015 is looking like another “long, hard slog”. Maintaining his government’s efforts to stall renewable energy’s inevitable advance will only make it worse.

Time for Tony Abbott to join renewable energy’s flow SMH, January 22, 2015 The government is leading a battle against the growth of renewable energy in Australia. For the nation’s sake, it is one fight Tony Abbott should drop. “…….developments in two of Australia’s major energy markets will be watched nervously by our fossil fuel exporters. They also throw into sharp contrast Australia’s alarming retreat on the clean energy front.

Under the Abbott government, the country has dived on international rankings as a favourable destination for low-emissions investments despite its natural bounty of abundant solar, wind and other renewable energy sources.

By Bloomberg’s count, spending on large-scale renewable energy sank 88 per cent last year to $240 million while global investment advanced 16 per cent. Tiny Panama and war-torn Sri Lanka were among 38 nations investing more than Australia.

For the first time in more than a decade of Bloomberg surveys, wind-farm investments in Australia dropped to zero.

The investment total was the lowest since 2002 when the country’s bipartisan Renewable Energy Target (RET) was just 2 per cent, not the current goal of at least a 20 per cent share of electricity by 2020.

And even that $240 million figure flatters the Abbott government. The slide was more like 99 per cent if public funds hadn’t been chipped in.

All but one of the large-scale renewable projects (worth $14 million) that secured financing in 2014 were backed by either the Clean Energy Finance Corporation or the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, two bodies the government would have axed but for Senate opposition from Labor, the Greens, the Palmer United Party and the Motoring Enthusiast Party’s Ricky Muir.

The Senate is also blocking the government’s plan to slash the RET by 40 per cent to 27 terawatt-hours a year by decade’s end from the current 41TWh – itself another broken pre-election promise to leave the goal unchanged.

The government says an unexpected and unprecedented drop in energy demand – partly caused by households’ appetite for solar panels – means new generation capacity isn’t needed.

Consumers have also had to pay about 2 per cent more for their power because of the RET, although that figure is largely offset by the suppressing effect zero-cost fuels like winds have on wholesale electricity prices.

Setting aside the widespread voter support for renewable energy, especially solar, the government’s attack on the industry looks like bad economics.

According to research on differing scenarios commissioned by the government’s own review of the RET, headed by ex-Caltex chairman Dick Warburton, consumers would pay the lowest bills and carbon reductions would be maximised if the RET goal for 2020 was raised to 30 per cent.

The Warburton review also found cutting the RET to a so-called “real 20 per cent” as the government wants, would trigger 39 million tonnes of additional carbon emissions from the power sector that its Direct Action policy would have to mop up by 2020 alone – possibly costing $500 million or more.

Changing the rules mid-game may also trigger sovereign risk-based lawsuits. The review estimated listed wind-farm operator Infigen alone would lose $170 million under the government’s proposed RET cut. Foreign investors would also think twice about heading Down Under in the future.

Abbott says 2015 is looking like another “long, hard slog”. Maintaining his government’s efforts to stall renewable energy’s inevitable advance will only make it worse. http://www.smh.com.au/comment/smh-editorial/time-for-tony-abbott-to-join-renewable-energys-flow-20150122-12qlrn.html

January 26, 2015 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, politics