Govt talks big on renewables ‘innovation’, but will close Australian Renewable Energy Agency
JOHN CONNOR: Well, we’ve got a big belting boom gate that’s our old, clunking coal-fired power stations, and so until we get those out of the system and replaced with cleaner technologies, then we’re going to be stuck.
Innovation is fine, but we’ll have no way to implement it.
MICHAEL EDWARDS: The environmental sector also wants the Government to provide certainty about the future of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, the body charged with developing new technologies and increasing the supply of renewable energy in Australia.
Hopes innovation money will drive investment in renewable energy http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2015/s4367751.htm Michael Edwards reported this story on Tuesday, December 8, 2015 MICHAEL BRISSENDEN: There are hopes that renewable energy products will be one of the areas that will see a boost in investment form the Government’s billion-dollar innovation package.
The Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says he wants to start an ‘ideas boom’ to transform Australia’s economy away from mining.
The investment sector has welcomed the package, saying it provides a policy framework needed for people to invest in the clean energy sector.
But some say the Government needs to change its positions on renewable energy and climate change for the industry to truly thrive.
Michael Edwards reports.
MICHAEL EDWARDS: Reposit is a small Canberra-based start-up that has big plans to change the way electricity is bought and sold in Australia.
LUKE OSBORNE: What we do is take customers who have solar panels and the batteries which are just entering the market and allow them to participate in wholesale markets – which has traditionally been accessed only by big energy companies and dirty power generators – and allow them to earn money from doing so.
MICHAEL EDWARDS: That’s Luke Osborne, a director of the company.
He says Reposit has breakthrough technology and has received funding from both the public and private sector.
But he says he knows how tough it can be for innovation-based companies to attract investment dollars.
There’s an aversion to putting money into high-risk ventures. I think that is bad for our economy, because we tend to put our money into things that we know well, like mining ventures and so forth.
MICHAEL EDWARDS: The renewable energy sector is looking forward to that changing with the Government’s $1.1 billion innovation package.
The Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull wants the money to drive research and help the economy transition away from the mining boom.
Early stage investors in start-up businesses will get a 20 per cent non-refundable tax offset and a capital gains tax exemption.
Yasser El-Ansary, from the Australian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association, says the package should provide certainty for investors looking to put their money into clean energy projects.
YASSER EL-ANSARY: What’s been holding back institutional investors for a long time now is the uncertainty which exists around this clean tech, renewable energy part of our economy.
And it’s the same that exists right across other sectors of our economy as well.
What we’re asking institutional investors to do at the end of the day is make a decision to invest their capital for periods of five, ten or even 15 years.
What they need is certainty that the policy architecture, the rules of the game, aren’t going to change every year or two, which is going to create problems for the investment decisions that they make for the long term.
Anything which brings stability is good for our long-term future.
MICHAEL EDWARDS: But environmentalists say there are still massive hurdles in the way of renewable energy innovation.
John Connor is from the Climate Institute.
JOHN CONNOR: Well, we’ve got a big belting boom gate that’s our old, clunking coal-fired power stations, and so until we get those out of the system and replaced with cleaner technologies, then we’re going to be stuck.
Innovation is fine, but we’ll have no way to implement it.
MICHAEL EDWARDS: The environmental sector also wants the Government to provide certainty about the future of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, the body charged with developing new technologies and increasing the supply of renewable energy in Australia.
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