Australia ditches renewable energy target and support

The Australian government has rejected plans for a clean energy target and instead plans to end subsidies for renewable energy after 2020 and push its energy suppliers to foster both ‘reliable power’ and lower carbon emissions in a new energy plan for the country.

The country’s Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull unveiled the plan, known as the ‘National Energy Guarantee’, which needs to be agreed by all of Australia’s national electricity market states to be implemented.

The plan rejects the recommendation of Australia’s Chief Scientist Alan Finkel to set a clean energy target for the country.

The Australian government says the plan will deliver more affordable and reliable electricity, while meeting climate change commitments. It says that a diverse power mix will mean electricity prices will be lower than they would have otherwise been were a clean energy target implemented, and that the plan will give investors the confidence to back future Australian power plants.

Under the plan energy companies in each Australian state will have to both meet a ‘reliability guarantee’ to ensure that enough ‘dispatchable’ energy, such as from coal, gas, pumped hydro and batteries, is available; but also an ‘emissions guarantee’ to contribute to Australia’s climate change targets. Austalia has an aim to reduce its electricity sector emissions by 26% on 2005 levels by 2030.

The government says the plan is technology neutral, and will not use subsidies, taxes or trading schemes. It also says that it is not picking winners, but that ‘coal, gas, hydro and biomass will be rewarded for their dispatchability, while wind, solar and hydro will be recognised as lower emissions technologies but will no longer be subsidised.’

‘We now have an opportunity to break from the climate wars of the past and forge a sensible, sustainable path forward,’ reads the last line of the government’s press release on the plan.

Australia’s Clean Energy Council said the government had ‘blown a golden opportunity’ by walking away from the proposed clean energy target. It said that the decision is likely to result in a substantial slowdown in new clean energy investment, which will result in rising power prices.

Its Chief Executive Kane Thornton said: ‘The clean energy target was the best opportunity in years to lock in the long-term bipartisan energy policy needed to encourage investment in cleaner energy while improving system reliability and pushing down power prices.’

The state of South Australia has seen recent blackouts as two of its coal plants shut, leading to Tesla’s Elon Musk promising to build the world’s most powerful lithium-ion battery in the state in 100 days to solve the problem (see Energy World September).

A recent study from the Australia Institute indicates that Australia’s annual emissions from energy and transport use have increased to their highest ever level. ‘Australia’s failure to invest in efficient transport infrastructure, such as rail, has led to emissions from transport fuels continuing to grow, unlike the rest of the developed world,’ said the organisation’s Dr Hugh Saddler.