Anyone reading Alexandra Humphries’ article on renewable energy (The Examiner, June 21), would have been totally misinformed about the history of renewable energy and recent policy developments.
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Contrary to Ms Humphries claims, the Coalition Government strongly supports renewable energy. The Renewable Energy Target (RET) was introduced in 2001 under John Howard and since then, over $10 billion has been invested in renewable energy. The government estimates that a further $20 billion will be invested over the next five years.
It is worth noting that renewable energy now makes up 100 per cent of all new investment in grid-connected, electricity generation.
Currently there are more than 1.4 million households, small businesses and community organisation with solar PV installations. When you add approximately 900,000 solar hot water systems, that means more than 2.3 million Australian households, small businesses and community organisations have invested in solar systems. Not a bad result from a policy that originated under Liberal leadership 15 years ago!
Two months ago, the Coalition and the Labor Party agreed that the proportion of Australia’s electricity sourced from ‘renewables’ will be more than 23.5% by 2020 – considerably higher than the promise we took to the last election.
To achieve this new bipartisan target, there will need to be as much renewable energy capacity built in the next five years, than in the last 15 years.
This represents a doubling of renewable energy capacity, yet has been totally ignored by Ms Humphries in her attacks on the Government.
Our legislated agreement with Labor is transforming Australia’s electricity sector and encouraging sustainable growth in both small and large scale renewable energy in Australia.
Ms Humphries also fails to mention that under the new, legislated RET, there is NO change to household solar and the government will continue to support households wishing to install rooftop solar panels or solar hot water systems.
Perhaps most importantly, our bipartisan support for renewable energy is sensibly balanced to ensure that we don’t hurt Australian families and businesses with higher electricity prices, and that we don’t erode our international competitiveness.
Consistent with my public and private advocacy on protecting jobs at large Tasmanian employers like Bell Bay Aluminium, there is a 100% exemption under the RET for Emissions Intensive Trade-Exposed industries.
I appreciate recent public comments from the general manager at Bell Bay Aluminium, stating: “Andrew, Thank you for your efforts…there are at least 1500 Tasmanians that have a more certain future and I’m sure say thank you for your relentless efforts to give us an even chance to compete globally.”
The government has also committed over $1 billion to around 230 renewable energy projects through the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA). Industry has matched this investment with more than $2 billion, taking the total investment in renewable energy in Australia through ARENA to around $3.5 billion, which is a significant investment by any definition in any industry.
Ms Humphries comments about the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) are also off the mark. The Government believes that the CEFC should return to its original objective of focusing on new and emerging technologies, rather than using taxpayer’s money to fund well-established technologies, such as small-scale solar, which are better provided by the private sector.
As The Examiner itself reported on July 13, none of Tasmania’s existing wind farms have required finance from the CEFC and the state government is confident that commercially-viable wind projects in Tasmania will continue to access finance from investors.
The next time Ms Humphreys writes about government policy on renewable energy, I encourage her to contact a member of the federal government.
