It comes as no surprise that Australian renewables companies would be tempted to leave Australia’s shores since there is a great deal of uncertainty around the country’s renewables goal.
Following fierce resistance from the industry, the federal cabinet asked the environment minister, Greg Hunt, and the industry minister, Ian Macfarlane, to reach a bipartisan agreement about the future of the program that would allow continued investment without fear of policy change. The two have written to Labor setting out a “commonsense” plan as the “basis to our negotiation” which includes a target representing a 20% of the current energy market –around 26,000GWh - with no change to the subsidies for household rooftop solar panels and a full exemption from the scheme for all energy intensive industries, like aluminium, copper, zinc and cement.
Clean Energy Council’s acting chief executive, Kane Thornton, says that this move would leave many projects and companies financially stressed, billions of dollars in lost investment and thousands of jobs foregone. “We are already about 40% of the way to meeting the legislated 41,000GWh of large-scale generation. If we were to reduce this target to a ‘real’ 20%, it would actually mean a cut of almost two thirds of the additional large-scale renewable energy required to be built.”
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