Media Releases | 26th Feb, 2010

Environment Victoria welcomes changes to Renewable Energy Target

Friday, 26 February 2010

Environment Victoria has today welcomed proposed changes to the Federal Government’s Renewable Energy Target. The proposed changes, set to take effect in January 2011 if legislation passes the Parliament, are likely to kickstart investment in both large scale and small renewable energy projects. Environment Victoria has been campaigning for the renewable energy target to be both fixed and increased.

Environment Victoria Campaigns Director Mark Wakeham said today:

“While the detail of the proposed changes is not yet clear, the changes sound sensible and should make investment in renewable energy projects attractive.

“The Rudd Government’s Renewable Energy Target had some key design flaws which has meant that no new renewable energy projects have proceeded since the legislation was passed 6 months ago. Today’s announcement shows a willingness to fix these problems and improve the investment environment for renewable energy.”

“A guaranteed Renewable Energy Certificate price of $40 MWh for household solar electricity and hot water will mean that prices will not fluctuate wildly from month to month and make consumer investment more attractive.”

“The impact of the changes on large scale renewable energy projects are less clear at this stage, and will depend on the final scheme design. The scheme design will need to ensure that Renewable Energy Certificates are worth around $50 MWh if the economics of building large scale projects like wind farms and solar thermal projects is to stack up.”

“Poll after poll shows that Australians want more renewable energy. We need large amounts of renewable energy coming on-line to replace polluting power stations like Hazelwood in Victoria. All parties in the Federal Parliament should work to ensure that changes to the renewable energy target legislation bring forward both household and business investment as early as possible, so that we can start the clean energy transformation of Australia’s electricity supply we so urgently need.”

For further information or comment:

Mark Wakeham, Environment Victoria Campaigns Director
0439 700 501
03 9341 8127