When the government introduced the RET last year to guarantee that Australia would source 20 percent of it’s electricity from renewable energy by 2020, a number of design flaws were built into the scheme meaning billions of dollars of investment in large scale renewables like wind farms could be delayed for up to five years. In fact, the hold-ups were so serious that renewable energy companies in Australia looked like they may have to lay off workers to get by.
The new deal, that still needs to pass through parliament, would effectively split the RET in two with the majority of the target reserved for large scale projects, and the remaining share for small-scale investment. This means that investing in small scale renewables will no longer crowd-out the large scale projects, as was previously the case. Even better, the section reserved for small scale renewables isn’t capped – meaning that if households across Australia want to invest in solar panels on their roofs above and beyond the government’s target amount, they’ll still get support through Renewable Energy Certificates.