RENEWABLE energy companies across the south-west say the Coalition's new climate change policy will have little impact on a crisis facing their sector.
Portland-based Keppel Prince Engineering yesterday asked 70 employees to take leave while it waits for the Federal Government to reassess the way renewable energy certificates are allocated.
General manager Steve Garner said he was disappointed the Opposition's new policy had not tackled the issue in more depth.
The policy's support for renewable energy includes a $1000 rebate for domestic solar systems and $50 million for geothermal and tidal power projects.
Existing incentives as part of the Government's 20 per cent renewable energy target (RET) scheme would also be preserved.
Keppel Prince has called for home solar systems to be removed from the RET scheme to encourage investment in large projects, including an $800 million wind farm set to be built near Macarthur.
"I'm not a real fan of the rooftop solar hot water services at the moment, and under the Coalition's (policy) where they get a double whammy, I'm even worse off," Mr Garner said.
"I haven't read where they'll eliminate them (domestic solar systems) from the RET scheme."
Mr Garner said he would be forced to sack up to 150 workers by the end of February if no action was taken to encourage major wind power projects.
"We're all hanging on, waiting for the Government to do something," he said.
"We're all about our jobs and work. The immediate concern is what's in front of us and we're out of work. It's very, very gloomy at our place."
Wind energy provider Pacific Hydro said the Coalition policy recognised green power's role in the market but failed to deal with the plunging price of renewable energy certificates.
The company's Australia Pacific general manager Lane Crockett said duplication of state and federal support for those who installed home solar systems had not been tackled in the new plan.
"What the Coalition is proposing is likely to make the situation worse both now and into the future," he said.
"It is the multiple layers of assistance to these technologies that has caused the dramatic and lingering crash in certificate prices."
Mr Crockett was also critical of the Opposition's proposal to reserve part of the existing RET for large solar, wind and wave projects.
"Technology banding has not worked elsewhere as it assumes you know what technologies will be commercially viable and when they will be deployed," he said.
"The multiple technology sub-segments that are created by banding will reduce transparency and create unnecessary complexity while doing nothing to help renewable energy certificate prices recover over the next couple of years."
Under the Coalition's policy a fund to support emissions reduction would be created rather than a carbon trading scheme.
Businesses that embrace green technology would be rewarded under the proposed legislation, while those who pollute above baseline levels would be fined.
Voters surveyed in this week's Age/Nielsen poll have backed the move, with 45 per cent preferring the fund and 39 per cent in favour of a trading scheme.
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