THE way has been cleared for nearly $3 billion worth of investment in new south-west wind farms with the federal government agreeing yesterday to drop regular reviews of the Renewable Energy Target (RET).
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Australian Wind Alliance national co-ordinator Mark Bray said the federal government’s decision to stop regular reviews and set the RET for 2020 at 33,000 gigawatt hours (GWh) should unplug the investment pipeline in wind energy in Australia.
Mr Bray said the federal government’s decision to review the RET had shut down the investment pipeline for 18 months. He said about $2.8 billion of investment in wind farms in the Wannon electorate had been put on hold because of the uncertainty about the future of wind energy in Australia.
The 33,000 GWh target for 2020 is a drop from the earlier 41,000 GWh, but Mr Bray said “there is some relief” that bipartisan support had been achieved on a target.
In announcing the agreement with Labor on the target yesterday, federal industry minister Senator Ian Macfarlane said the government hoped the target would lead to the wind energy industry creating “more renewable energy generation in the next five years than they’ve built in the last 15”.
Federal opposition environment spokesman Mark Butler said it would use the new RET target “as a floor to build on” and, if elected, would increase it based on advice from stakeholders in the industry and finance sectors.
Member for Wannon Dan Tehan said the agreement was welcome news for “jobs in western Victoria”. Mr Tehan said the announcement was a great result for the Portland Alcoa aluminium smelter, which will achieve power savings because it is exempt from the RET, and the Keppel Prince engineering firm at Portland that makes towers for wind turbines.
Clean Energy Council chief executive Kane Thornton said the agreement to remove the review provision was the final major stumbling block for the renewable energy industry.
“It has been a tough 15 months, but this development will be a huge weight off the shoulders of the 20,000 people working in the industry,” Mr Thornton said. “It will also help to unlock Australia’s massive renewable energy potential,” he said.
Among the wind farm companies expected to react positively to the deal is Trustpower, which has proposed a $650 million wind farm with 104 turbines at Dundonnell.
Trustpower wind generation development manager Rontheo van Zyl has said if a 33,000 GWh RET was set and the state government approved its plans for the wind farm, it hoped to start work on the project at the end of 2016.