Australia boasts some of the world's best wind resources, which together with solar energy will play a major role in helping to transform to a low carbon economy and secure a clean energy future for Australia.
Installation in Australia
At the end of 2010, 1,880 MW of wind capacity was installed in Australia, consisting of 1,052 operating wind turbines spread over 52 wind farms. A further eight projects totalling 1,047 MW are under construction and expected to be completed within the next three years. An additional 8.8 GW of projects are proposed for development in Australia, and have either received planning and environmental approvals or are currently applying for them, and another 5 GW of projects are undergoing feasibility studies.
THE RENEWABLE ENERGY TARGET SCHEME
The Renewable Energy Target (RET) scheme is one of the key elements in The Government's Climate Change Plan. While policy uncertainty, the low price of renewable energy certificates and the financial crisis made it difficult for developers to commit to new projects in 2010, recent changes to the implementation of the RET, and introduction of the Australian Government's Climate Change Plan should go a long way towards returning stability to the industry.
The RET scheme started on 1 January 2010, and expands on the previous Mandatory Renewable Energy Target (MRET), which began in 2001. In June 2010, the Australian Parliament passed legislation to separate the RET into two parts – the Large-scale Renewable Energy Target (LRET) and the Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme (SRES) – which came into force on 1 January 2011. Separating the two parts is intended to provide greater certainty for large-scale renewable energy generation and small-scale renewable energy systems by addressing the oversupply of certificates.
The rate of liability for LRET is established by the Renewable Power Percentage (RPP), which is used to determine how many large-scale generation certificates (LGCs) need to be surrendered each year. The RPP for the 2011 year is 5.62%. It is equivalent to 10.6 million LGCs and represents a proportion of total estimated electricity consumption for the 2011 year. For more information visit: www.orer.gov.au.
Today, wind power is supplying over 5,100 GWh annually, which represents around 2% of Australia's national electricity consumption.The RET is crucial in supporting investment in the renewable energy industry and it provides the main incentive for wind power development in Australia, unlocking an expected investment of more than AUD 20 billion over the next decade. As it is the most cost effective large scale renewable energy, much of this target is expected to be met with investment in wind energy.
1 - "Securing a Clean Energy Future", The Australian Government's Climate Change Plan, Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, July 2011.