Winds of change: govt urged to seize energy mandate
Jennifer Dudley-Nicholson |
Large solar and wind power projects should be approved faster and nuclear options taken off the table following Labor’s comprehensive federal election win, energy experts have told a conference.
But international investors could still face substantial hurdles to putting up money for renewable projects in Australia, they warned, and the rush to install discounted household batteries was likely to prove challenging.
Experts, including Climate Change Authority chair Matt Kean and Windlab chief executive John Martin, made the comments at The Energy’s policy panel on Monday.
They all urged the incoming Labor government to use the election result as a signal to accelerate the renewable energy transition.
The stark contrast between policies from the major parties represented a “fork in the road” for the nation’s future, Mr Kean said.
“The government has a mandate to get on with this energy transition,” he said.
The coalition had committed to developing seven nuclear power plants if elected, while Labor planned to expand renewable projects and launched a $2.3 billion policy to cut the price of household solar batteries.
Mr Kean, a former Liberal NSW energy minister, said opposition parties should listen to voters and remove nuclear energy from their plans.
“It was clear that nuclear was always too slow, too costly and too emissions-heavy,” he said.
Speeding up the delivery of renewable energy projects should take precedence for the Labor government in its second term, Mr Martin told participants, with urgent action to “unplug the pipeline” of proposed projects.
No wind developments were approved in 2023, he said, and while the process had sped up in subsequent years, it needed to be more efficient to meet Australia’s 2050 net-zero target.
“We really need to be approving gigawatts a year and that’s the target the government should be setting itself on all approvals,” Mr Martin said.
Most Australian consumers would also embrace renewable energy, consultant Gabrielle Kuiper said, although she warned that the industry would need to “scale up” to meet the demand for discounted household batteries.
“It will be inevitable that there will be a battery rush,” she said.
“What is important is that there are a number of complementary measures that are taken to support this rebate.”
Additional policies could address the adoption of electric vehicles, their use as batteries to power households and the grid, and greater investments in public and active transport, she said.
AAP
