![wind-turbine[1]](https://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/wind-turbine1.jpg?quality=83)
Guest essay by Eric Worrall
The Australian Abbott government has dramatically slashed the Australian renewable energy target, from 41,000 GWh / year, to 33,000 GWh / year. The leaked appointment of the new Wind Turbine Commissioner is also now official.
According to Sky News;
A bipartisan deal – agreed to last month after a lengthy political stalemate that hamstrung the clean energy sector – will slash the target from 41,000 gigawatt hours to 33,000.
…
Labor and the Greens failed to scrap wood waste burning as a renewable source under the scheme after the government did a deal with four crossbenchers to establish a wind farm commissioner.
The commissioner will resolve complaints from concerned residents living near wind turbines.
…
The government believes the reduced target will address an oversupply of energy in the market and save consumers from possible price hikes had the larger target not been reached.
…
Mr Abbott believes wind farms, the main beneficiary of the target that requires 20 per cent of Australia’s energy to come from renewables by 2020, are ugly and noisy.
He has also questioned whether the turbines make people ill.
The ongoing effort to contain Australia’s energy prices will be well received by Australian voters – lowering domestic energy prices was a key electoral manifesto pledge, which likely helped the Abbott government win the last election.
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Ivor
Made my day! Thanks!
Unreliables ☺
Clive
At least they are starting to wake up to the advantage of utility scale solar PV. The next learned lesson will come with community solar in place of rooftop, wind, and pack-o-lies solar CSP.
If you wish to surrender your vote to a third party to do with as they wish, it is your prerogative. Personally, i don’t find any number of check boxes daunting. Although I didn’t go as far as my darling ex who most courteously collected every “how to vote sheet” at the polling place in Avalon.
The look of hope on the faces was a joy to behold
Especially in our uber safe Liberal electorate. I meant no serious disrespect for the “really nice car party”.
My dad taught me to listen to every soapbox spruiker in the Domain on Sunday – It was part and parcel of being Australian.
I like to take a Greens how to vote, and rip it up as I walk away 🙂
Yay for my government but it’s 33000 too much!
If you really want a laugh, cnxtim, rock up to the voting booth riding your bike. The look of joy on the faces of the green parties which then turns to disbelief when you ask for a Liberal vote flyer is a delight to behold.
At last someone with the bravado to stand up to the Warmists. Abbott is Catholic so had better watch out for Pope Frank!!
“Aussie government slashes renewable target”
No worries. There are more targets where that one came from. They’re renewable.
For the benefit of Australian and overseas readers who may be confused about the shenanigans around the Australian Mandated Renewable Target (RET) here is a potted history.
In Australia the original Renewable Energy Target was set by the Coalition Government in 2001 at 9500 GWh per annum, to be reached by 2010. This was 5% of the expected electricity supply level for 2010. Note that this was in the light of the substantial apparent increase in global temperatures from 1979 to 1999.
This was reviewed in 2004 (the Tambling Review) and the government decided to continue with the fixed target expressed in GWh, rather than change to a target increasing year by year.
The Coalition Government lost power in 2007 to an ALP (Australian Labor Party) government which immediately decided to greatly augment the target. This quote is from the COAG Working Paper:
“The Australian Government has committed to implementing an expanded national RET scheme that will:
• ensure the equivalent of at least 20 per cent of Australia’s electricity supply—approximately
60 000 gigawatt-hours (GWh)—is generated from renewable sources by 2020
• increase the MRET to 45 000 GWh to ensure that together with the approximately 15 000 GWh of existing renewable capacity, Australia reaches the 20 per cent target by 2020
• bring both the national MRET and existing state-based targets into a single national scheme
• count only renewable energy towards the target and keep the same eligibility criteria as in the
current MRET scheme
• phase out the RET between 2020 and 2030 as emissions trading matures and prices become
sufficient to ensure a RET is no longer required.
• retain the eligibility of all renewable energy projects that have been approved under existing
state-based schemes.”
At about this time, State governments realised that while they had been keeping electricity prices down, their distribution networks had been starved of money, and were approaching a parlous state. As a result electricity charges were substantially increased. Demand had been rapidly increasing from about 167 TWh in 1999-2000 to about 207 TWh in 2006-2007. As a result of the increased charges the rate of increase of demand greatly slowed, and peaked in 2008-2009 at about 210 TWh. Since then it has fallen to about 195 TWh in 2013-2014 (last full year available on the National Energy Market Regulator website – https://www.aer.gov.au/node/9765). The figures are my estimates from the graph.
Legislation in 2009, at the peak of demand, upped the RET to 41 000 GWh by 2020. This was to be approximately 20% of demand.
As a result of increased electricity prices (including for a short time the Carbon Price) and the closure of some industrial demand (aluminium smelters, oil refineries, etc) the mandated 41 000 GWh is now estimated to be about 26-27% of 2020 demand, so the target has been cut back to 33 000 GWh per annum. Still rather excessive, but not quite so bad as it would have been at 41 000!