Renewable Energy Target (RET)
The RET scheme is designed to ensure that 20 per cent of Australia’s electricity comes from renewable sources by 2020. The RET scheme is helping to transform Australia’s electricity generation mix to cleaner and more diverse sources and supporting growth and employment in the renewable energy sector.
Since January 2011 the RET scheme has operated in two parts—the Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme (SRES) and the Large-scale Renewable Energy Target (LRET).
The LRET creates a financial incentive for the establishment or expansion of renewable energy power stations, such as wind and solar farms or hydro-electric power stations. It does this by legislating demand for Large-scale Generation Certificates (LGCs). One LGC can be created for each megawatt-hour of eligible renewable electricity produced by an accredited renewable power station. LGCs can be sold to entities (mainly electricity retailers) who surrender them annually to the Clean Energy Regulator to demonstrate their compliance with the RET scheme’s annual targets. The revenue earned by the power station for the sale of LGCs is additional to that received for the sale of the electricity generated.
The LRET includes legislated annual targets which will require significant investment in new renewable energy generation capacity in coming years. The large-scale targets ramp up until 2020 when the target will be 33,000 gigawatt-hours of renewable electricity generation. This target has been reduced in 2015 from 41,000 gigawatt-hours.
The SRES creates a financial incentive for households, small businesses and community groups to install eligible small-scale renewable energy systems such as solar water heaters, heat pumps, solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, small-scale wind systems, or small-scale hydro systems. It does this by legislating demand for Small-scale Technology Certificates (STCs). STCs are created for these systems at the time of installation, according to the amount of electricity they are expected to produce or displace in the future. For example, the SRES allows eligible solar PV systems to create, at the time of installation, STCs equivalent to 15 years of expected system output.
Energy White Paper
The Australian Government has published an Energy White Paper (http://ewp.industry.gov.au/) that sets out an energy policy framework for delivering competitively priced and reliable energy supply to households, business and international markets through:
increasing competition to keep prices down
increasing energy productivity to promote growth and
investing in Australia’s energy future.
The white paper acknowledges that Australia has abundant solar resources. It promotes technology neutral policies. It does not include heat.
Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA)
ARENA is an independent statutory authority which commenced operations on 1 July 2012, with two objectives: to improve the competitiveness of renewable energy technologies, and to increase the supply of renewable energy in Australia. The governance of ARENA is defined by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency Act 2011.
ARENA has committed $1 billion to nearly 200 projects across a suite of renewable energy types. Industry has matched this investment with a further $1.8 billion, taking the investment in Australian renewables to a total of $2.8 billion as a result of the programme. More information on ARENA is available at: www.arena.gov.au.
Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC)
The $10 billion CEFC ($2 billion per year for five years) provides investment in renewable energy, low-emission energy technology and energy efficiency projects in Australia. The CEFC was established on 3 August 2012 under the Clean Energy Finance Corporation Act 2012. The CEFC commenced funding investments on 1 July 2013. As at 30 June 2014, the CEFC has contracted investments of over $900 million in projects with a total value of over $3 billion.
In July 2009, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) agreed to the comprehensive, 10-year National Strategy on Energy Efficiency (NSEE), to accelerate energy efficiency improvements and deliver cost-effective energy efficiency gains across all sectors of the Australian economy. The NSEE aims to streamline roles and responsibilities across government by providing a nationally consistent and coordinated approach to energy efficiency.