Premier defends Queensland’s renewable energy target following SA blackout
PREMIER Annastacia Palaszczuk has been forced to defend her renewable energy target following another major blackout in South Australia, saying suggestions of summers of blackouts are “just rubbish”.
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PREMIER Annastacia Palaszczuk was yesterday forced to defend her renewable energy target following another major blackout in South Australia.
Federal Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg warned the “horror show” of the South Australian power outages would be inflicted across the country if other states pushed ahead with 50 per cent renewable energy targets.
But Ms Palaszczuk said any suggestion her government was damning Queensland to summers of blackouts as a result of the 50 per cent renewable energy by 2030 target was “just rubbish”.
The Federal Coalition went on the attack following more blackouts in South Australia, which has 50 per cent renewable energy.
Treasurer Scott Morrison the rest of the country would “fizzle out in the dark”, while Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull accused Labor of being “drunk on left ideology on energy”.
Federal Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg said Labor’s target would end in disaster and higher prices.
“With Queensland generating only 4.4 per cent of its energy from renewables, its 50 per cent target will inevitably force the closure of some of Queensland’s 10 coal-fired power stations and lead to higher prices and instability,” he said.
The 4.4 per cent figure comes from a Clean Energy Council report from 2015.
A State Government draft report into renewable energy stated about 73 per cent of the state’s supply came from coal-fire power stations, gas contributed 18 per cent, large scale renewables like hydro were responsible for 3 per cent and small scale solar roof panels contributed about 4 per cent.
Ms Palaszczuk said Queensland led the nation on energy supply.
“We export some of our surplus electricity down to the southern state. We have a good mix of clean coal, we have gas and we have renewables,” she said.
“Anyone who criticises renewables is criticising jobs in regional Queensland.”
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