Almost $30 billion invested in renewable energy in past two years

Almost $30 billion has been ploughed into clean energy in the past two years as renewables now comprise almost one-fifth of Australia’s electricity generation, a News Corp Australia investigation has found.

Almost $30 billion has been ploughed into clean energy in the past two years as renewables now comprise almost one-fifth of Australia’s electricity generation, a News Corp Australia investigation has found.

The surging levels of investment mean more than half of South Australia’s electricity is now generated by renewable energy, along with 17 per cent in New South Wales and Victoria.

Queensland and Western Australia, which have the lowest proportion of renewable electricity generation, have 18 of the nation’s top 20 postcodes with the highest rate of rooftop solar panel installation.

Labor is vowing to make Australia “a renewable energy superpower” by ensuring that 50 per cent of the nation’s electricity is sourced from renewable energy by 2030, with measures including providing a $2000 rebate to buy and install battery systems for 100,000 households on annual incomes of less than $180,000.

Queensland and Western Australia have 18 of the nation’s top 20 postcodes with the highest rate of rooftop solar panel installation.

But Energy Minister Angus Taylor says intermittent wind and solar generation needs to be backed up by dispatchable generation and storage to keep prices down and provide affordable, reliable power.

Queensland and Western Australia have nine per cent and eight per cent respectively of their electricity generated by renewables, yet 13 of the top 20 postcodes for rooftop solar panels and in Queensland, five in WA and two in Victoria.

Ten of these top 20 areas are below the national median weekly household income of $1438 — nine of them are in the electoral battleground of Queensland.

Three of these, in Bundaberg, Beenleigh and Caboolture, take in the critical marginal seats of Flynn (1.1 per cent, Nat), Forde (0.7 per cent, Lib) and Longman (0.8 per cent, ALP).

Small-scale renewable energy systems, such as rooftop solar panels and solar water heaters, now have a generation capacity of 13.4 million megawatt hours of electricity.

Subsidies for renewables since 2001 have included the Renewable Energy Target and state feed-in tariffs, under which householders get a financial return for selling solar energy back into the electricity grid. The total figure for state and federal government subsidies during this time has not been estimated.

However, the RET is estimated to add $73 to an annual electricity bill in 2018-19, according to latest figures from the Australian Energy Market Commission. This varies by state, partly because of differing average power prices.

Mr Taylor said Labor had failed to learn from the mistakes of state and territory governments that had adopted reckless targets for intermittent, unreliable generation, without backup.

“Large investments in intermittent generation without concern for firming up that capacity, will end badly on the worst days — as we saw in South Australia in 2016, and across Victoria earlier this year,” he said.

Labor climate change and energy spokesman Mark Butler said: “Australians love renewable energy because it brings down power prices and cuts pollution.

“Unlike the Liberals, who have spent the last five years attacking renewables and instead plan to spend billions of dollars on new coal-fired power stations.”