Fears Australia won’t reach 82 per cent renewables by 2030 triggers massive expansion of clean energy scheme

A huge boost to a taxpayer-underwritten clean energy scheme will help to speed up Australia’s transition towards renewables, the Energy Minister says.

A rapid expansion of an existing clean energy scheme will be pitched to ministers on Friday as part of a bid to attract more investment in new wind and solar farms amid concerns that Australia may fall short of its climate targets.

Energy Minister Chris Bowen announced plans for the federal government to underwrite 32GW in new renewables generation on Thursday to push forward Labor’s ambitious plans to reach 82 per cent of renewable energy by 2030.

Mr Bowen said the broadening of the National Capacity Investment Scheme, which initially looked to drive investment into 6GW of clean energy, would help to keep Australia’s lights on as renewable energy grew and coal plants closed.

He said the transition had been “doing well but not well enough” and called for more progress after “a decade of delays.”

“We need more reliable, clean, cheaper, renewable energy before the coal-fired power stations leave, and the biggest stretch of reliability in our energy grid today is coal-fire power stations breaking down unexpectedly,” Mr Bowen said on Thursday.

The plan will add a total of 32 gigawatts of capacity to the energy market. Picture: Supplied.

According to the Clean Energy Council, the first six months of 2023 marked the slowest start to a year for financial certainty on major green energy projects since 2017. Currently, renewables account for 30 to 35 per cent of Australia’s total energy supply.

A decision to not reveal the cost of the scheme’s expansion, which involves the government underwriting new investments in renewables through “contract for differences” that shares the risks between investors and taxpayers, has attracted criticism from the coalition.

In a statement released on Thursday, opposition energy spokesman Ted O’Brien called the move a “blank cheque for renewables”.

Mr Bowen said given the way the scheme was run through auction it would be unwise for the government to reveal how much it had invested into projects before bids were made.

“This is an auction. When you’re selling a house, you don’t put an announcement out to the bidders to say this is what we expect to make, and when you’re bidding for a house, you don’t send an email to all the other bidders saying, this is what we’re going to bid,” he told Sky News on Thursday.

“An auction is designed to get the best outcome and this auction will get the best outcome for the taxpayers of Australia.”

Mr Bowen will convene with state and territory energy ministers during a climate council meeting in Perth later on Friday.