Queensland to legislate renewable energy targets, Annastacia Palaszczuk says
Annastacia Palaszczuk says Queensland will legislate its ambitious 80 per cent renewable energy target before the end of the year, which will all-but phase out coal-fired power by 2035.
Annastacia Palaszczuk says Queensland will legislate its ambitious 80 per cent renewable energy target before the end of the year as the state moves to all-but phase out coal-fired power by 2035.
Draft laws, released for consultation on Saturday, will mandate there is no decline in public ownership of energy assets and guarantee jobs for 900 workers at government-owned coal fired power stations during the transition.
As of May, 24.9 per cent of Queensland’s energy consumption was sourced from renewables. Under new laws, that will rise to 50 per cent by 2030 and, 70 per cent by 2032, and 80 per cent by 2035.
Addressing Labor Party faithful at the ALP’s state conference in Mackay on Saturday, Ms Palaszczuk said laws enshrining the targets would be introduced to state parliament by the end of the year.
She also announced another $500m would be invested in government-owned CleanCo to develop “a pipeline of 2.3 gigawatts of publicly owned renewable generation”.
Renewables company CleanCo was established by the Palaszczuk government in late 2018 as Queensland’s third publicly owned generator with the aim to drive investment in clean energy. It is yet to finish building any new renewable energy projects since it was set up.
The state’s renewable targets rely on the proposed Pioneer-Burdekin Pumped Hydro project, which has not yet been subjected to detailed engineering and environmental investigations, or received any government approvals.
The first significant contracts for the 5-gigawatt pumped hydro energy storage scheme were recently awarded for initial drilling investigations and front-end engineering design.
Energy Minister Mick de Brenni said he was confident all necessary approvals would be granted for the project with a final investment decision expected by mid-2024.
“Without the Pioneer-Burdekin project, this state, our nation cannot meet our international emissions reductions objectives,” he said.
“In fact, it would be very difficult to get anywhere near net zero by 2050 without this project.”
About 55 residential buildings, as well as cane and residential properties will have to be compulsorily resumed and flooded to build the giant dam.
One of those homeowners, Doug Cannon, was with a small group protesting against the Pioneer-Burdekin project outside the ALP state conference.
He said he was not consulted before the government announced plans for the mega-project last September.
“It just hit us like a storm, and we‘re left trying to pick up the pieces and find out what our future looks like,” he said.
“Where they‘re proposing these upper and lower reservoirs is right in platypus habitat, so that alone should be enough to as a red flag to say, let’s, let’s reconsider this.
“Eungella is a pristine part of the environment, a very unique place. There‘s nowhere that I’ve seen in Australia like it.”
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