Queensland weighs powering up its renewables target

Queensland may increase its 50 per cent by 2030 renewable energy target, despite meeting less than half its existing target.

Queensland Energy Minister Mick de Brenni. Picture: Dan Peled

Queensland is considering increasing its 50 per cent by 2030 renewable energy target, despite having met less than half its existing target and facing cost increases of up to 40 per cent for new ­projects.

The resource-rich state is due to release its 10-year energy strategy within weeks, which will re-position the Palaszczuk govern­ment’s climate policy ahead of the next state election.

Details of the plan have been kept firmly under wraps, but senior government sources confirmed to The Australian that the state was considering overhauling its target, first set in 2015, to be “more ambitious”.

Cabinet will later this month sign off on the plan, which will outline how the government will meet its renewables target while ensuring a “sustainable and affordable energy future”.

Further confirmation that the state was looking to change its target was given by Tom Metcalfe, the new chief of the taxpayer-owned renewables company CleanCo, at a Queensland Futures Institute breakfast on Wednesday.

CleanCo was set up by the state Labor government in late 2018, as a key plank of its current goal is to source 50 per cent of electricity needs from renewables by 2030.

Mr Metcalfe said the state was on the brink of a “big, big build out” of green projects and flagged the current target “might change as part of the energy plan”.

A higher state target would feed into the federal government’s 43 per cent emissions reduction by 2030 goal, which involves renewable energy being 82 per cent of the National Energy Market by the end of the decade.

As of July, almost 80 per cent of Queensland’s energy comes from fossil fuels, while about 20 per cent comes from renewables.

Mr Metcalfe said demand for renewables projects “easily outstrips supply” at the moment. “That is putting a lot of pressure on supply chains not just in Australia but across the world,” he said.

“We are seeing big increases in cost, 20 to 40 per cent more for the same projects that we were looking at a year ago.”

Mr Metcalfe said the state would need to more than double its renewable generation in the next seven years to meet the current goal. “Right now, the state has installed around seven gigawatts of renewable generation; 4GW of that is rooftop solar, about 3GW is utility-scale solar and wind,” he told the policy leaders’ forum on Wednesday. “If we are going to get to 50 per cent by 2030, that is roughly an additional 10GW of new generation that we need.

“This is a big task.”

The need for greater investment to propel the renewable uptake across the country was spelt out by the Australian Energy Regulator in June. “To maintain a secure, reliable and affordable electricity supply for consumers through this transition to 2050, investment is required for a nine-fold increase in grid-scale wind and solar capacity, triple the firming capacity (dispatchable storage, hydro and gas-fired generation) and a near five-fold increase in distributed solar,” AEMO chief executive Daniel Westerman said.

Queensland Resources Council chief Ian MacFarlane said the coal sector would support faster renewables growth if the transition plan was clear.

“We are more than happy if they increase their renewable energy target as long as they can maintain stability and prices for electricity,” he said.

“What will it do to coal? Not much; the power station owners would be concerned but in terms of coalminers, there are ample opportunities on the export market.

“In reality, Queensland power stations will be the last to close because they are a young fleet and they are efficient.”

The state government is reaping the benefits of record coal ­prices, with royalties tipping $7.29bn into the state’s coffers in 2021-22, up from the $2.05bn previously forecasted.

State Treasurer Cameron Dick increased coalmining royalties in his June budget, lifting the top rate from 15 to 40 per cent.

Pressure on the Palaszczuk government to speed up the rollout of renewables ramped up after the federal election, which saw a surge of Greens support in Brisbane. The Greens want a ban on new coal, oil and gas projects and all fossil fuels to be phased out by 2030.

Queensland’s energy plan is expected to focus on new battery storage, which can store excess renewable energy to support periods of peak demand.