Submissions to Australia’s Renewable Energy Target review have begun to be listed for public scrutiny – and it’s looking like the review panel has a lot of reading ahead of it.
At the time of writing, more than 150 submissions are available for perusal by the public. It’s not a complete archive – the Secretariat will to progressively upload further submissions over the coming weeks. Submission that have been marked as confidential will not be published on the site.
Some of the submissions have already caused raised eyebrows. According to WA Today, the RET would include gas-fired power under a controversial proposal by the Victorian government.
The RET review has been somewhat of a circus from the outset; with serious concerns raised about the suitability of some of the review panel and claims the exercise will result in a “biased and predetermined outcome” – and not one particularly favourable in terms of renewable energy uptake.
Solar Citizens recently stated the review a “stitch-up designed to cut renewable energy and support the Coalition’s mates in big power companies.”
It was also recently revealed ACIL Allen – described by Greens senator Scott Ludlum as “analysts for the coal industry” – won the sole government contract to advise the RET review despite cheaper proposals from competing firms.
According to a recent report published by Bloomberg New Energy Finance, the only parties to benefit from abolishing or gutting of Australia’s Renewable Energy Target would be fossil fuel based power generators – to the tune of 6 – 12 billion dollars extra revenue by 2020. As a result, households would pay up to $142 a year more for power by 2020, billions would be lost in renewables investment and thousands of jobs in the renewables sector would evaporate.
Mechanisms within Australia’s Renewable Energy Target support the purchase of solar power systems; reducing the up-front costs in some cases by thousands of dollars.
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