Back on track for clean energy overhaul, investors told

October 21

The overhaul of the electricity grid is back on track, the federal government says, with fresh taxpayer support for the national renewable energy target.

Energy Minister Chris Bowen on Monday announced an expansion in a capacity investment scheme to encourage new investment in wind, solar and big batteries.

He said market interest in this new way of supporting investment had confirmed a strong pipeline of good-quality renewable energy projects that do not include gas.

The federal opposition, leading in opinion polls ahead of the 2025 election, recently announced plans to include gas in the federal scheme.

Gas producers have urged state and federal energy ministers not to wait until the next election to change course, backing the scheme as the lever to support the “critical, long-term role of gas” in Australia’s energy mix.

Mr Bowen told the AFR Energy Summit in Sydney that Australia’s transition to renewable energy had not “ground to a halt” as some claimed.

In an update to investors, he said more new solar, wind and battery capacity across Australia has reached financial close in 2024 than in 2023.

Another 5.5GW of capacity was due for financial close in the next five months.

Mr Bowen said 10 gigawatts of new energy would be tendered in the coming months and delivered by December 2029.

“I expected it to work well, and it’s working better than I thought it would,” he said.

Stephanie Bashir, CEO of the Nexa advisory group, said the investment scheme and energy target were critical to investor certainty but warned almost 10,000km of new transmission to connect new assets was still the “missing link”.

Market briefs for the tender round will be released soon and the tender process will be open in mid-November.

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