Bill Bullish On Australia’s Solar + Storage Potential

Bill Shorten - Solar and Storage

In a speech delivered at the All Energy Australia 2015 conference yesterday, Leader of the Opposition Bill Shorten said Australia was an energy superpower with enough renewable resources to power our country “five hundred times over”.

Mr Shorten said there were exciting new opportunities for Australians in renewable energy technology, but the country had been lagging rather than leading in the renewables revolution recently due to the impasse over the nation’s Renewable Energy Target that dragged on for so long.

He pointed out that last year clean energy investment grew in the United States by 8 per cent, in Japan by 12 per cent and in China by 35 per cent. In contrast, investment in large scale renewables here dropped 88 percent.

However, Mr. Shorten acknowledged the situation has now changed and there are brighter days ahead for the sector.

“Like you, I welcome the fact that the Liberal leadership no longer see wind turbines as a horrifying blight on the landscape; a creeping menace lurking on the horizon,” he said.

“The muzzling of the far-right’s ideological attack dogs in the clean energy debate is long overdue. And it’s a gesture I’m prepared to accept in good faith.”

The opposition leader reiterated Labor’s goal of 50 per cent of Australia’s electricity to come from renewable energy by 2030. It’s an ambitious goal “to catch-up and cash-in on the opportunities of the Asian Century”. $2.5 trillion in investment in renewables is expected by 2030 in the Asia-Pacific region alone.

Reaching such a goal means major change, but changes that need to be carried out in an orderly fashion.

Mr. Shorten proposed an Electricity Modernisation Plan; designed to deliver on national emissions targets while minimising the cost to business and households. It would also support workers and their communities in the transition to new jobs.

“We will take a consultative and consensus-building approach, maintaining investment confidence and certainty for workers,” he said. “Above all, our priority is a managed, predictable long-term modernisation process for our electricity sector.”

Mr. Shorten said solar power will continue to play a significant role in Australia’s clean energy revolution in the time ahead, as will the next big thing – battery storage.

Currently, more than 1.4 million Australian families have installed solar panels. There has been a great deal of interest in residential energy storage in recent months as Australians grow increasingly weary and wary of traditional power companies and networks.

“Morgan Stanley has found that the solar and battery storage market could grow to 2.4 million Australian homes,” said Mr. Shorten. “This shift in how Australians get and use our energy will be driven by the most fundamental economic precepts – demand – electricity costs and very high household solar penetration.”

On the issue of energy storage it appears Mr. Shorten and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull are in agreement. Earlier this year, the then yet-to-be Prime Minister stated batteries have the potential to revolutionise the energy market.

The full text of Mr. Shorten’s speech can be viewed here.

The All-Energy Australia conference and exhibition is one of the most important events on the Australian renewable energy industry’s calendar.

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