Victoria is on target with renewable energy projects to meet the Victorian renewable energy target of 40 per cent by 2030, according to Green Energy Markets analysis.
According to the Guardian, figures show Victoria’s renewable energy boom will create over 6,000 annual jobs at the current rate of growth. (An ‘annual job’ is one person working full-time for one year.)
The boom is already leading to many large-scale wind and solar power plant constructions across the state. Victoria has 66 large-scale approved wind and solar projects on the go.
Twenty-six of these are completed, while the rest are in either the construction or planning stages.
This includes solar farms at Swan Hill, Numurkah and Kerang. The government also recently signed off on six new renewable energy projects.
Rooftop solar should also grow with the promised solar installation loans and rebates.
Coal is out, Victorian renewable energy projects are in
If Labor wins the state election, its current Solar Homes rebate program will deliver even more jobs in the sector.
Green Energy Markets’ Tristan Edis says renewable energy has “now more than replaced” the Hazelwood coal-fired plant. Hazelwood shut down in March 2017.
Edis anticipates that renewable energy should also be enough to replace the NSW Liddell plant before it closes in 2022.
However, he says the boom could end without policy intervention at the federal level.
Federal government support at low levels
Strong support from the Federal Government doesn’t look likely considering the LNP’s recent abandonment of the National Energy Guarantee (NEG) policy.
Tony Wood, energy director of the Grattan Institute, told the Guardian that renewable energy investment in Australia will decline without a clear energy policy from government.
However, the federal Labor Party says it will commit to a 45 per cent emissions reduction target and a 50 per cent renewable target by 2030 if it wins the next election.
Queensland’s renewables boom could decline
Meanwhile, Queensland is also experiencing accelerated growth in renewable energy projects. The state is currently on track to meet its renewable energy target of 50 per cent by 2030.
Despite Queensland’s solar success, GEM analysis also shows wind and solar construction and jobs could decline without federal support.
Edis has also called on the Queensland government to lend its full support to the growth of renewable energy projects in the state.
