As Prime Minister Abbott continues to talk down renewables, it seems Environment Minister Greg Hunt and one other are the only remaining Ministers supporting the Renewable Energy Target.
According to The Australian, a senior government figure says Greg Hunt and Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane are the only cabinet members left supporting the RET.
The news comes just days after Prime Minister Abbot again gave ominous signs with regard to the future of the Renewable Energy Target after this year’s review.
In an interview on 2GB last Thursday, the Prime Minister gave coal the thumbs up while criticising renewable energy.
“The problem at this stage with renewable energy is that there’s always got to be a back up because sometimes the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow. If the sun doesn’t shines and the wind doesn’t blow, the power doesn’t flow.”
“We are going to have a good, long, hard look at this with the fundamental objective of doing what we can to get power prices down. Australia should be, Andrew, the affordable energy capital of the world. We have a superabundance of coal.”
The Prime Minister has repeatedly focused on the price of renewables lately, but is yet to publicly acknowledge the impact of the RET is minimal – just 3 per cent of household electricity prices on average in 2012-13 according to the Australian Energy Market Commission. He also hasn’t acknowledged the fact that renewables are reining in wholesale power prices; with the effect most apparent during peak consumption periods.
While Minister Hunt’s continued support for the RET is encouraging, Prime Minister Abbott’s continual negative signals appear to be having an effect. Infigen Energy’s Jonathan Upson says the situation is making investors edgy.
“I wouldn’t expect very many, if any, large scale renewable energy projects to be committed to construction before the review is finalised because there is uncertainty about what’s going to happen to the scheme and the trajectory.”
The results of the RET review could also have an impact on the nature and amount of support available for home solar power systems; spurring some on to make the switch to solar now to take advantage of the subsidies currently available that can reduce the cost of a solar panel array by thousands of dollars.
