Renewables and energy news that crossed Meralli’s desk last week…
Treasurer shares five new perspectives on energy
In an address given at the Economic and Social Outlook Conference in Melbourne on 2 November, Treasurer of Australia, Jim Chalmers, outlined five new perspectives on energy and Australia’s renewables transition. Mr Chalmers said that the five main points he set out in his speech regarding the energy transformation come from his perspective as Treasurer.
- While important building blocks are now in place and progress has been made, we will need to do even more to secure sufficient renewable energy generation, transmission, and storage to meet our ambitions ‑
- The availability of public and private capital is a really important issue but it’s not the only issue.
- That means incentives like the type we’ve seen in the Inflation Reduction Act in the United States can be part of an answer but they’re not the whole answer.
- Our industry policy framework needs to be recast and modernised so we can maximise our advantages and leverage our strengths in a new age of net zero.
- The Productivity Commission should and will play a bigger, more constructive role in organising our thinking when it comes to climate and energy policy.
You can read the keynote address in full here. (ministers.treasury.gov.au)
Bowen says accelerating switch to renewables essential to “keep the lights on”
Federal energy minister Chris Bowen is doubling down on his commitment to reaching 82 percent renewables by 2030, saying an accelerated transition to green energy is essential to cut emissions, prices and to keep the lights on. In a speech to Future Energy Week conference in Adelaide, Bowen also hinted at new policy initiatives to “amplify” the road to the 82 percent renewable target, and rejected the push for nuclear saying it would be too slow to replace the country’s ageing and increasingly unreliable coal generators. You can read the speech in full here. (Renew Economy)
Climate and clean energy: Australia’s next big employer
The Careers for Net Zero initiative, a collaborative campaign by the Clean Energy Council and Energy Efficiency Council, is focused on addressing the skills shortage impacting Australia’s mandated 82 percent renewable energy target by 2030. Both organisations advocate for the creation of 200,000 new jobs in the renewables sector to meet the 2030 goal. Additionally, they emphasize the necessity of establishing two million positions to attain the broader objective of achieving net-zero emissions by 2030. (Eco Generation)
Our photo of the week (from the Meralli archives) was taken at the Baroota Solar Farm completed in 2019. Located in Baroota, South Australia, Baroota has a 5.8ha footprint and with 8.9 MW has a generation capacity of 2,482 homes on average* and a CO2 offset of 10,269 tonnes (tcO2e)
*Homes powered is based on an average Sydney household with 2.4 people who use 5,237 kWH per year)
** this is ‘tonnes of CO2 equivalent’ to the production of the same amount of energy via coal.
