Generating clean energy for the future
Wind energy boom
Wind energy is the fastest growing large-scale renewable energy source in Australia.
Wind energy supplied around 5,000 gigawatt hours of electricity in 2010, which is around two per cent of Australia’s overall electricity needs.
This clean, renewable source provided energy equivalent to the electricity used in a year by over 700,000 homes.
In mid-2011 the Clean Energy Council indicated there was an additional 9,000 megawatts of large-scale wind farm projects proposed for development around the country. Around 1,000 megawatts of new capacity is currently under construction.
How renewable energies are already being encouraged
We have some of the world’s best wind resources, and the highest average solar radiation per square metre of any continent in the world. The Government has a range of existing initiatives to support widespread renewable energy in Australia. The Government’s Renewable Energy Target (RET) will ensure that 20 per cent of Australia’s electricity comes from renewable sources by 2020.
The RET is speeding up the introduction of commercial renewable energy technologies, and is helping to smooth the transition to a clean energy economy right across Australia. The Government’s plan is expected to drive around $20 billion of investment in renewable energy by 2020, in today’s dollars.
The RET is supporting large scale renewable energy projects, such as wind farms and solar plants as well as small scale installations for households, small business and community groups.
The RET will mean that by the early 2020s the amount of electricity coming fromsources like solar, wind and geothermal will be almost as large as all of Australia’s current household electricity use.
Solar
The Government is bringing forward a new era in large-scale solar generation. The Government recently announced that $464 million has been awarded to Solar Dawn, a solar thermal power station to be built in Chinchilla in Queensland and $307 million has been awarded to the photovoltaic Moree Solar Farm in New South Wales. These two power stations are expected to be in operation from 2015, and will be two of the largest installations in the world, supplying enough electricity for115,000 Australian homes per year.
For more information see Chapter 6 – Innovation in renewable energy.
For further information about the Australian Government’s plan for renewable energy see:
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