ACT environment minister – and architect of the Capital’s nation-leading renewable energy policy – Simon Corbell has been named as one of three patrons to the Australian Solar Council.
Corbell, who will resign from his ministerial position at the next election, was appointed to the new role alongside former Greens leader Christine Milne and Former Liberal Party leader John Hewson.
According to an announcement made on Monday, the three appointees will act as national ambassadors for solar energy, to advance its development and uptake.
Corbell, who in August announced he resign at the next election, has transformed the ACT into the nation’s brightest beacon for renewable energy – it has a target of 90 per cent renewables by 2020 – and set the standard for other governments, both state and federal.
On Corbell’s watch, the Territory developed a string of major renewable energy projects including a commitment to next generation solar, energy storage and renewable energy technologies, a highly successful roof-top solar feed-in tariff (FiT) scheme, the 20MW Royalla solar farm, and two more large-scale solar projects in development.
And the ACT’s large-scale renewable energy auctions have been a huge success, buoying the industry at a time when policy, both federally and in other states on the NEM, was being removed or pared back.
In a statement on Monday, Corbell said he was honoured to be appointed a patron for the Solar Council, to help advocate the importance of solar energy to Australia’s future.
He said the appointment of patrons “from right across the political spectrum” was indicative of the importance of solar to Australia’s future.
Top image: ACT Environment Minister Simon Corbell, via parliament.act.gov.au
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