The Victorian state government has revealed plans to set a renewable energy target of 40 per cent by 2025, making it the latest state in Australia to introduce a large-scale renewables target more ambitious than that of the federal Turnbull government.
Victoria’s Labor government says it intends to end an investment drought in the state by lifting its share of renewable energy from 15 per cent to 25 per cent by 2020.
It then plans to establish a new target, jumping to 40 per cent by 2025, which will require some 5,400MW of large scale wind, and large and small scale solar to be built in less than one decade. That compares to its current capacity of 1,200MW of large-scale wind and 930MW of small-scale solar.
The new targets were announced on Wednesday by Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, along with his minister for energy and climate Lily D’Ambrosio.
The targets will be met with the help of reverse auctions modelled on the successful scheme pioneered by the ACT government which aims to reach 100 per cent renewable energy by 2020. Details will be released later this year and the legislation enacted in early 2017.
Some 1,800MW of large-scale wind and solar will need to be built by 2020, although D’Ambrosio insists it will not come at an extra cost.
The 2025 target will be met by reverse auctions and will be “additional” to the national target, and D’Ambrosio says the costs will be limited to just a matter of “cents per week” to consumers.
The auction schemes will be split into “solar only” and others that will be technology neutral, but will most likely favour wind energy. The exact share is yet to be decided.
In an interview with RenewEconomy on Wednesday, D’Ambrosio said the first round of auctions were expected to be held in 2017, with the goal of generating 1,800MW of new capacity and getting it built by 2020.
“We think it is ambitious. And very achievable, and is what we need,” she told RE.
© 2016 Solar Choice Pty Ltd
