A report released by the Australian Solar Council (ASC) and WWF has found that making Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) funded projects additional to the Renewable Energy Target (RET) would result in a renewables sector boom at little to no cost to consumers.

 

The CEFC currently manages a $10 billion fund designed to assist in overcoming barriers to deploying renewable energy, energy efficiency and low emissions technologies.

 

The report, prepared by AECOM and ROAM, looked at the impact of allowing projects access to Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) above the current RET 2020 target.


The report found that by 2020 there could be 37% more large-scale renewables, 5,000 more jobs, and substantially less emissions. Substantial gains were also found for 2030.


WWF’s Climate Change National Manager, Kellie Caught said, “By 2030, together the CEFC and an increased RET could create 28,000 new jobs, double current estimates, and significantly reduce emission, putting us firmly on a low carbon pathway”.


“There is an opportunity for the $10 billion CEFC to have an even greater benefit beyond commercialising a broader range of renewables, at potentially no additional cost to the public. You would expect with the current tight fiscal environment, the Government would want greater bang for their buck,” said Ms Caught.


John Grimes, Chief Executive of the Australian Solar Council said, “The new modelling report confirms solar will be the big winner from the CEFC in the early years.


“The modelling made some conservative assumptions and we predict that if the CEFC was made additional to the RET, it would drive a solar boom and bring down costs faster.”


The modelling finds that the solar boom will be at the expense of new wind energy, which is not the intent of the CEFC but could be addressed if the CEFC was additional to the RET.