The Federal Government has released details of its plan to source 20 per cent of Australia’s electricity from renewables by 2020.

The draft legislation to deliver the Renewable Energy Target includes a new rebate for households, small businesses and community groups that install solar systems.

The 20 per cent target was an election promise and Treasurer Wayne Swan says it builds on the carbon pollution reduction scheme.

“Legislation that we’re putting forward today will really turbocharge renewable energy use in this country, particularly solar energy,” he said.

“It will build upon the incentives in the carbon pollution reduction scheme to build a low pollution economy with green jobs for the future, whilst protecting our economy.”

The Federal Government is also setting up a new scheme that it says will make installing solar panels more affordable.

The legislation includes giving up to $7,500 worth of credits to help pay the up-front cost of installing solar panels.

The Greens say the Government should be setting up a feed-in tariff to guarantee prices, instead of a credits scheme.

But Environment Minister Peter Garrett says the scheme will be a strong incentive for people to install solar panels.

“It is available to everybody. It’s available to households, it’s available to community groups, it’s available to businesses,” he said.

“It allows for around a $7,500 solar credit for anybody that wants to install new, small-scale renewable technologies in their homes, their businesses or their community groups.”

The Government will give people credit worth five times the value of the energy produced, as a subsidy for installing a solar system.

Greens Senator Christine Milne says the credit scheme will make it impossible to meet the 20 per cent target.

“By saying to people, ‘we will give you credit as if you had produced five units of energy, but in fact, you’ll have only produced one’, but the five units of energy goes to the total target, so while on paper it might look as if you’re producing that number of units of energy, it’ll be a fifth of that,” she said.

The Coalition’s environment spokesman, Greg Hunt, says the subsidy is less than the total amount available under the current rebate system.

“If you previously received a rebate, you would have got a total of about $9,500,” he said.

“Now if you’re in Melbourne, you’ll get $5,000 less. So it’s another blow to the solar industry.

“We’ve seen a wind-back of the rebate earlier on in the year, BP Solar close up and now we’ve seen a solar short-change.”

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/12/17/2449001.htm

The Federal Opposition says the Government’s decision to fast-track investment in solar and renewable energy is meaningless while a cap remains on the solar panel rebate.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says the $500 million renewable energy fund will be delivered over the next 18 months instead of the six-year time frame that was previously announced.

Mr Rudd made the announcement today at a solar farm at Windorah in Queensland’s far south-west.

He says by shortening the fund’s life, the environment and the economy benefit.

“It’s good for jobs, it’s good for stimulus, it’s good for acting on climate change,” he said.

$100 million will be allocated to solar power and renewable energy in 2008 – 2009, with $400 million to be spent over the next two years.

Mr Rudd says it is time for Australia’s solar revolution and the money will see more solar farms built.

“We need to make this solar energy revolution, this renewable energy revolution real for households across Australia, real for communities across Australia and also real for businesses as well,” he said.

But the Opposition’s Environment spokesman, Greg Hunt, says the Government must scrap means testing of the $8,000 solar panel rebate.

“For mums and dads on $51,000 each who want to access solar panels, they still can’t access solar panels so instead of a solar sunrise we’ve seen a solar sunset,” he said.

“It’s inexplicable that Mr Rudd has failed to remove the quite disastrous and unfair cap on the solar panel rebate.

“The single fastest way of deploying solar energy, clean energy, renewable energy, still hasn’t been addressed.”

Owen Pascoe from the Australian Conservation Foundation has welcomed the Prime Minister’s announcement on solar and wind energy.

“We welcome the acceleration of funding for renewable energy; this is the sort of thing we need to do to drive investment and drive jobs growth in clean, green, renewable energy industries,” he said.

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/12/14/2445988.htm

Australia’s newest solar farm is now delivering clean emissions-free energy to an outback Queensland town.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Queensland Premier Anna Bligh inspected progress at the $4.5 million solar power farm at Windorah, in the state’s remote south-west, today.

Windorah is the first of many Queensland towns to go solar with clean energy powered by the sun.

The solar farm uses five 14-metre diameter solar dishes to capture sunlight to help power local homes and businesses.

The giant dishes follow the sun as it tracks across the sky from sunrise to sunset.

Innovative cloud monitoring and prediction software to be trialled at this site detects when a cloud moves in front of the sun and employs a battery system to maintain the same generation capacity until the cloud moves away.

Diesel generators kick in if the cloud cover persists and to maintain the continuous flow of electricity at night.

Last week, for the first time, all five dishes worked together to create solar power that was exported into the local grid, supplying about 60 homes and businesses.

In ideal conditions, such as long sunlight hours and low dust, the solar farm could generate enough electricity to supply the entire day time needs of the town and its 100 residents – a Queensland first.

Solar energy could revolutionise the way power is produced for remote communities that are not on the national electricity grid and rely on diesel power stations feeding into small local grids.

The Queensland Government, through Ergon Energy, has invested more than $3.5 million to build the solar farm at Windorah.

The Australian Government, through the Renewable Remote Power Generation Program administered by Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett’s Department has contributed another $1 million to build the solar farm at Windorah.

The Windorah solar plant will produce around 300,000 kilowatt hours of electricity annually and reduce diesel consumption in the town by more than 100,000 litres per year.

More significantly this will reduce the town’s carbon footprint by an estimated 300 tonnes of greenhouse gas per year.

Engineers will continue testing the system until February next year, when the solar power station is officially commissioned.

Federal funding support for major projects under the Renewable Remote Power Generation Program totals more than $50 million and has stimulated a total investment of more than $107 million in renewable generation projects around Australia.

Source: http://www.cabinet.qld.gov.au/MMS/StatementDisplaySingle.aspx?id=61965