Page 2311 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 5 August 2015

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The Electricity Feed-in (Renewable Energy Premium) Act provides the framework which enables capital investment into renewable energy generation to be recouped within a 10-year period. The Royalla solar farm project was made possible through further ACT legislation for large-scale renewable auctions. The solar farm was completed on 4 September last year and is the biggest solar farm in Australia. It produces 20 megawatts of clean, carbon-free electricity to the benefit of not only residents of the ACT but the wider global community. A second solar farm at Mugga Lane has received planning approval and will provide an additional seven megawatts of clean electricity for the territory.

The low emission vehicle strategy is another way that the ACT government is aiming to reduce emissions in the territory. The strategy will provide incentives for people to buy more efficient vehicles through large stamp duty reductions. Indeed exceptionally efficient vehicles and electric vehicles will be free of stamp duty altogether. The rise in the number of electric vehicles is great to see, and I was pleased when the government began purchasing electric vehicles for its fleet last year.

In 2011 transport accounted for 23 per cent of the ACT’s emissions. A reduction in transport emissions needs to go hand in hand with the reduction in emissions which is already being achieved through projects facilitated by the feed-in tariff legislation. Indeed, when 2020 arrives and the ACT lives off 90 per cent renewable electricity, electric vehicles will also be 90 per cent fuelled by totally renewable electricity. The same can be said of light rail. The more electricity that is provided for the territory from renewable sources, the more efficient this electric form of mass transit becomes.

Renewable electricity production is beginning to take hold around the world. In the last 10 years we have seen more investment in solar, wind, hydro and geothermal technology. In the UK approximately 9.8 per cent of electricity is produced through wind farms, with many more proposals currently in the works. Wind farms in the UK produce a total of 13 gigawatts of electricity, 8,248 megawatts onshore and 5,054 offshore, from 6,536 individual wind turbines. I find the use of offshore wind turbines in the UK quite interesting. In a country with a reasonably high population density, it is a great way to make the most of those spatial resources.

I remember visiting Germany when I was looking into the feed-in tariff. I visited a company called Vattenfall, an electricity generator in Germany who were very concerned when the feed-in tariff was first brought in. But when I visited them in 2008 I was advised that they were investing heavily in offshore wind farms and bringing that energy back to the mainland.

Closer to home, South Australia is also moving towards greater production of renewable energy. The state has more than 550 megawatts of rooftop solar, with almost one in four houses having rooftop panels. As of August 2014 South Australia had around half of Australia’s installed wind power capacity. This capacity totals 1,473 megawatts from more than 1,200 turbines across 16 separate wind farms and accounts for 27 per cent of the electricity demands of the state. It was through the rapid growth of wind power that South Australia was able to achieve 20 per cent renewable electricity as its goal well before time.


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