New Energy World™
New Energy World™ embraces the whole energy industry as it connects and converges to address the decarbonisation challenge. It covers progress being made across the industry, from the dynamics under way to reduce emissions in oil and gas, through improvements to the efficiency of energy conversion and use, to cutting-edge initiatives in renewable and low-carbon technologies.
Australia’s push-pull approach to green energy
11/10/2023
8 min read
Feature
A change of government has given Australia more focus on building renewable energy capacity. But the rate of change has room for improvement, and renewables investment actually slowed down recently. New Energy World Features Editor Brian Davis reports.
It is a mixed picture for renewables in Australia, according to Kane Thornton, Chief Executive of the Clean Energy Council, Australia’s renewable energy association. Over 5 GW of new renewable capacity was installed in 2022 – 2.7 GW from rooftop solar and 2.3 GW from large-scale projects. But this was a fall from 6.3 GW the year before.
Thornton explains: ‘While the rooftop solar rollout slowed slightly due to the supply chain and workforce constraints… rooftop solar continues to drive Australia’s clean energy transition. It also reached a significant milestone, accounting for more than a quarter of Australia’s total renewable generation for the first time.’
However, he notes that the large-scale renewable energy sector ‘underperformed’ compared to 2021. On the plus side, the Australian renewable energy industry started construction on over 5,000 MW of wind and solar farms in 2022 – the highest year for new renewable construction commitments on record.