Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announced on Thursday anambitious green energy plan that he said would be “good for energy bills” while boosting the share of renewable energy in the state’s grid to 95 per cent by 2035 and aiming to cut the state’s emissions by 80 per cent by the same date.
A re-elected Labor government will invest $1 billion to build wind and solar projects,enough to replace theLoy Yang A coal power plant,and centralise control of planning and construction,as well as potentially reviving the defunct State Electricity Commission.
Andrews’ cut-price power pledge follows the Albanese government’s election promise to cut annual power bills $275 by 2030,and NSW Treasurer and Energy Minister Matt Kean’s commitment to replace coal with “cheap,reliable and clean energy” and save households $130 on their bills under his energy road map where public money underwrites private investment in renewables.
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But the Grattan Institute’sGoing for net zeroreport,which analysed the policy options for governments to deliver their emissions-reduction commitments,found that “renewables-based systems are not substantially cheaper than the coal-based system”.
That’s down to the costs of extra transmission lines required to link up far-flung wind and solar farms to the electricity grid and “firming” wind and solar with back-up power such as batteries and pumped hydro.
“It’s stupid when[governments] keep saying we are going to bring prices down when they can’t,” said Grattan’s energy director Tony Wood.
“Broadly speaking,because none of this is precise,those two[transmission and firming] balance each other out — at least ’til you get to about 80 per cent renewables. Then,like most things in life,the last 20 per cent,or it might be the last 10 per cent,or maybe even less,gets really hard and expensive,unless we find other ways of doing it. And that’s what our analysis showed very clearly.”