In December 2007, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) agreed a work program to implement the Federal Government’s plan to expand the national mandatory Renewable Energy Target (RET) to 45,000GWh by 2020.  

On the 2nd July 2008 the COAG Working Group on Climate Change and Water released a consultation paper on the design of the expanded RET scheme - Design Options for the Expanded National Renewable Energy Target Scheme - and invited stakeholders to comment on the design issues and the two broad design approaches outlined in the paper. The consultation period closed on 30 July 2008 with submissions now available on the Department of Climate Change website.

It is expected that the national target could increase the amount of electricity generated from renewable energy sources on Western Australia's main electricity grid to over 15% by 2020. Modelling commissioned by the Office of Energy on the financial and economic impacts of different renewable energy targets for Western Australia indicated that achieving 15% by 2020 would require over $1 billion in investment in local renewable electricity generation projects.

The Commonwealth aims to have amended legislation in place by mid-2009.

Consultation on a proposed state-based renewable energy target scheme

Consultation on a proposed mandatory renewable energy target scheme for Western Australia commenced in August 2007 and concluded in December 2007. The Office sought input from interested parties on a proposed mandatory scheme design based on similar schemes in other jurisdictions.

Comments were sought on various issues that needed to be considered in finalising a preferred scheme design, as set out in the Scheme Design Paper (PDF 210 KB). The consultation period closed on 11 December 2007. The scheme overview (PDF 30 KB) provides a summary of how mandatory renewable energy target schemes like the MRET scheme operate.

The Office also held briefings with generators, liable parties and other key interest groups. The briefing presentation is available here: RET consultation(PPT 1.15 MB).

A paper summarising the issues raised by interested parties and the individual submissions are available for download here.

Feedback from the consultation process is informing the Western Australian Government’s position on the design of the expanded national scheme.  Stakeholders also identified a number of related electricity market issues associated with the growth in intermittent renewable energy generation for the electricity system.  Some of these issues are being considered further through electricity market rule change processes.

The Office of Energy is not currently progressing development of legislation for a state-based scheme.

Modelling impacts of the target

While developing a proposed state-based mandatory renewable energy target scheme, the Office of Energy commissioned extensive modelling of a number of different renewable energy targets.

The modelling report (PDF 650 KB) analysed the impacts of various renewable energy targets on the electricity market, greenhouse gas emissions and the Western Australian economy. The Office of Energy also commissioned additional modelling (PDF 214 KB) to explore the implications of recent gas price rises.

The modelling indicated that the impact of the proposed scheme on electricity prices was modest, and that impacts on economic and employment growth would have been small.

Further information

For further information on the target and the consultation process, please email or call Taron Brearleyon (618) 9420 5626 or Brooke Eddington on (618) 9420 5635.

To access Adobe Acrobat Reader for the PDFs provided on this site: www.adobe.com.au

To access Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer for the PPTs provided on this site: www.microsoft.com.au