Australian Territory (ACT) Outlines Plan for 90% Renewable Energy by 2020

October 2nd, 2012 by Zachary Shahan

This article was originally published on Renew Economy. It has been reposted with full permission.

Wind turbines in ACT via Kate’s Photo Diary

The ACT government has outlined an ambitious plan to source 90 per cent of its energy requirements from renewable energy by 2020, with solar, wind and energy efficiency at the centrepiece of its strategy.

In a refreshing change from the head in the sand policies on climate change and clean energy adopted by the state conservative governments, particularly Queensland and Victoria, the ACT Climate Change Strategy, released by Energy Minister Simon Corbell in September, also includes a target to reduce the ACT’s carbon emissions by 40 per cent from 1990 levels by 2020, by 80 per cent by 2050, and to achieve “carbon neutrality” by 2060.

“Solar energy has been the centrepiece of the government’s renewable energy projects to date but this strategy outlines a broader pathway to achieve carbon reduction targets,” Corbell said in a statement.

“The government will combine the benefits of new renewable energy sources like wind with existing solar projects, both here and in the capital region; encourage more use of public transport to reduce traffic emissions and boost energy efficiency in homes and buildings to reduce our carbon footprint and save Canberrans money.”

The ACT government has already shown leadership in the renewables sector, implementing the first feed in tariff for commercial scale solar PV installations, and recently completed the first “reverse auction” for utility scale solar that will see the country’s largest solar farm, a 20MW facility near Royalla, built by the Spanish firm FRV by 2014.

The total portfolio of 40MW to be allocated via the auction will account for around 2 per cent of the territory’s needs. The 90 per cent target envisages up to 90MW of large scale solar PV by 2020, around 23MW of biomass from landfill waste, and the purchase of renewable energy certificates and output from up to 583MW of wind power in the ACT/NSW border region. It also includes around 72MW of small and medium scale rooftop solar PV.

It estimates around that a maximum 130-160MW of solar energy could be installed in the territory, but its reverse auction system could accelerate the deployment of solar thermal and geothermal technologies if these also looked promising.

The key areas of reduction in carbon emissions contained in the climate change strategy include:

- 218,000 tonnes of carbon emissions reduced from the residential sector through increased energy efficiency; restrictions on installations of high emission hot water heaters, continuation of the ACTSmart programs and collaboration with local tertiary education institutions to trial new technologies to produce and store energy;

- 181,000 tonnes reduction in the commercial sector through the possible expansion of the energy efficiency scheme to large businesses and buildings as well as a heating and cooling load map to encourage private investment in low-carbon energy networks;

- 138,000 tonnes reductions through the implementation of the transport for Canberra strategy which will increase public transport frequency to encourage people out of their private vehicles;

- and 1,471,000 tonnes reduction through the deployment of large-scale renewable energy including solar and wind power.

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About the Author

Zachary Shahan spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as the director/chief editor. Otherwise, he's probably enthusiastically fulfilling his duties as the director/editor of Solar Love, EV Obsession, Planetsave, or Bikocity. Zach is recognized globally as a solar energy, electric car, and wind energy expert. If you would like him to speak at a related conference or event, connect with him via social media. You can connect with Zach on any popular social networking site you like. Links to all of his main social media profiles are on ZacharyShahan.com.

Ronald Brak

Today I found out that what I’m charged for electricity should be cut by 8.1% next year due to the reduction in electricity prices caused by South Australia’s wind and solar capacity.
- http://cleantechnica.com/ Zachary Shahan
  
  Holy cow. nice.
Ronald Brak

And I’ll mention there is nothing particularly special about Canberra’s renewable resources. What Canberra can so, so can the rest of Australia.
- http://cleantechnica.com/ Zachary Shahan
  
  i was wondering…
jburt56

The Aussies are sitting pretty in the upcoming solar age–astronomical insolation shared by a relatively low population and lots of exportable commodities adjacent to India and China.