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Parliamentary Questions


Question Without Notice No. 1305 asked in the Legislative Council on 12 November 2020 by Hon Tim Clifford

Parliament: 40 Session: 1

RENEWABLE ENERGY TARGET

1305. Hon TIM CLIFFORD to the minister representing the Minister for Energy:

Since implementing domestic renewable energy targets, the renewable electricity generation of Australia's states and territories has notably increased, indicating the effectiveness of establishing such targets.

(1) Given WA's renewable energy generation is the lowest in Australia at 8.9 per cent, why does the WA Labor government continue to claim there is no need for a WA-based renewable energy target?

(2) Based on the results from other Australian states and territories, does the minister concede that domestic renewable energy targets support the increase in domestic renewable electricity generation?

(3) If the minister does not agree that renewable energy targets are an effective measure in supporting the increase of renewable electricity generation, could the minister explain why WA, which does not have a renewable energy target, has the lowest renewable energy generation in the country?

Hon STEPHEN DAWSON replied:

I thank the honourable member for some notice of the question. The following information has been provided to me by the Minister for Energy.

(1) In WA's main electricity grid, the south west interconnected system, 34 per cent of installed generation capacity is renewable, with roughly half of that coming from rooftop solar. The other half is made up by large-scale wind and solar. This is expected to at least triple over the next two decades without any policy intervention.

(2) Although a renewable energy target was required to kickstart the renewable energy industry, such has been the rate of decrease in the cost of renewables over the past few years that they are now the cheapest method of generating electricity. Accordingly, there is no longer a need for a subsidy by way of a target for this form of generation.

(3) The challenge we now face is integrating and managing what will be more numerous and diverse sources of electricity so that consumers receive a continuous and stable supply of power, which is also required for network safety. The McGowan government's energy transformation strategy addresses this issue, thereby enabling even more renewable sources of generation to connect to the grid to the maximum extent technically possible.