Forewords by CEO and Simon Holmes á Court

John Grimes, Chief Executive Smart Energy Council

SINCE 2013 the federal government has told us Australia can either have a strong economy OR a safe climate. They say meaningful action on climate will destroy our economy.

This false choice has always been wrong, but now more than ever it is wilful and economically destructive.

Solar PV costs have dropped 21 per cent every year for the past 10 years. Today solar PV is the cheapest form of electricity in the history of the world. And the price declines are not stopping.

A solar panel in Australia will produce up to 2.6 times more energy every year than the same solar panel in Germany. This is Australia’s national competitive advantage now, and in the decades ahead.

Zero carbon fuels and gases, zero carbon ammonia, zero carbon steel and other metals will be produced in the lowest cost jurisdictions.

With national leadership, this shift could deliver the reindustrialisation of the Australian economy, attract energy intensive industries, and underpin the export of zero carbon energy to power the world.

By creating a false choice, the federal government is squandering our economic potential and our economic future, right at a time when the world undergoes a massive energy disruption driven by environmental imperatives, economics and global policy.

By failing to shift, Australia is in danger of becoming the Kodak of the future. A company that went from peak profitability in 2000 to bankruptcy in 2012. Australia clings to fossil fuels, denies and retards the development of renewables, and is blind to the massive economic potential that is ours to claim.

The only possible solution for Australia is to have a strong economy AND a safe climate. All else is folly.

TITANIUM PARTNERS

In my view

AUSTRALIA INSTALLED more renewable There was a time when the sector hung off the generation in the last three years than in the energy minister’s every word. With apologies to thirty years prior. Prussian diplomat Metternich, when the minister

From Australia’s first grid-connected solar PV sneezed, the renewables sector caught a cold. installation in 1994 on a suburban home at Mt Recently I’ve heard reports of business leaders Coolum in Queensland, it took 24 years to install turning down invitations to meet with the minister 10GW of solar. It took just 27 months to install – why bother? The federal government has, for the next 10GW. now, become largely irrelevant.

Over the past 12 months renewables have Against that backdrop, how has industry provided 28 per cent of energy in the National exceeded all expectations? The dramatic price Electricity Market and 30 per cent in WA’s reductions of smart energy technologies have been electricity grid the SWIS. instrumental.

However you look at it, Australia’s renewables The RET, popular with the public and well sector has been nailing it. designed, helped establish an efficient, skilled and

The Australian Energy Market Operator’s 2020 resilient sector. Households love their solar panels Integrated System Plan plots several possible and demand continues to grow. futures. Under the “Step Change” scenario we’ll build two and a half States have massively stepped into the leadership void with reverse times as much renewables again over the next 15 years, transitioning auctions and ambitious plans for building out renewable energy zones. from one of the world’s dirtiest grids to one of the cleanest. Businesses have supported the sector with mutually beneficial corporate

In the year since the ISP was published, wind, solar and battery PPAs. installations have outpaced Step Change, putting us well ahead of the Many challenges lie ahead, the greatest of which is arguably grid AEMO’s most ambitious scenario. connection. Without strong cooperation between industry and

It’s no secret that our federal government treats our sector with utter governments at all levels, progress will inevitably slow. disdain. Its 2015 tweak of the Renewable Energy Target cut back annual Imagine what we could achieve for Australia if we had a federal demand by 8,000GWh. government that wanted us to succeed?

Simon Holmes á Court is senior advisor at the Energy Transition Hub, Melbourne University