‘We can get there’: Power chief backs Labor’s green energy goals

“Without commenting on any company-specific plans that might be out there I think we have to get ready for a world that is leaning into things happening quicker, not slower,” he said. “It’s incumbent on us … to get ready sooner rather than later.”

Redman said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s aim for Australia’s fossil fuel-dominated power grid to be powered 82 per cent by renewable energy by 2030 and promise to spend $20 billion building new transmission corridors to link up new renewable energy zones to better-facilitate the flow of cheap, clean power across the nation, were necessary actions to drive the pace of change required.

“We can get there, but we need to get our skates on, and get those ‘superhighways’ built,” he said. “If we do that, there are lots of renewable energy projects out there and an increasing flood of storage projects out there waiting to connect, waiting to get into the market, waiting to drive towards that target.”

Matt Pearce, KPMG’s power and utilities lead, said Australia’s window of opportunity to harness the green energy revolution without threatening power prices was rapidly closing, and the country needed a nationally co-ordinated rollout of new generation and transmission projects,

“It really is about how fast can we work in the next three years,” he said.

“If we can get in front of the transition and put the requisite steps in place, then you won’t get the price shocks … if we are playing catch-up, there could well be.”

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The Coalition attacked Labor’s renewable energy plans during the campaign with a claim the new infrastructure investment would add $560 to household energy bills by 2033, saying that energy companies would recoup the full cost from bill-payers.

Labor rejected this, citing modelling by Reputex, which claimed Labor’s plan would shave $378 off electricity prices by 2030 because renewable energy was a cheaper form of power generation than coal, which currently provides about two-thirds of the power in the grid.

Industry research firm Fitch said the ALP’s election win “bodes well for renewables development” in Australia.

“This is a stark shift away from the previous Coalition government that took on a much more sceptical view towards climate change policies and emissions reduction plans, which created policy uncertainties,” it said. “Given the Labor Party’s strong support for the sector, we expect the policy environment to improve going forward, with greater certainties and financial support that will drive up further investments into the sector.”

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