Climate Change Minister Releases ‘Largest-Ever’ Tender for Renewable Energy

A wind turbine in Albany, Western Australia, on Feb. 18, 2024. Susan Mortimer/The Epoch Times

The Albanese Labor government has unveiled the “largest-ever” single tender for renewable energy in Australia.

The announcement comes as the Australian government aims to achieve 82 percent renewable energy by the year 2030.

The new tender is part of the expanded Capacity Investment Scheme (CIS), announced in November at a cost of $67 billion (US$43 billion) to the taxpayer between 2024 and 2027.

This particular tender targets 6 gigawatts (GW) of new variable renewable energy projects for the National Electricity Market (NEM).

As part of the first tender, the federal government has signed a deal with the New South Wales (NSW) Labor government for 2.2 GW of renewable energy for the state, powering one million households.

Further, 300 megawatts of renewable energy will also be provided for renewable energy projects specifically for South Australia (SA). The deal in SA is subject to final agreement between the federal and state governments.

Tenders for 500 MW power for renewable energy storage will open in Western Australia mid-year, subject to consultation, powering 45,000 homes.

The government will release a market briefing in early May to provide further details on the tender process.

New tender rounds as part of the National Energy Market will run about every six months until 2027.

‘Rain Doesn’t Always Fall, But We Always Have Water On Tap’: Bowen

Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen maintains that reliable renewable energy is the “cheapest, cleanest” form of power.

“The rain doesn’t always fall, but we always have water on tap because we store it for when we need it—our energy plan does just the same thing for reliable renewables,” Mr. Bowen said.

“Our plan is delivering the certainty and confidence the market needs to deliver the energy we need, when we need it.”

Meanwhile, NSW Climate Change and Energy Minister Penny Sharpe said she looks forward to working with the federal government over the next few months to finalise the ongoing implementation of the CIS in the state.

“NSW is leading the nation when it comes to delivering the energy transition. We’re already about half-way to meeting our generation target, and a quarter of the way to meeting our storage target,” she said.

“This is a significant win for NSW electricity consumers, with the Commonwealth supporting our biggest round of generation projects yet to deliver low-cost, reliable energy to homes and businesses.”

The NSW government is also delivering six battery and virtual power plants with more than one gigawatts of capacity.

Opposition Release Plan for Nuclear Plants Soon

Meanwhile, Liberal Opposition leader Peter Dutton is continuing to push for nuclear to be part of the energy mix in Australia.

The Coalition has previously raised concerns with Labor’s “renewables only” strategy raising electricity prices.

In an interview with ABC Insiders on April 21, Mr. Dutton said the Coalition will have more to say on nuclear power “in due course.”

He said the Opposition is doing policy work at the moment and will make the announcement as soon as it’s ready to go and at the most opportune time for people to hear it.

“So, we’ll announce it in due course, but we’re doing that because I believe it’s right for our country. I want to see manufacturing grow, I want to see power bills for families reduced not increased, I want to see businesses prosper so that they can employ more staff and pay more taxes,” Mr. Dutton said.

“That’s the reason that we’re doing it, and as we know, 90 percent of baseload power comes out of the system over the next decade.”

During the interview, Mr. Dutton pointed out that other economies are relying on nuclear power, including European nations.

“In the case of Europe, look at what France is doing. They’re providing the nuclear power to other economies,” he said.

“I know that people want to pretend that wind and solar can go around the clock, it can’t.”

Mr. Dutton highlighted baseload power, saying while hydrogen is a potential solution, it is “not prospective” and will not be scalable by the account of many.

“Let’s hope the batteries work out, let’s hope that there’s more hydro into the system; but we need to deal with the realities, and if we don’t, we’ll see a significant collapse within our economy. That’s why you need to have 24/7 baseload power in there, which nuclear can do,” Mr. Dutton said.

“The other point in relation to the environmental impact, which is Bill Gates’s point: a 470 megawatt small modular reactor takes two hectares of land. The equivalent energy yield out of solar takes 4,000 hectares—10,000 acres. So, let’s have just a mature discussion about it.”