‘Way off the pace’: Just four green energy projects reached sign-off

afr.com:

Only four renewable energy projects reached financial close in the three months to the end of June, extending a dearth in commitments to new wind and solar farms just when the buildout is supposed to be accelerating to allow polluting coal generators to shut down.

The low level of project go-aheads – for reasons including planning approval delays and grid bottlenecks – came after no wind and solar projects at all reached financial sign-off in the March quarter, the Clean Energy Council says.

Coal power plants will have to run for longer if additions of cleaner replacement supply lag behind. Bloomberg

The addition of just 348 megawatts of capacity into the development phase in the April-June period means that additions in new supply have fallen even further behind what is needed to reach Australia’s 2030 climate goals.

It reinforces the growing crisis in Australia’s energy transition, which is forcing the life of polluting coal power generators such as Origin Energy’s huge Eraring plant in NSW to be extended.

Under-investment in transmission, grid connection challenges, difficult planning policies, and constraints in supply chains and workforce were all cited by the council’s chief executive, Kane Thornton, as barriers to pushing ahead with new renewables projects.

The June half was the slowest six months for new financial commitments in generation projects since the council began recording the figures in 2017, the figures, to be released on Wednesday, show.

The impact of hurdles to new projects in Australia has been amplified by the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act in the US, which directs almost $US400 billion ($621.6 billion) in funding to clean energy and has acted as a magnet for investment worldwide.

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