Australië: forse bezuinigingen op subsidies duurzame energie
Australië gidsland?
Een vierkoppige commissie heeft de Australische premier Tony Abbott een voorstel voorgelegd om te komen tot forse bezuinigingen op de subsidiëring van duurzame energie, wind en zonneenergie. De commissie was van mening dat het huidige beleid, zoals vastgelegd in de zogenoemde RET [Renewable Energy Target], de productiviteit van de Australische economie ondermijnde en een dure manier was om de uitstoot van CO2 te verminderen. Belanghebbenden in de duurzame energiesector waarschuwden dat de plannen tot een bankroet van de sector zou kunnen leiden, waarbij 21 000 banen verloren zouden kunnen gaan.
Onder de titel, 'Review signals overhaul of RET [Renewable Energy Target], rapporteerde Sid Maher in 'The Australian' onder meer:
Tony Abbott has been handed a blueprint for heavy cuts to subsidies for wind farms and solar rooftop panels, after a review of the Renewable Energy Target found the scheme undermined national productivity and was an expensive form of carbon abatement.
The recommendations of the four-person RET review panel, headed by businessman Dick Warburton, sparked outrage from renewable energy interests, who warned it could bankrupt the industry and jeopardise 21,000 jobs. ...
The review said the RET had encouraged a near doubling of investment in renewables. With the industry now established in Australia, the main rationale for the scheme was to cut carbon emissions, but there were lower-cost alternatives in the economy and the costs imposed by the RET were not justifiable. The report said the current RET would require a $22 billion cross-subsidy to the renewables sector in addition to $9.4bn provided from 2001 to 2013 and would encourage $15bn in new investment in the sector.
Hence the RET would be diverting resources from more productive uses elsewhere in the economy, lowering productivity and national income, it found.
This investment would come at the expense of other sectors in the economy and produce extra electricity generation capacity that would not be needed given falling demand.
While the RET was exerting downward pressure on wholesale electricity prices by generating more electricity into a market where demand was falling, artificially low prices risked distorting investment decisions and prices would ultimately return to sustainable levels.
De reacties waren verdeeld.
The Australian Aluminium Council welcomed the panels acknowledgment that the RET forced up costs for big energy users and the Energy Supply Association of Australia said the panel had recognised the RET was contributing to market dysfunction.
We are building generation that isnt needed to meet demand. This increases the abatement cost of the scheme, and threatens to make the entire electricity market uninvestable, said the ESAAs Tim Reardon.
Clean Energy Council acting chief executive Kane Thornton said the recommendations would decimate the industry, resulting in massive financial damage to more than $10bn worth of investments already made and putting 21,000 jobs at risk.
Minerals Council of Australia chief executive Brendan Pearson said the review found the RET was an old-fashioned industry subsidy with the cost being borne by consumers and export and import competing industries.
Australian Solar Council chief executive John Grimes said the review marked the darkest day for the solar industry. He said 18,000 people would not know if they would have a job by Christmas and 8000 could go now.
Aldus 'The Australian'.
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