New research from independent think tank Climate Energy Finance (CEF) has found that Queensland is leading the nation in the transition to renewable, clean power, having made transformational investments in transmission, large-scale, low-cost renewable energy and Consumer Energy Resources (CER).
CEF says the Queensland Government’s $62 billion Energy and Jobs Plan is turbocharging the state’s energy transition, reducing reliance on expensive, polluting fossil fuels and putting downward pressure on household and commercial energy bills.
Interestingly, the revamp has offered regional Queensland new opportunities as well – CEF believes the Sunshine State is on the precipice of leaving behind its legacy of coal and gas and becoming a clean tech superpower with the minerals and renewable energy needed to service the global push to decarbonisation.
Good public policy
“Queensland has leveraged the multi-billion-dollar revenue bonanza reaped from progressive coal royalties during a period of coal price hyperinflation to reinvest in public infrastructure to enable the state’s decarbonisation,” CEF director, leading energy analyst and report co-author Tim Buckley said.
“This is good public policy.
“While neither Queensland’s pumped hydro storage nor CopperString projects are commercially viable in isolation, the government’s investment is an enabler of massive follow-on investment, signalling political confidence and policy certainty to investors, accelerating momentum and underwriting the transformation.
“This in turn will enable massive investments in zero-emissions future industries, such as critical minerals, driving exports, regional employment and investment, as a flood of firmed renewables slashes industrial and residential energy bills.”
The Queensland Government’s enthusiasm has drawn high levels of private sector investment as companies seek future tech opportunities – the state has received $73 billion worth of investment proposals from private developers already.
On track to deliver targets
Queensland also has an ambitious set of renewable energy targets, which it’s currently on track to deliver – 70% renewables by 2032 and 80% by 2035, targeting 25 gigawatts of zero-emissions generation, which would account for a massive 40% of the current National Electricity Market (NEM).
Just this month, the State Government went even further, introducing a bill that would target 75% emissions reductions by 2035 and net zero by 2050.
To achieve that 25-gigawatt target, some $45 billion in renewable investment will be necessary, of which $21 billion is expected to come from private capital.
$19 billion will be allocated from the state’s budget under the Energy and Jobs Plan over four years and the government is expected to invest $10.4 billion in transmission infrastructure projects.
The AEMO has identified a total of 41 gigawatts of utility-scale wind and solar in the investment pipeline for Queensland, representing that $73 billion private investment figure.
The state needs just over half of that to come online within the next two decades to achieve its target, making for a promising future for Queensland’s clean energy sector.
Leading the way
“The wider lesson is for the Federal Government and state counterparts to share this vision and ambition. We are headed at last in the right direction, and it’s time to accelerate. Economies the world over are rapidly decarbonising,” Buckley said.
“Global leader, China, is greening its economy at a staggering pace and the US Government is investing US$1 trillion in the Inflation Reduction Act’s 'green new deal', now driving massive deployment of renewables, jobs and GDP growth.
“Australia should take a lead from Queensland and its global partners and act now with a landmark, nation-building strategic investment of public capital into the Future Fund, to leverage existing investments in the National Reconstruction Fund and Rewiring the Nation.
“We need the government to underwrite local procurement policies to underpin domestic manufacturing. CEF urges the government to commit another $100 billion in the May Federal Budget.
“This would unleash hundreds of billions in private capital and accelerate nationwide decarbonisation commensurate with the scale of our opportunity to lead the world in cheap firmed renewables and dominate the market in energy transition materials such as value-added critical minerals.”