The latest report from the Clean Energy Council (CEC) shows that 2018 was the best year so far for renewable energy in Australia despite political issues and disorder. 2018 also posted a record-breaking achievement for rooftop solar.
The report states that the amount of renewable energy capacity in the country last year has increased 260 percent, having 14.8 GW of renewable energy projects as compared to 5.6 GW in 2017.
With 38 new projects completed in 2018, more than 2.3 GW of new renewable capacity also materialized. Australia now gets over 21 percent of its total energy generation from renewables, more than enough to supply power to approximately 10 million households.
The CEC report states, ”By December, the Clean Energy Regulator (CER) confirmed that a whopping 2 million households – one in five – now host rooftop solar. On average, six solar panels were being installed per minute in Australia in 2018, with the commercial sector growing by 45 percent and the residential sector just a whisker behind, with a 43 percent rise.”
Furthermore, the report claims that new large-scale wind and solar projects are being developed and established more efficiently now than in previous years. Renewable energy attracts local and international capital by being the lowest-cost type of new energy. Other major causes of the boom of renewables in Australia last year are the incentives provided by the federal Renewable Energy Target (RET) and other state policies.
The report further claims, ”In December, a benchmark study from the CSIRO and Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) confirmed that the cost of new wind and solar -even with six hours of storage included – is lower than the cost of new coal generation.”
In his Introduction in the latest CEC report, Kane Thornton, the Chief Executive of CEC, affirmed that 2018 was indeed the best year so far for renewables in Australia. An even better news is that it was just the beginning of a promising future for clean and renewable energy in the country.
He concluded his part in the report by stating, ”The vision of an Australia powered by clean energy is now well and truly in sight, and it is with great optimism that I look forward to another ground-breaking year for the Australian clean energy industry.”
View the complete Clean Energy Australia Report 2019 here.
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