Page 3828 - Week 10 - Thursday, 27 August 2009
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indeed the broader community; and it will be looking at policy approaches adopted in other jurisdictions.
Some of the issues that we will need to consider are whether or not we have an overall cap on the amount of generating capacity eligible to access the tariff in any one year, similar to the Spanish model, or whether we should simply have a gradated scheme similar to the German model whereby, as the size of the installation goes up, access to different payments kicks in. These are the types of options that the government is pursuing. I am looking forward to the public consultation process when that commences later in September.
It is the government’s intention to ensure that large commercial operators are given the chance to comment. The industry needs to have its say. Given the very strong interest that we have had from the industry in the development of the solar power plant proposal, with very large entities expressing interest in installing that technology here in the ACT—as well as smaller and indeed locally based firms—we need to make sure that all of these issues are properly considered.
The time frame will see the review being completed with a report to government in December this year. I would anticipate making decisions and announcing the government position on the further rollout of the feed-in tariff either late this year or early in the new year.
MR SPEAKER: Ms Burch, a supplementary question?
MS BURCH: Yes, thank you. Minister, can you detail what other avenues the government is pursuing to promote the uptake of renewable energy?
MR CORBELL: Yes, I can provide some further detail on that. Of course, the government has indicated its intention to pursue the policy of zero net emissions for the territory. This is a challenging goal. We are probably the only city in its entirety in Australia that has committed itself to this goal. We have some important work to do in developing the policy approaches and the mechanisms on the ground that will be needed to achieve what is an ambitious and very challenging goal for Canberra.
To that end, I will shortly be travelling to the UK and Germany to discuss with a range of government representatives in those two countries how they have taken action to put in place policies to achieve this goal. In particular, I will be meeting with representatives of the Greater London Council who have established a goal of zero net emissions for their city. Those policies, combined with their policies around distributed energy, are policies that will be very important for the ACT as we finalise the development of our energy policy and start to map out the policy framework for achieving zero net emissions.
In particular, I will be meeting with the London Climate Change Agency, which is part of the London Development Agency, the UK Carbon Trust and the Energy Savings Trust. I will also be meeting with Ms Nicky Gavron, who is a former deputy lord mayor of London. She has been a leading advocate in the UK on these issues. It will be a very valuable opportunity to learn lessons from the London experience.
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