Page 433 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 18 March 2014
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The auction process we are setting out will facilitate some of those projects to proceed to development. We will achieve the abatement we need to achieve. We will see jobs and investment in our city and in our region, and we will help to make our city and our region a centre for renewable energy excellence.
MADAM SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Ms Berry.
MS BERRY: Minister, does this increase in wind-generated capacity mean that the government is switching its renewable focus away from solar?
MR CORBELL: I thank Ms Berry for her supplementary. Wind and solar will continue to perform and play important roles in the overall renewable energy mix. The facts are that wind, of course, is currently the lowest cost form of renewable energy generation available in the commercially deployed market, and we are keen to take advantage of a moment in time when, because of the significant lack of certainty caused by federal government reviews of the renewable energy target, we are in a position to potentially get extremely competitive bids through the auction process for large-scale wind. But we will also continue with our support for large-scale solar projects.
As I mentioned in some of my earlier answers today, obviously we see the Royalla project very much under full construction now. The Uriarra and Mugga Lane projects are subject to development assessment processes currently. Further, the government announced in the last couple of weeks support for up to 50 megawatts of next generation solar as we explore opportunities to leverage investment in our research institutions like the ANU and the CSIRO who are undertaking world-leading research in areas such as solar thermal and solar storage technologies. We see investment in a demonstration of next generation solar facility and partnerships with our research institutions.
The government also will be supporting a community solar ownership model through up to one megawatt of support for that project that will give those people who live in apartments or who are renters the opportunity to invest in renewable energy generation through a community-owned solar scheme.
MADAM SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Mr Gentleman.
MR GENTLEMAN: Minister, what are the other initiatives in the pipeline regarding the ACT’s renewable energy targets?
MR CORBELL: I thank Mr Gentleman for his supplementary. The other important element of our 90 per cent renewables objective which I have been outlining over the last couple of weeks is our support for the waste to energy sector. Obviously the ACT currently has one of the best recycling rates of any state or territory in the country, but we want to lift that higher still. Resource recovery, through waste to energy generation, is one way that will help us with that goal. That is why the government has announced up to 23 megawatts of feed-in tariff support for a waste to energy facility which will convert wastes that are currently simply being buried in landfill
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