Page 1177 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 6 April 2016
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MR SMYTH: Minister, is it true that the Environment Protection Authority borrowed a wind recording station from the New South Wales Environment Protection Authority and installed it at the Parkwood egg farm in west Belconnen?
Mr Barr: Is it—
MR SMYTH: Is it true?
MR BARR: I will need to check on that.
Energy—renewable
MS BURCH: My question is to the Minister for Environment and Climate Change. Minister, can you inform the Assembly about the renewable energy auction you announced last week and how it will contribute to the 90 per cent renewal energy target by 2020?
MR CORBELL: I thank Ms Burch for her question. Yes, I was very pleased last Friday to announce the next large-scale renewal energy auction. This will be an auction for 109 megawatts of renewable energy feed-in tariff capacity, which will complete the territory’s investment to meet our target of supplying 90 per cent of electricity from renewable sources by the year 2020.
This auction builds on the success of previous auctions and is different in two key respects: firstly, it is open to both wind and solar generators. Secondly, successful bidders will also be required to provide an additional cash injection to establish a photovoltaic battery storage program in the ACT.
We expect up to $25 million to be available to support around 36 megawatts of battery storage to be rolled out in more than 5,000 sites across Canberra homes and businesses over the next four years. This will be one of the largest deployments of distributed storage capacity anywhere in the world today.
PV battery storage is revolutionising the energy sector and enabling the uptake of renewable energy by storing it so it is available on demand when needed, reducing the need for network investment. It means that households can capture the maximum value of the energy they are producing. I am very pleased to see the ACT demonstrating innovation in this space once again.
In previous renewable energy auctions, bidders have been required to provide significant local investments into the ACT economy to build our economy through research and innovation. That so far has seen more than $400 million in local investment from successful wind and solar auction participants being secured for the territory.
As part of the new auction process, the government has again included additional criteria to require proponents to also provide funding for the battery storage program. Proponents in this process will be required to make a financial contribution upon deed
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