Sunday Telegraph
Sunday 25/2/2007 Page: 15
ENOUGH renewable energy to power a city bigger than Brisbane was generated in Australia last year, most sourced from wind and hydro.
Figures released to The Sunday Telegraph show Australia generated enough clean energy last year to supply residential power for a city of 2.3 million people for 12 months.
The generation of renewable energy has increased nine-fold since national industry targets were set six years ago. More than 5432 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity was generated from clean sources in 2006 - up from 620GWh in 2001.
The federal Government's Mandatory Renewable Energy Target aims to produce 9500GWh by 2010. The target represents extra electricity needed to boost the total proportion of renewable energy in the national grid from 10.5 percent in 1997 to 12.5 percent in 2010.
Office of the Renewable Energy Regulator figures show new renewable energy generation has risen from 0.32 per cent to 2.62 per cent over the past six years. Of this, about a third was sourced from wind power, under a third from hydro, and 18 per cent from solar hot-water heaters.
Opposition environment spokesman Peter Garrett accused the federal Government of "strangling" the renewable energy industry by setting the MRET target too low. "There is $13 billion worth of projects sitting on the books in wind energy alone," his spokeswoman said.
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