Renewable energy will create jobs and keep power bills low: report

West Australian
Monday 23/4/2007 Page: 4

Introducing a 25 per cent renewable energy target by 2020 would create 16,000 jobs and generate $33 billion in new investment, a report from three conservation groups has found. The report, to be released today, found that household electricity bills would rise just $1.25 a week and annual greenhouse emissions would be reduced by 69 million tonnes a year if a quarter of Australia's energy came from renewable sources.

The study, A Bright Future: 25 per cent Renewable Energy for Australia by 2020, also advocated a carbon pricing system and said fossil fuelled power stations needed to be made more efficient. It warned that Australia was missing out on the economic benefits of renewable energy and lagging behind European nations which had boosted their targets.

"Generating a quarter of our electricity from renewable energy and reversing electricity growth from 2010 onwards by ambitious energy efficiency measures would reduce overall electricity emissions to 160 million tonnes," it said. "The reduction of about 100 million tonnes, compared with business as usual, would be equivalent to removing all the road transport in Australia." About 8 per cent of Australia's energy comes from renewables such as wind, solar and hydro.

The report, from Greenpeace, the Australian Conservation Foundation and the Climate Action Network, said a 25 per cent target would increase the number of energy jobs to 33,000 and add $64 a year to an average household's electricity bill. "In contrast, current projections for businesses usual electricity use could see average household electricity bills increase by $234 per year," the report said.

Greenpeace energy campaigner Mark Wakeham said Australia should be a world leader in renewable sources. "With our current policies, Australia's amount of renewable energy will only total 10 per cent by 2020.

Meanwhile, other countries and regions are leaving us behind with their smart targets, for example the EU is boosting its renewable energy to 21 per cent by 2010 and California has a target of 33 per cent by 2020." WA has a non-legislated 6 per cent renewable energy by 2010 target for the South-West grid.

The report comes amid growing pressure for targets to be introduced. In February, a report by the Government's Greenhouse and Energy Taskforce said WA should aim to derive 20 per cent of all electricity used in Perth and the South-West from renewable sources by 2020.