Using the department’s own tracking date, the auditors discovered projects representing 85 per cent of potential renewable energy generation had not significantly progressed between June 2017 and March 2021.
“If projects continue to become operational at this historic rate, there may not be enough renewable generation in Queensland by 2030 to meet the target,” the report said.
The Queensland government accepted all recommendations from the Auditor-General. Credit: Leigh Henningham
“However, the average size of renewable projects reaching financial close has been increasing.”
The QAO qualified its own assumptions by acknowledging it did not assess the likelihood of individual projects becoming operational.
“Converting larger projects will bring Queensland closer to the target,” it said. “Other factors, such as growth in rooftop solar and green hydrogen generation, could also assist Queensland to achieve the target.”
The department accepted all five of the QAO recommendations for change, including how it calculated Queensland’s progress.
The QAO found the government’s methodology did not include all non-renewable energy produced outside the national market, such as diesel generation.
“Around 1000 GWh of this type of energy was produced in Queensland in 2020,” it said.
Re-calculating Queensland’s performance, the QAO arrived at 19 per cent instead of the department’s 20 per cent.
While seemingly a trivial decrease, “this is an important difference as each percentage point change in the level of renewable energy translates into a sizeable change in Queensland’s energy system,” the report said.
The audit also examined the effects of the pandemic and other changing economic drivers, noting the Queensland government had “adjusted course” in 2020 without setting out its reasons, ambitions or the implications for private sector providers and investors in doing so.
The shift related to a departmental assessment that private investment in renewables could slow in coming years. Reasons included lower wholesale prices, the closure of the Australian government’s large-scale RET, and the financial upheaval caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the report said.
“In response to changing market conditions and government priorities, the Queensland government now intends to directly invest significant funds through its government-owned energy generators,” it said.
“This is a shift from its prior market-led approach.”
It noted the Palaszczuk government’s major 2021-22 budget announcement of a $2 billion Renewable Energy and Hydrogen Jobs Fund was only for government-owned corporations, either solely or in partnership with the private sector.
“While this approach allows government to direct renewable investment into priority areas and renewable technologies, the implications of this change have not yet been communicated to stakeholders or industry,” the report said.
It acknowledged the Premier recently announced a 10-year energy plan, which it believed would help address the vision gap in the state’s journey to 2030.
Qld government is exaggerating progress on renewables target: Audit
Source: Philippines Alive
