Thursday, 24 February 2022

Renewable energy

Ms TAYLOR (Southern Metropolitan) (10:13): I thought it was time for a little bit of a celebration of renewable energy in Victoria. The pace of energy transition in Victoria is accelerating. In 2021 output from renewables in Victoria increased by 3.6 terawatt hours. This is the largest ever annual increase in renewable energy output by any state. In 2021, 31.6 per cent of Victoria’s power generation came from renewables. Over the past seven years we have tripled the share of renewables and are well on track to meet our 50 per cent renewable energy target by 2050.

The Libs voted against the Victorian renewable energy target, and Matthew Guy promised to scrap the target if elected in 2018, just by the way. Under the previous coalition government renewables stagnated due largely to the effective ban placed on wind power by the then planning minister, Matthew Guy, just for noting. Anyway, the latest ABS figures show that power bills are at their lowest level in five years, having fallen by nearly 10 per cent in the last 12 months alone. The Australian Energy Market Commission expects Victorian power prices to fall by a further 8 per cent over the next three years, largely due to the significant influx of new renewable capacity. And further, the Clean Energy Council’s Clean Energy at Work report shows that Victoria is the leading state for clean energy jobs in the country, with one-third of all jobs in the sector located here. Well done to our state, well done to Victorians—backing in renewable energy.