Wednesday, 20 March 2024

Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action

Victorian Renewable Energy Target 2022–23 Progress Report

Sheena WATT (Northern Metropolitan) (17:25): I rise today to update the house on the Victorian Renewable Energy Target Progress Report 2022–23, tabled in October of last year. I want to start by thanking the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action for compiling this report, their continued good work in supporting government and their continued commitment to providing Victorians with the power that they need.

As I gladly update the house on the renewable energy sector’s continued growth and development despite the challenges in the global environment, it is worth noting that Victoria’s renewable energy generation has reached 37.8 per cent of Victoria’s electricity generation, and that is double what we generated five years ago. This increase continues to form the foundation on which we strive toward our next target of 40 per cent renewable electricity generation by 2025. That is the very nature of this government: to our core we set targets, we meet targets and we get things done. We are continuing to do the work that Victorians elected us to do, to make decisive climate action and to deliver a robust energy grid that will drive down energy prices. These targets will be critical in leading Victoria through an accelerated renewable energy transition, which continued at pace this year with the commissioning of new capacity and commencement of construction at 11 new large-scale renewable energy projects right across the state.

Achieving these goals and storage targets is estimated to bring forward around $9.5 billion in economic development and around 59,000 two-year jobs over the period until 2035. We continued to support investment in Victoria’s energy infrastructure needs, as stated in this report, with the announcement of six successful projects in our second Victorian renewable energy target auction. These VRET auction projects will bring forward a combined 623 megawatts of new renewable energy capacity and 365 megawatts of energy storage.

We have continued with the rollout of our nation-leading Solar Homes program to reduce emissions and help Victorians save on their energy bills. Over the 2022–23 financial year the Solar Homes program supported more than 37,400 Victorians to install new rooftop photovoltaics with a capacity of 274 kilowatts, while the Solar for Business program supported 1385 small and mid-size Victorian businesses to install a further 23 megawatts of capacity. There is so much more to say, but it is worth noting that since its inception in 2018 the Solar Homes program has now supported more than 270,000 households and installed more than 1600 megawatts of capacity.

At a more local level the Victorian government committed to installing 100 neighbourhood batteries across the state, and I was pleased to join the Minister for Energy and Resources and the member for Bass, both in the other place, to announce the first-round recipients of the battery program. So thank you for the invitation, minister and the member down there, to join you for what was a really historic occasion. We announced there the largest battery in the first round, which is the Mondo Phillip Island battery, delivering 1750 kilowatt-hours of storage to the island and the surrounding towns around Phillip Island.

The Allan Labor government remains committed to working with communities to deliver the energy infrastructure that was promised when elected to keep the lights on during outages and to drive down energy prices. With this report that I am speaking to today, I would like to recognise and celebrate the achievements of our renewable energy sector as we continue to meet our renewable energy and emission reduction targets.