Australia reconsiders renewable energy targets

The Australian Government will make changes to the country's Renewable Energy Target plan.

Starting in January 2011, the existing scheme will include two parts – the Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme (SRES) and the Large-scale Renewable Energy Target (LRET).

These revised arrangements will deliver on the Government’s 20% by 2020 Renewable Energy Target (RET) and are expected to enhance the scheme by providing greater certainty for households, large-scale renewable energy projects and installers of small-scale renewable energy systems.

Combined, the new LRET and SRES

are expected to deliver more renewable energy than the existing 45,000 gigawatt-hour target in 2020.

The LRET portion of the target will be increased to ensure the 20% 2020 target is still met if the uptake of small scale technologies is lower than anticipated.