About $28 billion will be spent to build large utility- scale power projects such as wind farms, while a further $8 billion will be invested by households and businesses in smaller rooftop solar systems, according to a Bloomberg New Energy Finance report issued today.
Australia has set a target of generating 20 percent of its electricity from renewable energy by 2020 and is proceeding with a $1.5 billion funding program to support solar projects. Prime Minister Julia Gillard has said the government wants to set a price on carbon emissions starting in July 2012 in preparation for a trading system to begin as early as 2015.
“Strong levels of investment will continue, thanks to the national targets and the rapidly falling costs of clean energy,” Seb Henbest, who leads Bloomberg New Energy Finance's Sydney-based research team, said in a statement.
BP Plc, AGL Energy Ltd. and CLP Holdings Ltd.'s unit TRUenergy Holdings Pty are vying for government solar grants to develop projects using photovoltaic panels to turn sunlight into power, while a joint proposal from Suntech Power Holdings Co. and Infigen Energy is another of the shortlisted ventures.
While renewable energy investment in Australia is expected to fall to $3 billion in 2011 from more than $4 billion in 2010, it will rise to $4 billion in 2012 and stay higher than that for most of the decade, Bloomberg New Energy Finance said.
The projected investment is equal to the $36 billion needed to build Australia's national broadband network, intended to extend fiber-optic cable to 93 per cent of the country's homes, it said.
Source: Bloomberg
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