Renewable Energy Target

Country	Australia
Year Implemented	2010
Policy Status	In force
Date Announced	2007
Date Promulgated	20 August 2009
Date Effective	1 January 2010-modified Jun 2010
Date Ended	Cease by 2030
Agency	•Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency
Policy Supersedes	Mandatory Renewable Energy Target (MRET)
Policy Type	•Regulatory Instruments   •Quota Systems   •Regulatory Reform
Policy Target	•Multiple Renewable Energy Sources   •Power
Policy Sector	•Electricity
Description	To help ensure the federal government achieves its goal of a 20% share of renewable energy in Australia's electricity supply by 2020, the Government has introduced a national Renewable Energy Target (RET) scheme which includes a legislated target of an additional 45,000 gigawatt-hours in 2020. Together with 15,000GWh of existing hydro-electric generation this will equate to 60,000GWh, or the equivalent of 20 per cent of Australia's projected electricity consumption coming from renewable sources by 2020. The legislated target is more than four times the size of the previous target of 9 500 gigawatt-hours under the Mandatory Renewable Energy Target (MRET). The new targets commenced on 1 January 2010 and will operate until 2030. Due to the rapid expansion of small scale solar projects, the Government decided to split the RET into two parts, according to project dimension. This change was passed in Parliament on 24 June 2010. From 1 January 2011, the RET will include the Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme (SRES) and the Large-scale Renewable Energy Target (LRET). The SRES will cover small-scale technologies such as solar panels, small scale hydro and wind, and solar water heating systems. It will provide a fixed price of USD 40 per megawatt hour of electricity produced. In addition to any feed-in-tariff payments received from state schemes, the SRES provides an up-front financial benefit to installers of solar systems. The LRET will deliver the vast majority of the 2020 target and will provide investment certainty for large scale renewable energy projects.
URL	www.climatechange.gov.au/government/initiatives/renewable-target.aspx www.orer.gov.au