A new policy announced by Australia’s opposition Labor party aims to drive new investment in renewables and energy storage to deliver cheaper power.
A Bill Shorten-led Labor government promises to double the original investment in the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC), providing an additional A$10 billion in capital for the corporation over five years.
The funds will be used to support large-scale generation and storage projects, including solar and wind farms. It will also support Labor’s residential energy storage programme by providing concessional loans for the purchase of photovoltaic panels and battery systems.
The funds will also boost investment in energy efficiency projects, commercial and community renewable energy projects, and industrial transformation.
The party’s Plan for More Renewable Energy and Cheaper Power is structured over a ten-year energy investment framework that delivers certainty for industry, lowers power prices and increases reliability.
Labor’s preference is to achieve a bi-partisan agreement on energy policy and the party will continue to pursue a bipartisan market mechanism, such as a National Energy Guarantee, to help deliver on its commitment of 50% renewable energy by 2030.
The Labor-created CEFC has already leveraged A$19 billion of investments in clean energy projects so far. The policy will deliver a modest improvement to the underlying cash balance over the forward estimates.
The Labor party also pledges to create an independent Energy Security and Modernisation Fund, providing $5 billion in capital to future proof the energy network, building and upgrading Australia’s energy transmission and distribution systems.
Using the Australian Energy Market Operator’s Integrated Systems Plan as its blueprint, the party will facilitate investment in upgrades to existing interconnectors and building new interconnectors to lower prices and improve system stability. The fund will support transmission links to renewable energy zones in the country.
There are also plans to invest in the country’s natural gas network.
Other highlights include providing one thousand grants of up to A$20,000 to Australian manufacturers to help them reduce their energy usage.