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Andrews Government proceeding with Victorian Renewable Energy Target (VRET)

September 14, 2015 at 12:42 am John Englart 1 comment

The Daniel Andrews Labor government will set Victorian Renewable Energy Targets for 2020 and 2025. Currently the Government is currently looking at a 20 percent target by 2020.

But they’re now taking submissions from the community to determine what the actual targets should be.

About 12 per cent of Victoria’s power is currently generated from wind and solar renewable energy. Almost 85 per cent is generated from the polluting brown-coal power plants located in the Latrobe Valley, such as Hazelwood and Yallourn.

Labor’s Bill Shorten advocated at Labor’s national conference a Federal renewables target under a Federal Labor Government of 50 per cent by 2030. Scientists say this is really the minimum for keeping us on a deep decarbonisation pathway.

The Yes to Renewables campaign would like to see Victorian Renewable Energy Targets that match the ambition of the ACT, South Australia, and Queensland. South Australia already has a 50 per cent target by 2025. Queensland announced in May 2015 a 50 per cent target by 2030. In 2013 the ACT set a 90 per cent by 2020 renewables goal to help it meet it’s ambitious emissions reduction target of 40 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020, and it is well on the way to achieving those goals.

In the change to renewables we should also keep in mind the communities in the La Trobe Valley that will need to economically transition away from coal. New Renewable energy projects should be especially targeted in this region for creating alternative employment as well as making the best use of the in-place electricity transmission infrastructure.

Now you can have your your say for Victoria!

Submissions are open to 30 September and Friends of the Earth have set up a simple online submission where you can tell them where you think our state should be heading > http://www.melbourne.foe.org.au/vret_submission

There are also specific community consultation meetings being organised across the state, including a meeting for Melbourne on Thursday 17 September 2015.

There are sessions in Melbourne, Castlemaine, Morwell, Frankston, and Mildura,
More details at Department of Energy and resources Victoria’s Renewable Energy Roadmap Page

Now if the Andrews Government could only apply more regulatory pressure to close the not needed and not wanted Hazelwood Power Station…

Entry filed under: news, renewable energy, Victorian Government. Tags: vret.