The
mood at the All Energy trade show in Australia currently underway is cautiously
optimistic, with the solar sector receiving the signals from the government headed by Malcolm
Turnbull positively. While the new
Prime Minister Turnbull and Environment Minister Hunt have not yet delivered any
significant changes in policy for the sector, it appears as if support for
rooftop soar will continue and may even increase, and signs that battery storage
is in favor with the government.
“Walking
around the [trade room] floor, the feeling was extraordinary,” declared Hunt
while addressing a standing room only afternoon session. “The human energy is
immense as are the new opportunities being created.”
Hunt
singled out energy storage as being one of those opportunities, commenting that
whether it be large scale applications in the form of molten salt, electro
chemical storage or battery technologies such as lithium ion or more
conventional forms, there is a great deal of excitement about the
technology.
The
Minister said he was encouraged by the cost curves being achieved with some of
the technologies and that, “in the future people will not just be buying
storage, but will be buying energy packages.”
In
terms of specific government support for such packages Hunt was not particularly
forthcoming, but he did allude to additional programs the government will look
to roll out through bodies such as the Australian Renewable
Energy Agency (ARENA) and Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC). Oliver Yates,
the CEO of the CEFC attended the session and watched the Hunt address from the
front row.
Responding
to a question from Green Energy Markets CEO Ric Brazzale, who Hunt noted calls
his office with some regularity, the Environment Minister said that instructions delivered to the CEFC
preventing it from funding rooftop solar are likely to be modified and
effectively withdrawn. Hunt said that the instructions, which he described as a
“draft letter”, were part of an agreement struck with Senate crossbenchers to
see the reduction in the Renewable Energy Target (RET) passed by the Parliament,
but that the explicit instructions preventing it from funding rooftop soar were
not in accordance with the agreement.
“I
have already said publicly that we will revisit the draft letter [sent to the
CEFC] and it will reflect [accurately] the content, tone and tenor of the
agreement struck with the Senate,” said Hunt. He noted that since both ARENA and
the CEFC have been brought under the administration of his office, “there will
be change.”
The
future of ARENA and the CEFC is looking healthier since Prime Minister Turnbull
has been installed by his party last month, however the CEO of the Australian
Solar Council John Grimes noted to pv
magazine that legislation to
abolish both bodies still currently before Parliament. Both measures have not
been passed into law, however Grimes said that the legislation had only failed
in the past by the slimmest of margins.
While
Hunt’s address was largely well received by the All Energy crowd, Grimes himself
was not satisfied by the material content of the presentation. Grimes said that
there was very little in the way concrete policy changes being initiated. The
ASC has temporarily suspended its Save Solar campaign, which had targeted key
marginal electorates and campaigned against sitting government members. Grimes
told pv
magazine that it was an act of
goodwill towards the new administration, however the jury is still out as to
what direction support for renewables in Australia will take.
“Storage
being a fundamental opportunity, a game changer,” said Hunt. A subsidy or
support program for solar may indeed be the material policy the ASC is looking
for.
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