Queensland halfway to renewable energy goal

August 08, 2023

A quarter of Queensland’s energy is now being generated by renewables and the state is on track to hit 50% within seven years, the state’s energy minister says.

Mick de Brenni said the clean energy supply had jumped by 20% over the past 12 months and more than 25% of the state’s power was now generated by renewables.

He said that once renewables “dominate the wholesale electricity market” the state would see long-term reductions in wholesale power prices.

“But we can only do this by transitioning away from coal and gas generation, which continues to set the wholesale electricity market and drive electricity prices up for Queenslanders.”

De Brenni said Queensland was “on track” to reach its legislated target of 50% of energy to be renewable-generated by 2030, followed by 70% by 2032 and 80% by 2035.

Queensland is Australia’s biggest coal producer, and the country’s biggest carbon emitter, but the government has plans to change that.

Di Brenni last month announced a $62bn blueprint to decarbonise the energy supply including plans for wind, solar, pumped hydro and eventually hydrogen to take over from fossil fuels.

The state government has spent an estimated $11.1bn on renewable energy since coming to office in 2015, with the supply of renewables growing by 250% in that period.

More than 800,000 Queensland rooftops have solar and the state has 52 large-scale solar projects and 12 renewable energy zones.

It’s expected the state will connect a further 682MW of new clean generation before Christmas this year.