Australian companies and households are racing to invest in wind and solar energy to power their homes, offices and factories in 2022, according to new data published by the Clean Energy Regulator (CER).
Large-scale wind and solar farm investment commitments grew nearly 50 per cent in 2022, with 4.3 gigawatts (GW) of large-scale renewable energy capacity achieving a final investment decision (FID).
To put this in perspective, 4.3 GW is enough to power over 3 million homes.
The second half of last year also saw a step up in rooftop solar investment by households and businesses, with over 300,000 small-scale rooftop solar systems installed in 2022, contributing an additional 2.8 GW of renewable energy capacity. This is 22 per cent higher than the Regulator’s estimate of 2.3 GW from early 2022.
Minister for climate change and energy, Chris Bowen, said: “This is the scale of investment in cleaner, cheaper energy when you have a stable policy environment on climate and energy.
“This investment means new jobs across the country, and will support emissions reduction in the electricity sector and puts us on the way to 82 per cent renewables by 2030,” he said.
“A majority of this increase in investment was after last year’s election, which proves renewable investors are responding positively to the Albanese Government’s strong emissions reduction targets and know that Australia is back open for business in clean energy.”
The Capacity Investment Scheme (CIS) will drive around $10 billion investment in clean, dispatchable, and reliable power.
In addition, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency’s (ARENA’s) $176 million investment in eight large scale batteries will help ensure wind and solar generation can be smoothed and stored for use when it is needed.