The Australian government recently updated its Renewable Energy Target (RET) to aim for 20% of our energy to be created from supposedly 'renewable' sources by 2020. On the surfaces this seems to be a good move forward (even if it is a little lacklustre in scope) but when you actually look closely at the amendment to the RET legislation it is clear that there has been a fair bit of bargaining and comprise going on to actually pass this as law.
The main change has obviously been to change the law to increase the RET to 45,000 GWh by 2020, but it should be noted that from 2021-2030 (the length of time defined in the legislation) the RET stays at 45,000 GWh, even though the national energy usage will probably increase! Even if the law is to be revisited before then, it makes sense that it should at the very least maintain the RET at 20% instead of decreasing with time as stated in the law.
Secondly, there has been a wording change from "eligible renewable energy source" to "eligible energy source". This allows for a new definition of the 'energy source' to include waste coal methane gas (WCMG). This is clearly a ploy to bring appease current providers as the definition of eligible WCMG providers only include those currently producing energy from WCMG. It seems to me that if the government really considered this a renewable energy source then providers should be eligible even if they start producing energy from WCMG after the law was passed.
But WCMG is not a renewable energy source. WCMG is a by-product of coal mining and is released when pressure on the coal seam is reduced. In no way is it 'renewable' in that it cannot be regenerated over time (unless your time scale is the same of that for coal regeneration!). WCMG should be looked on as a way of making producing energy from coal slightly more efficient, by using 'waste' gas from the seam the provider is simply getting more energy from mining the coal. I'm not entirely sure how the coal provider making bigger profits also makes them greener in this case.
The other worrying part of this change is that by changing the wording to 'eligible energy source' their is essentially an open door to include other so-called 'renewable' energy sources into the law. Proposals have already been put forward by the Australian natural gas industry to be included in the RET and given the definition of the law there is very little to stop them.
Overall, this law may generate some movement in the renewable energy sector, but to create a real meaningful industry the government needs to create stronger legislation and avoid political lobbying. Of course there are serious vested interests at stake here, but once the movement has begun, even the coal industry in Australia will realise that they actually stand to benefit from these laws, by using there considerable knowledge and resources to create greener, renewable energy.
