Community group Solar Citizens has today slammed plans by the Energy Security Board to implement a capacity market that would include payments to ageing coal and gas power stations.
“Australian homes and businesses are already paying the price for our reliance on expensive and unreliable fossil fuel generators. The current energy crisis is the result of sky-high coal and gas prices, breakdowns at multiple coal units, and price gouging from big energy corporations,” said Stephanie Gray, Deputy Director at Solar Citizens.
“We’re in this mess because, after a decade of national energy policy failure, we haven’t built enough renewable energy backed by storage to replace ageing fossil fuel generation. Paying big coal and gas companies to keep them operating for longer is the opposite of what we need to do to address the energy crisis.
“Paying coal and gas to be available will simply add another price burden to consumers at a time when the cost of living is already hurting many homes and businesses.
“We’re calling on state and territory Energy Ministers to rule out a capacity mechanism that will fund coal and gas. Instead, they should be urgently rolling out renewable energy and battery storage so that Australian homes and businesses are less exposed to inflated global coal and gas prices.
“State Governments should also increase support for vulnerable households to access solar and storage, particularly those who face barriers to getting solar, including renters and social housing tenants.
“The new Federal Government has been handballed an energy system in disarray. It’s now up to them to clean up the mess of the previous government by planning coal closures and accelerating the rollout of renewable energy and storage.
“We recommend the Albanese Government implements a storage target, similar to the successful national Renewable Energy Target, which has now effectively come to an end.”
Article courtesy of www.solarcitizens.org.au
