The Clean Energy Regulator has declared Australia a world leader in renewable energy, with new figures showing record figures for energy generation and capacity.
The regulatory body estimated a record 44 terawatt hours of electricity was generated from renewable energy in 2019 – 20 per cent up on the 2018 figure.
It also released new capacity figures, with an estimated 6.3 gigawatts of new renewable capacity installed in 2019 – 24 per cent up on the previous year.
2020 is expected to be the biggest year yet for electricity generation from renewables in Australia, with a 26 per cent increase forecast, the Regulator said.
“Based on Bloomberg New Energy Finance data, Australia invested $7.7 billion or $308 per person in renewable energy in 2019,” the Clean Energy Regulator said.
“This places us ahead of countries like the United States ($233 per person), Japan ($179 per person) and the United Kingdom ($109 per person) on a per capita basis and is more than triple the per capita investment of countries like Denmark ($95 per person), France ($90 per person) and Germany ($73 per person).”
The Regulator said Australia’s per capita installation rate had increased more than five-fold since 2015.
“Last year, an Australian National University study confirmed this is four times the per capita rate of the European Union, United States and Japan and 10 times the global average,” it said.
The Regulator’s forecast said emissions from the electricity grid were expected to fall by 23 per cent by 2030 as the share of renewable energy increased to more than a third in the early 2020s, and 48 per cent by 2030.
It said the key challenge to ensure continued strong growth in new renewable capacity was to drive down the cost of storage and backup, including grid updates.
