The 1.2GW of wind energy Australia missed out on in 2014

In the Clean Energy Council’s annual Clean Energy Report, which we wrote about here on Thursday, CEC chief Kane Thornton described 2014 as one of the toughest years the renewables sector had endured for more than a decade, thanks to some outstanding political bastardry and the investment drought it wrought.

But judging by the below table, taken from the 2015 report, it was tougher on some sectors than on others.

As it says, this is a list of the wind farms around Australia – well, around Victoria, and one in NSW – that were on hold at the end of 2014 “due to RET uncertainty,” despite being approved for development and already underway.

In total, it amounts to more than 1.2GW of wind energy (1,274.55MW) that could have been installed, but wasn’t, in 2014.

At least the Mt Ararat wind farm will go ahead after winning a place in the ACT government’s tender, but the others will have to wait for the RET reduction legislation to be finally passed, and for financiers to have the confidence to lend their dollars.