Victoria says its renewable and storage targets are on track, with the latest financial year delivering a 42.4 per cent share of renewables, well ahead of its 2025 target of 40 per cent.
Victoria aims to reach 65 per cent renewables by 2030, following the closure of the Yallourn coal fired power station, and a more challenging target of 95 per cent renewables by 2035, following the announced closure of Loy Yang A, and the assumed closure, or at least partial closure, of the neighbouring Loy Yang B coal generator.
It was one of the first states to legislate such targets. And although Queensland followed with its own 80 per cent target for 2035, the new LNP government is likely to formally repeal that target by the end of the year as it chooses to remain the country’s most coal dependent state and keep its coal generators open for “decades.”
Victoria energy minister Lily D’Ambrosio highlighted the results in the opening session of the All Energy conference in Melbourne on Wednesday.
“In Victoria, when we were elected, less than 11 per cent of our electricity was coming from renewable sources. A massive, massive jump,” she said, noting also a strong pipeline of projects going through planning approvals and those under construction or in commissioning.
“It’s a really strong story, and I’d like to think that a lot of other states did follow on legislating targets, because it just takes that confidence to another level to let business know. Energy investment is a global business, how do you get the attention of boardroom global boardrooms that can put their money anywhere (in the world).”
Renewable growth in the state has been steady in recent years, although it suffered a downturn in 2023/24 due to low wind conditions. But the latest year has been boosted by an increase in both large scale and rooftop PV capacity.
Victoria added the Mortlake, Ryan Corner and Hawkesdale wind farms over the last year, and the first stage of the Golden Plains project – the biggest in Australia – was also mostly complete by the June 30 cut off date for the report.
In large scale solar, new projects were commissioned at Girgarre, Kerang, Mokoan and Wungghu, and 619 MW of rooftop PV capacity was added to homes and businesses.
Over the financial year, wind energy accounted for 21.8 per cent of total generation, solar power (including rooftop PV) accounted for 14.9 per cent, while hydro provided 4.9 per cent.
The report notes a number of new projects under construction or in commissioning, including the 1.33 GW Golden Plains and 129 MW Mt Gellibrand wind farms, and 619 MW of large scale solar including the Fulham, Horsham, Carwarp, Goorambat and Wangaratta facilities.
In battery storage, big projects were being built at the Melbourne Renewable Energy Hub, Horsham, Latrobe, Koorangie, Pine Lodge and Horsham, among others.
The report did not dwell much on offshore wind, where Victoria hopes to have 2 GW in capacity by 2032, although it has recently announced a delay to a long awaited auction – creating further doubts about the timeline for the country’s first projects.
The report noted only that the technology was in its “early development stage.”
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