26 May Supporting Renewable Energy Investment in Australia

Socio-economic Impact Modelling Tool

A transition to renewable energy is occurring across the country. In 2019, 24 percent of total electricity generation in Australia was provided by renewables enough to power around 12 million households over the course of a year (Clean Energy Council, 2020). 

The increase in large scale projects (such as wind farms and solar farms) and small scale installations (mainly as rooftop solar) are not only providing sources of clean energy, but also represent billions of dollars of investment and support thousands of jobs through manufacturing, construction, installation and maintenance.  

Despite the challenges of moving from a centralised to a decentralised energy system, investment in renewables has been significant. Between 2017 and March 2020, Victoria has led the nation in terms of investment in large scale renewables followed closely by New South Wales (Figure 1). Queensland currently has the highest capacity generated by small scale solar, being a system of less than 100kW (Figure 2). 

Figure 1 Large-scale renewable energy project investment 

Source: Clean Energy Council, 2020

Figure 2 Total capacity of small-scale PV installations (<100kW) from 2007 to now.

Source: Australian PV Institute (APVI) Solar Map, funded by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, accessed from pv-map.apvi.org.au on 22 May 2020.

In Victoria, renewable energy policy is guided by Victoria’s Renewable Energy Roadmap, which in turn has guided the development of five Regional Renewable Energy Roadmaps. These regional roadmaps recognise the uniqueness of each region and aim to demonstrate the strengths and opportunities which can be leveraged and challenges faced by businesses and communities in each part of the State.

During the development of the regional roadmaps, REMPLAN was engaged by the Victorian Government to help demonstrate the economic benefits that various types of renewable energy deliver in the respective regions.

With assistance from industry experts and regional roadmap project leads, Central Victorian Greenhouse Alliance and Barwon Water, REMPLAN developed a customised online resource delivering:

• Economic and demographic overviews of each region across the State
• Estimates of each region’s renewable energy potential
• Insights into key environmental and asset-related characteristics
• An impact modelling tool to assist with quantifying the employment and economic benefits of renewable energy projects.

With the recent announcement from the Victorian Government, the renewable energy impact modelling tool has been made live: https://renewable.remplan.com.au

Please contact the team at REMPLAN if you have any questions. We are also available to provide REMPLAN software training, presentations and management briefings. 

Call: 1300 737 443

www.remplan.com.au