A novel coronavirus pneumonia Commission has recently launched a "clean recovery" plan to promote Australia's recovery from the economic downturn brought by the new crown pneumonia epidemic by increasing investment in renewable energy and energy storage.

According to Kane Thornton, CEO of the Clean Energy Commission, hundreds of large-scale wind and solar power projects in Australia have been approved under the "clean recovery" plan and are ready for rapid development, with a total scale of more than 30000 megawatts. "We will also support more Australian households and businesses to install and use solar power systems, which will not only increase the autonomy of energy customers, but also effectively reduce electricity prices."

In April this year, the government of Northern Territory of Australia announced that households or business users in northern territory will be rewarded with us $6000 per household if they install solar power generation or energy storage systems. To this end, the initial budget of the relevant government departments reached about US $800000.

Kane Thornton stressed that at present, many Australian private investors have a strong interest in clean energy. "The government can stimulate private investors to invest in solar energy, energy storage and power grid through more intelligent energy policies and related regulatory reform." As the region with the lowest penetration rate of renewable energy in Australia, only 4% of the power generation in northern territory is from renewable energy by the end of 2018, which is far lower than the national average of 18.9%. The Australian Clean Energy Commission believes that while stimulating economic growth, the move by the Northern Territory government will also help promote the replacement of traditional power generation methods by optical storage technology in remote communities and further improve the reliability of the local power grid.

Kane Thornton said the launch of the "clean recovery" plan is based on Australia's intensive efforts in clean energy in the past three years. "Over the past three years, Australia has invested more than $20 billion in large-scale wind and solar power projects, generating about 1110 megawatts of new power generation capacity, providing new job opportunities for more than 14000 people."

According to the prediction of Clean Energy Commission of Australia, through the nationwide "clean recovery" plan, it is expected to drive about $50 billion in investment and directly create more than 50000 jobs. In the future operation and maintenance of the project, it will continue to provide about 4000 jobs. At the same time, it will help the whole society of Australia to reduce electricity price and promote the revitalization of regional and rural economy. Kane Thornton pointed out that the "clean recovery" plan is expected to increase the scale of renewable energy power generation in Australia by about three times. "More importantly, it can also consolidate Australia's position as a clean energy superpower. The impact of the novel coronavirus pneumonia on economic operation has also provided new opportunities for Australia to some extent, enabling us to accelerate the layout of clean energy. At present, accelerating the transformation of clean energy is a challenge for all countries in the world. Clean energy investment is the choice to achieve sustainable economic growth and carbon emission reduction. "

Source: China Energy News