The Clean Energy Regulator has confirmed there are enough projects under construction or already complete to meet the 2020 Renewable Energy Target.
The CER has previously said to meet the target approximately 6000MW of capacity would need to be announced and built between 2016 and 2019.
In its large-scale generation certificates (LGC) market update, the Clean Energy Regulator revealed there is currently 6553MW of capacity from new renewable energy projects, which is considerably more than the 6400MW of capacity required to meet the RET.
There is an additional 1454MW of projects subject to power purchase agreements (PPAs) that are likely to be fully financed and under construction this calendar year.
“These figures take into account build that has currently applied for accreditation at the lower end of the range of the Large-scale Renewable Energy Target (100KW–1MW),” the regulator said.
“We expect the 2020 RET will be exceeded at current build levels.”
Following a record level of investment in renewable energy in 2017, CER chair David Parker said Australia has reached a major milestone ahead of schedule.
“While announcements started slowly in 2016, the momentum we saw in the later part of that year continued throughout 2017 and has now reached a level we believe will be sufficient to meet the 2020 target,” Mr Parker said.
Earlier this year, Australia was named among the top 10 nations investing in clean energy, with more than $11.3 billion spent on renewables in 2017, according to new data from Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF).
The Clean Energy Investment in Australia report showed Australia’s investment jumped by 150 per cent in 2017, skyrocketing Australia to seventh position on the world leaderboard.
