Australia's renewable energy goal is to achieve 20 % of its total power supply coming from renewable energy sources by 2020. According to the latest report by the Clean Energy Council Australia is currently generating 9.64% of its total electricity from renewable energy sources.
The large share of this clean electricity comes from the hydropower while solar and wind still have a long way to go before becoming major players on Australian energy market.
Hydropower currently accounts for 67% of the total Australian clean electricity, followed by wind power at 22%. Despite the fact that Australia has the best solar insolation values of any continent solar power only accounts for 2.3% of all renewable power generated.
However, Australian solar power sector looks well set for huge growth because of massive increase in solar investment that occurred this year, up from $1.2 billion to $4 billion.
According to Clean Energy Council more than 500,000 solar systems have been installed this year in Australia and going solar is becoming very popular clean energy option for many residents all across Australia.
The only bad news for solar power industry in Australia is the fact that federal government has reduced subsidies for rooftop solar panels on the back of fears about the rising power prices.
Achieving its renewable energy goal will be anything but easy for Australia because Australia's renewable energy sector requires massive investments and so far there is not enough evidence to suggest that investment will scale up in time to meet it.
Australia needs more aggressive renewable energy policy because hydropower alone won't be enough to drive the country towards the renewable energy goal.
