The Small Cost OF Australia's Renewable Energy Target  

The SMH reports that the increased mandatory renewable energy target being proposed for Australia is likely to have minimal cost to consumers and win multi-partisan support in Parliament - Power bills will not bear cost of clean power boom.

A RENEWABLE energy scheme before the Federal Parliament will drive $14 billion of clean power investment by 2020 according to new modelling, but the head of the Climate Change Department has warned that Australia still cannot meet its promised emission reduction targets without a broad price on carbon.

Modelling released by the government yesterday shows the new renewable energy target - which requires 20 per cent of energy to be sourced from renewables by 2020 - will increase the average household power bill by $41 a year. The scheme amendments before the Parliament will be responsible for just $2 of that.

The modest price rises mean it is likely the changes will pass with bipartisan support, as the original renewable energy target legislation did, allowing billions of dollars of renewables investment to begin.