George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

I don't have the disaggregated figures, but, as I say, the estimated proportion of the energy mix represented by renewable energy by 2030 will be up to 36 per cent. Of that 36 per cent, the intermittent component, comprising wind and solar, will be up to 24 per cent. I don't have a disaggregation between wind and solar, but I can get back to you in relation to that. But, Senator, having responded as well as I'm able, the reason that the government has adopted this suite of policies—as you know, on the advice of the Energy Security Board, the experts best acquainted with the operation of the Australian energy market—is to serve the objective of lowering energy prices for Australian households. That is what they have advised us this will do.

But we're also mindful of other policy objectives, and there are two I want to take the opportunity of your question to mention. One, of course, of the other policy objectives is to ensure reliability of supply. We are not going to make the catastrophic error that the South Australian government made of including such a high proportion of renewables and, particularly, intermittent power sources in the energy mix that the system could not cope with it, resulting in the blackout we saw in South Australia last year. The other policy objective we intend to serve, and will serve by these policies, is to maintain our commitment to the Paris targets. That means, as you've observed, Senator Chisholm, in the premise of your question, that the proportion of renewable energy, including intermittent sources, will increase under the National Energy Guarantee, but it won't increase so rapidly that there isn't sufficient redundancy in the system to prevent blackouts.