SmoCo crashes renewable investment

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As if we needed this, at the AFR:

Investment in renewable energy projects collapsed by more than 50 per cent last year, according to fresh data from the Clean Energy Council that counters Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s claim of “record” spending in the area.

The number of large-scale renewable energy projects that reached financial close dropped from 51, worth a record $10.7 billion in 2018, to 29 projects worth $4.5 billion in 2019, the Clean Energy Council said.

“The slow pace of reform is staring to really bite,” [said CEC chief executive Kane Thornton], adding that the lack of long-term policy settings to follow up on the 2020 Renewable Energy Target also made it difficult for investors to commit new capital, as did the range of government interventions in the market, including generator underwriting plans and reviews into nuclear power.

Bang up job that, but fear not, at Crikey:

Scott Morrison’s energy deal with NSW, announced this morning, is a huge win for fossil fuel company Santos, a major political donor with extensive ties to the Coalition.

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Less renewables and more gas power equals higher prices for you and more rents for the gas and energy cartel.

Yeh, we need a revolution.

About the author
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.