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Australia is lagging behind the world’s major economies when it comes to renewable energy generation despite having enough renewable energy resources to power the country 500 times over.

At a joint press conference  in Canberra last month, the Climate Council of Australia's Professor Tim Flannery and John Grimes, CEO of the Australian Solar Council released a report into global renewable energy trends.

Globally, renewable energy is now cost-comparative or cheaper than fossil fuels for generating electricity, and the cost of wind and solar in particular is projected to continue to fall steeply. But as other G20 members stride ahead on renewable energy, Australia is in danger of falling further and further behind, the report warns.

“Globally, the renewable energy industry is booming with strong investment growth,” Flannery said.  “Unfortunately in Australia investment in this sector has fallen sharply.

“It is the countries with long term renewable energy policies that are attracting investment.” In 2014, clean energy investment grew 32 per cent in China and 12 per cent in Japan but in Australia it fell 35 per cent.

Investment in large-scale renewables fell 88 per cent in Australia due to policy uncertainty by the federal government, according to the report entitled“The global renewable energy boom: How Australia is missing out.”

In 2014, Australia and Italy were the only two countries in the world to experience a decline in investment due to regulatory changes.

“Australia has excellent renewable energy resources but is missing out on a global boom due to threats to reduce the Renewable Energy Target (RET),” the report said.

“Australia is the sunniest country in the world and one of the windiest; it has enough renewable energy resources to power the country 500 times over.

“Threats to reduce the RET as well as multiple reviews of the target and ongoing debate has substantially undermined investor confidence.”

Job creation

Globally, 800,000 jobs were created in the clean energy sector between 2012 and 2013. In 2014, the US solar industry added over 31,000 new jobs, an increase of 21.8 per cent on the previous year.

At a time when global employment in this sector grew by 13 per cent, jobs in Australia's renewable energy sector fell 13 per cent in 2013. A big driver of growth is the steep decline in the cost of wind and solar.

Solar PV panel prices have fallen 75 per cent in the last five years while global wind costs have dropped 14 per cent. An estimated 1.4 million Australian homes now have solar installed with the cost of solar PV expected to fall a further 45 per cent over the next five years.

The report said that renewable energy is now cost comparative or cheaper than fossil fuels for generating electricity.

“Renewable energy growth is surging globally. In just a decade investment has increased five fold. The world has installed 760GW of power, that is 12 times Australia's total capacity,” the report said.

At the end of 2013 China, the US, Brazil, Canada and Germany led the world in total installed capacity. In 2013, investment in clean energy reached $US268.1 billion, which is more than double the investment in fossil fuels which reached $US102 billion.

Last year investment grew 16 per cent above 2013 levels to $US310 billion. Moreover, 51.5GW of wind power was added in 2014 up from 35GW in 2013. Some 0.7GW geopthermal power was added om 2014, up from 0.6GW added in 2013.

There is clear evidence to prove that the level of investment in each country is determined by the policy environment. A country with a clear, consistent, long term energy strategy attracts private investment. For example, investment in China last year reached $US89.5 billion, up 32 per cent on 2013 while Japan reached $US41.3 billion, up 12 per cent on the previous year.

In contrast, clean energy investment in Australia fell 35 per cent to $US3.7 billion last year, the lowest level of investment since 2009. Moreover, investment in large scale renewable energy projects dropped a whopping 88 per cent last year, to levels equivalent to investment figures 12 years ago. Investment in large scale wind projects were zero.

Similarly in Italy investment fell 60 per cent due to retrospective cuts to the country's feed-in-tariff scheme for large scale solar plants.  As renewable power has become more cost competitive, businesses and organisations are increasingly choosing to purchase or install and operate their own renewable electricity to reduce energy costs and meet company sustainability commitments.

Companies relying on 100 per cent green power or generating their own power on-site include Apple, BMW and Coca Cola.

Energy storage

Grid parity is when the cost of solar PV is lower or reaches the same price as retail electricity tariffs per kWh. Some 13 G20 countries now have regions of grid parity including Australia, Brazil, China, India, Turkey and the US.

As costs come down energy storage deployment continues to grow. Global battery storage is expected to grow from $US22 million in 2014 to $US18 billion by 2023.

Last year Telstra announced it would build a battery production facility in Nevada in the US. It will produce 35GWh of battery cells and 50GWh of battery packs by 2020.

Australian grid operators are beginning to trial battery storage to reduce peak demand, improve grid reliability and provide an alternative to building or replacing electricity transmission lines.

In early 2014 there were 144 couhntries with a Renewable Energy Target (RET), up from 138 in 2013 and triple the number from a decade a go.

Australia's RET sits in the middle range of G20 targets. While Australia's G20 allies and trading partners continue to embrace renewable energy with three of the world's largest gas emitters China, European Union and India expanding their RETS. Global renewable energy capacity hit record highs in 2013 and its likely 2014 will eclipse previous year records.

As other G20 members stride ahead on renewable energy Australia is in danger of falling further and further behind.