Coal-fired power stations will be replaced by new clean energy projects to ensure power generation is at least 90 per cent renewable by 2030.
The target is part of a comprehensive plan launched by the Greens this week to transition Australia to clean energy. It includes the establishment of a $500 million government authority called RenewAustralia which will oversee the planning of a new clean energy system.
RenewAustralia will leverage $5 billion of construction in new energy generation over the next four years. The plan also includes the creation of a $250 million Clean Energy Transition Fund to assist coal workers and communities with reskilling and training to move into new jobs.
"We have the best solar and wind resources in the world. It’s time to harness it for our people and our industry," according to the Greens.
"Recent gains in electricity storage technologies along with its rapidly dropping price mean that barriers to renewables meeting all our energy needs, 24 hours a day, year- in-year-out, are gone. Clean energy can be created and stored for when it is needed.
"We can store energy over short time periods using battery technologies or keep it for long periods using off-river pumped hydro systems for times of excessive peak demand. Solar thermal with storage can store the heat of the sun to be used hours later in the evening or night time.
"Building renewable energy is the cheapest option to meet the predicted increased electricity demand. Both new gas and coal fired generation are more expensive than wind farms today."
The Greens plan points out that coal generators have already received $8 billion in handouts under previous governments.
"Coal investors have understood the need to transition to clean energy for over 30 years, and the public interest in closing down coal is overwhelming. Even though there are already more people working in clean energy construction than coal-fired generation, the impacts of closures on coal workers and communities are significant," the Greens said.
"The Clean Energy Transition Fund will ensure no coal worker is left behind."
The fund will start with an initial amount of $250 million and the Greens expect that over the course of the next 15 years RenewAustralia will fund projects worth around $1 billion.
"In the last five years, the government has spent $45 billion on poles and wires. Australia could have a world-class fibre optic broadband network for that kind of money, but instead we got grossly inflated power bills and infrastructure we don’t need, because during that time Australians started using less and less energy," according to the plan.
"Our current energy market system encourages power companies to build as much infrastructure as they are able to get away with (whether we need it or not) because they get a guaranteed profit on each dollar they spend. It is households and businesses who end up paying for this excessive spending."
The Greens will also expand the Renewable Energy Target (RET) to 52,500 GWh of clean energy generation by 2030.
The Turnbull Government currently has a clean energy target of 23.5 per cent by 2020, while Labor has pitched a 50 per cent target by 2030.