The Clean Energy Council (CEC) says Queensland’s commitment to a 50 per cent target for renewable energy by 2030 means more jobs, lower prices.

Renewable energy capacity last saw its largest annual increase ever, 10 gigawatts (GW) of new generation installed worldwide.

When Australia’s biggest horticulture company, Costa Group, last week revealed plans to build its own solar and storage plant as part of a major company expansion, it caught media attention as the latest big industrial – see Sun Metals, Tesltra – to take power supply, and costs, into their own hands.

The International Energy Agency has made a mockery of Australia’s justification for vast new coal provinces, saying that coal-fired generation for electricity will have to be phased out by 2030 if used at current rates without abatement.