Federal energy minister Chris Bowen has slammed calls to extend Australia’s ageing coal fired generators, saying that not a single day had passed in the last three years without a breakdown, while also suggesting that data centres could rescue stalled renewables projects and put the country back on path to its 2030 renewable targets.
In a major speech at the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday, where he also unveiled plans to extend solar subsidies in the small-scale renewable energy scheme to systems up to 1 MW,
Bowen said that consumers were embracing the green energy transition with the rapid uptake of solar, home batteries and electric vehicles, which for the second consecutive month posted a market share of more than 20 per cent in Australia.
He said this was despite a “wall of climate denial” and misinformation from the various right-wing opposition parties, as well as in mainstream media and in social media algorithms.
“Despite the loud attempts to ride the algorithms of social media to stop the transition, the quiet majority of Australians are simply getting on with it,” Bowen said.
