Danish royal visit Renewable Energy Seminar
The Hon. Matt Kean
Chair - Climate Change Authority
Check against delivery.
May I begin by acknowledging the traditional owners and custodians of the land where we gather today, the peoples of the Kulin Nation.
I'd like to pay my respects to elders, past, present and emerging, and extend that respect to any First Nations people here with us today.
Can I also thank the Danish Embassy for inviting me to speak during the first Danish state visit to Australia in 4 decades, led by their Royal Highnesses, King Frederik X and Queen Mary.
If only we could tap the warmth of the welcome extended their way, we could probably decarbonise a large swathe of our industry!
I'm pleased, though, to have an opportunity to share some reflections with you on Australia's renewable energy roll-out.
The good news is that we are making strong progress - and there's scope for even faster gains in the years ahead.
Let me reel off a few key points:
- Our main electricity grids sourced a majority of energy from renewable sources in the final quarter of 2025(Opens in a new tab/window) - and for the first time, fossil fuels have accounted for less than half of total supply.
- The rise of renewables more than kept up with the growth in demand, so we saw emissions drop in the main grid - the National Electricity Market - by more than 6% compared with the December quarter of 2024. That shows we can cut carbon pollution even as we meet record demand.
- Wholesale prices in the National Electricity Market fell 44% from a year earlier. More big batteries and a jump in wind generation made a difference - reducing price volatility to just one-sixth of the level of the December quarter of 2024.
- Retail power prices look to be on the decline, at least for the coming year. Victoria's Essential Services Commission(Opens in a new tab/window) recommended a drop in the default market offer for the coming year of 3% on average for households and 5% for businesses. Other states may see similar reductions. [NB: that determination may land(Opens in a new tab/window) any day now.]
- More than a third of Australian homes have solar panels, and the ratio is about half in some regions, such as South Australia - that's world-leading.
- Many of these households have leapt at the opportunity to install home batteries under a government support scheme launched last July. The take-up has already reached about 275,000(Opens in a new tab/window), with more than 6 gigawatts of capacity added. That's a doubling of capacity in just over 8 months.
These are exciting times to be involved in clean energy, in all its forms, great and small.
We know we have a lot more work to do. Some 17 gigawatts of coal-power capacity is due to retire by 2035, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
The electricity sector and investors understand well that in replacing this capacity, the finances stack up much better for clean energy.
For instance, Bloomberg estimated the cost of new coal at about 4 times the cost of building a solar farm, and almost triple the cost of onshore wind farms.
With the cost of batteries now falling at a pace reminiscent of solar panels during their steep dive, it is no wonder that many of the new projects coming online(Opens in a new tab/window) in Australia will be solar-battery hybrids or even wind-battery ones.
And, as Energy and Climate Minister Chris Bowen has stated(Opens in a new tab/window), there is some 64 gigawatts of large-scale renewable energy in the pipeline.
Amidst the current global turmoil, it's easy to miss the progress that's being made.
Take this location, for example.
Back on 27 January, Victoria set a record temperature for any month at a tad under 49 degrees. Not surprisingly, electricity demand hit a record high as all those airconditioners in Melbourne and elsewhere thrummed away.
These are the stress tests our grid - and our societies - will increasingly face as the planet heats up. Wilder extremes will test our infrastructure, and we need to prepare for it.
On that day of severe heat, though, I'm happy to report the power grid in this state did exceptionally well. Victoria was exporting power for much of the day, and there was little price volatility even as the sun went down.
There also were no lack of reserve alerts issued by the market regulator - no small feat given the strain on supplies that day, and one that the media largely missed.
To finish up, we might not be able to match Denmark's renewables penetration of about 90%(Opens in a new tab/window) and having more than two-thirds(Opens in a new tab/window) of your new cars being electric vehicles.
Nor can Australia match Denmark for its Nordic Noir or politco-dramas like Borgen.
But I can say that Australia has much in our favour, including access to abundant wind and solar resources, and many critical minerals, too.
Like-minded nations in so many ways, I'm sure there is much scope for us to cooperate even more closely in the future - let's realise that potential!
Thanks for listening.
