Australia will expand its Capacity Investment Scheme by 25 per cent to support an additional 8 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy generation and storage projects, Reuters reported, citing Energy Minister Chris Bowen on Tuesday. The move raises the scheme's total capacity to 40 GW as the government races to stabilise the country's ageing power grid and meet its 2030 target of generating 82 per cent of electricity from renewables. "As our ageing coal-fired power stations only become more expensive and more unreliable we need new generation now," Bowen told the Investor Group on Climate Change. He added that the transition of Australia's energy grid "remains urgent." The expanded scheme includes underwriting 5 GW of dispatchable capacity—such as batteries—expected to drive A$21 billion ($13.7 billion) in private investment. Another 3 GW in wind and solar projects is projected to power an additional one million homes. Since its 2022 launch, the scheme's six tender rounds have been "consistently and massively" oversubscribed, Bowen noted, adding that falling costs for solar and battery storage present a chance to "supercharge" the clean energy transition. Attribution: Reuters Subediting: M. S. Salama
