Australia's Victoria state to auction 650MW of renewable projects

Expression of intereste will start in October.

The Victoria State government (Australia) will introduce the renewable energy target announced mid-June 2017, called the Victorian Renewable Energy Targets (VRET), into its legislation, according to Enerdata.

The State of Victoria targets to reach a share of 25% of renewables within its power generation mix by 2020 and 40% by 2025. This new policy is estimated to reduce household electricity bills by A$30 a year (US$23.6) over the life of the scheme and drive a 16% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2034.

Here's mrore from Enerdata:

The Government also announced that it will hold a 650 MW competitive reverse auction for renewable energy sources. The expressions of interest will start in October 2017. The reverse auction, one of the largest of its kind in Australia, is expected to trigger investment of about A$1.3bn in renewable projects such as construction of wind and solar farms.

This move is also meant to partly balance the closure of the 1,600 MW coal-fired Hazelwood power plant which occurred in March 2017. Some places throughout the State such as the Latrobe Valley have now significant unused transmission capacity because of the closure of the Hazelwood power plant and may be interesting sites for wind parks.

This story was originally published by Enerdata.