Introduction -

After years of uncertainty, Australia’s renewable energy sector is taking off. A number of previously planned wind and solar projects have been revived recently and the sector must grow rapidly for the next two to five years, in order to achieve Australia’s nowconfirmed Renewable Energy Target (RET) by 2020.

This document summarises some of the key characteristics of the Australian renewables sector which may be of interest for German investors and German banks. It looks at the incentive schemes that have been initiated at both the Federal and State level and the entities that have been established to promote the growth of the sector. It also provides commentary on one of the key threshold issues that has so far held back the explosion of the renewables sector: the availability of long term power purchase agreements with energy retailers. A snapshot has been provided of recent greenfield projects and some of the equity investment and acquisitions that have recently come to market.