There have already been job losses and significant decreases in revenue and investments in the renewable energy industry. Since the Government finally announced their ‘preliminary’ position last week more casualties have happened…and they won’t be the last.

Keppel Prince Engineering, Australia’s biggest manufacturer of wind towers has announced that they will mothball most of their fabrication facilities at the Portland works. This will see around 100 full time employees become unemployed.

This is the first direct casualty of the governments’ preliminary announcement. If Tony Abbott succeeds in reducing the RET, Australia will again be the first country to reduce a renewable target – Australia is already the first to instate and abolish a carbon pricing scheme. It will also continue to disappoint as it becomes clear that they want a ‘floating 20%’ target meaning that the actual amount in kilowatt hours will change according to reducing demand so that the 20% mark will not be crossed by 2020.

Keppel Prince have stated that policy uncertainty (such as the RET) has cost them dearly over the last few years with no end in sight and until a stable base is erected it will be unable operate out of Portland. Like most, they hope that one day the conditions will once again be favourable for them to start up the Portland works again.

The wind industry could install a further 2000 plus wind turbines but as a result of the RET they will only install a small fraction of that. Even with the target only being diluted and not completely abolished, most investments are going to be put off or delayed.

“These lay-offs follow others announced by renewable energy companies throughout the year, along with asset write-downs and frozen investments. The Federal Government has set its starting position at a level that it knows would decimate the renewable energy industry. In doing so, it has ignored analysis conducted for its own review that shows any reduction in the RET will increase power prices for consumers in the future,” said Clean Energy Council’s Acting CEO Kane Thornton. “The casualties of this kind of game-playing are real jobs, as we have seen with the announcement by Keppel Prince Engineering. Victorian Premier Denis Napthine should be asking his federal counterparts some serious questions after these job losses were announced by a major employer in his electorate today.”

“It is extremely regretful that this government is so hostile to renewable energy,” said Andrew Bray, the National Co-ordinator for The Australian Wind Alliance (AWA) concerning the government’s stance on the RET. “It is extremely disappointing that local MPs like Dan Tehan were out calling this a victory in the last 24 hours. The government is trying to knobble the renewable energy industry in order to defend the interests of its mates in the big power companies. These job losses are a direct result of the government’s failure to listen to regional communities.”

This may be the Government’s first official casualty but it is undoubtable not the last.

Click here to see the Keppel Prince Engineering Press Release