As a bid to get kids interested in clean energy, a Chinese solar power company has just finished the first phase of a 100MW solar power plant… in the shape of a panda!

ARENA noted in a statement today applauding the Origin contract with Moree that “not one” of the 22 solar projects on its shortlist would go ahead without grant funding.

John Grimes of the Solar Council has come out and said that the Australian government wants to kill investment for the Renewable Energy Target and that recent events are just a natural progression due to the uncertainty surrounding the RET.

Data reports by the Department of the Environment has indicated that annual emissions up to June 2014 indicate that it has dropped by 1.4%. This notable decrease was seen within the second full year of the carbon price and is the biggest emission drop observed during the last decade!

The negative attitude shown by the Abbott Government towards renewable energy belies its bias for profit and more profit. His policies show that Abbott regards renewable energy as not economically feasible and therefore unnecessary.

For the past few weeks the Labor party has pulled out of all negotiations regarding the Australia Renewable Energy Target for 2020. However, clean energy companies are now urging the party to resume RET talks in hopes to break the current impasse that is bringing the industry down.

Ever since Tony Abbott became Prime Minister of Australia, the renewable energy industry has suffered and begun going backwards. From the day Prime Minister Abbott was sworn in, he and his party have blocked the RET, previously implemented by the Labor Government, and instead promoted the Direct Action plan all while championing coal.

One of the hottest debates in recent years is the impasse regarding the 2020 Renewable Energy Target and how the Government seems adamant to abandon the initial plans.

A newly released report and review regarding the Australian Renewable Energy Target was released by the Australian Climate Change Authority. The said report clearly advises against the Federal Government’s move to slash or scale back the 2020 RET of 41,000 GHw.

The Labor Party and the Clean Energy Council, the primary organizations that represent the renewable industry sector, have made a last ditch effort to get an agreement regarding the Renewable Energy Target before Christmas last year.

Senator Jacqui Lambie quit the Palmer United Party in late 2014. This party promised earlier this year that it will protect the RET only to renege on this commitment only a few short months later.

Just a few years ago the two major political parties in Australia agreed on the renewable energy target to optimize renewable energy by the year 2020, hoping that 20% of all household electricity would come from renewable energy sources.

It seems that the two major parties, Coalition and Labor, are still no closer to a compromise regarding the future of the Renewable Energy Target. Coalition backbenchers are still pushing for the stripping away of the mechanism for large-scale solar projects and wind projects.

Amidst the Cabinet’s division over what should be done with Australia’s Renewable Energy Target (RET), the Clean Energy Council (CEC) recently claimed that the number of commercial solar power installations has reached 15,000 and “tens of thousands more” of these businesses will “follow suit” should the RET be “left as legislated.

Silex Systems has discontinued its plans to build its 100MW Power Station Project after some serious deliberation regarding the RET. This move naturally affects the Australian Renewable Energy Agency’s $75 million conditional funding for the concentrated photovoltaic power plant.

Concerns that the Australian Renewable Energy Target (RET) was under threat under the Coalition government were intensified on Tuesday when the Abbott government released the 2014 federal budget.

An independent report from leading strategic consultancy SKM MMA shows that Australia’s 20 per cent Renewable Energy Target has delivered $18.5 billion in investment, with the potential for $18.

The peak body for Australia’s clean energy industry said today’s announcement that part of the coal-fired Yallourn Power Station would be mothballed showed that cleaner sources of power were gradually replacing the country’s highest-polluting power generation.