TrendForce：Policies and Incentives Boost Australia’s Large-Scale Power Plant Demand

The renewable energy market rapidly grows in Australia due to the recent policies and incentives. However, the economic recession and the decreased system price caused the Australian government to revise the subsidy rate downward. EnergyTrend, a research division of TrendForce, indicates that the subsidy was revised downward in the top-two roof-top system markets, Queensland (QLD) and Victoria (VIC) in 2012; the subsidy was suspended in Western Australia (WA) and New South Wales (NSW); net metering was adopted by Northern Territory (NT), Capital Region (ACT), and Tasmania (TAS).

Although the Small-scale Renewable Energy Scheme (SRES) has been completed ahead of time, the importance of the Large-scale Renewable Energy Target (LRET) has started to increase. Affected by polices related to carbon reduction (such as carbon tax imposition or direct incentive scheme that’s being arranged) and the decreased system price, large power companies have begun to invest in renewable energy plants. Combining the role of buyers and system integrators, conventional power companies focus more on self-built renewable energy plants nowadays.

On the other hand, Australia’s central government has held, in succession, the international tenders for large-scale PV plants since 2013. The scale is up to 210MW to attract more companies participate in the bid. How large power companies can set up the minimum electricity price themselves can also benefit to the market growth. For example, ActewAGL, a power company, has released 40MW of capacity and it were Spanish, Chinese, and Australian manufacturers that won the bid, with average electricity price being about $183/MWh. To investors, manufacturers with stable return rates and lower investment risks, like the ones mentioned above, will tempt more people to invest in Australia’s large-scale power plants.

There were not many changes to last week’s spot market. Price in March remains steady and demand from March to May can be accurately forecasted at this point. But demand in June is still unclear because the US’ initial judgment regarding anti-dumping won’t be announced until the beginning of June.

Last week’s poly, multi-si wafer, and module price all remained stable. Only mono-si wafer price slightly rised due to the increased demand. Last week’s average price reached $1.206/piece, a 0.92% rise.