There has been a 9 per cent drop in emissions from electricity generators during the first six months of carbon pricing, a Senate committee has been told.
Last July the Federal Government introduced a carbon price of $23 per tonne for businesses that are big polluters.
Jenny Wilkinson from the Department of Climate Change and Renewable Energy says that since then, there has been a reduction in demand for energy.
She says the early results are due to several factors.
"Increased uptake of renewables on account of the Renewable Energy Target, changes in manufacturing; there's a range of different things which are contributing to this," she said.
"The latest data from the Australian Energy Market operator suggests that emissions from electricity generation have fallen by about 8.6 per cent in the first six months of the year."
The cost businesses now have to pay are set to increase between now and 2015 when there will be a shift towards a trading scheme that will allow the market to set the charges.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-02-11/carbon-tax-emissions-drop/4512782THE carbon tax has helped drive a sharp fall in the carbon emissions of Australia's power generation as coal-fired stations are closed, mothballed or sell less into the electricity market.
•Demand drop shocks power industry
As Victoria's Yallourn brown coal-fired power station became the latest to announce a production cut, experts said falling electricity demand, more renewables like wind farms and solar and the carbon price were all pushing Australia's coal-fired stations out of the market, making generation cleaner.
Electricity sold into the east coast market in the three months since the tax started created on average 7.6 per cent less carbon dioxide for each megawatt hour of power, an analysis of figures compiled by the Australian Energy Market Operator shows.
Greg Combet
"It is signifigant that the emissions intensity of the electricity generation system has fallen in the first quarter of the carbon price" ... Greg Combet. Photo: Andrew Meares
Compared with the same three months last year, the decline in emissions is around 6.3 per cent
http://www.smh.com.au/data-point/carbon-tax-contributes-to-emissions-drop-201210...It has been a warm, wet and now windy August across south-eastern Australia as a series of strong cold fronts provided record-breaking statistics for the generation of wind power.
Clean Energy Council policy director, Russell Marsh, said records for wind power generation in August were broken across the country, with Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and New South Wales all hitting new highs during the period.
"The new Macarthur Wind Farm in western Victoria is the largest in the southern hemisphere and provided a huge clean energy boost," Mr Marsh said.
The previous record was smashed in South Australia, with wind farms providing enough power for the equivalent of 38 per cent of the state, beating the previous record in August last year of 31.2 per cent.
In Victoria, wind power produced 7.9 per cent of the state's electricity, up from 5.4 per cent.
According to the Clean Energy Council, this would be enough to power the stadium lights at the MCG continuously for the next 44 years.
Tasmania's wind power generation rose from 7.5 to 11 per cent and New South Wales' went from 1.5 to 1.8 per cent.
Overall, the wind power generated across the south-eastern states produced 1024 gigawatt hours or eight per cent of power.
That would be enough to power Parliament House in Canberra for more than 40 years or make more than 6 billion toasted sandwiches.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-04/windy-august-produces-record-generation-of...
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It's official - carbon tax did all but nought! (Read 9927 times)
