No longer ‘alternative’, mainstream renewables are pushing prices down

Simon Holmes à CourtFri 16 Mar 2018 13.40 AEDT

On the first day of autumn tens of thousands of Victorians received a welcome surprise from their power company — their electricity bills were going down.

Prices were cut 5% because the retailer increased their investment in renewable energy.

This will likely come as a surprise to many.

Since the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, and the energy minister, Josh Frydenberg, decided that bashing renewables would play well for them — perhaps more so in the party room than in the electorate — hardly a day goes by without claims that renewables have made our grid unreliable and have pushed prices sky high.

As we emerge from a hot summer without even one second of generation-related blackouts, the dissonance is high.

The Australian Energy Market Operator has demonstrated their ability to…