Renewable plants to wean Australia state off fossil fuels

Bloomberg

Australia’s most populous state plans to fast-track its transition away from fossil fuels by encouraging investment in renewable-energy clusters.
New South Wales put out a call for $12.7 billion ($8.8 billion) in investment to build solar and wind generation. It’s the second of three planned renewable energy zones to get the green light as the state seeks to move away from polluting coal, which still provides four-fifths of its power, after the
worst drought in a century and the most damaging bushfire season in its history highlighted the importance of tackling climate change.
“Environmentally speaking, the past 12 months have been the toughest in living memory for the people of New South Wales,” state Energy Minister Matt Kean said in a conference hosted by the Clean Energy Council. “The case is well and truly made for investment in climate-friendly infrastructure to boost growth and create new jobs and the economic trauma flowing from the pandemic has made the task more urgent and more important than ever before.”
The state seeks to build as much as 8 gigawatts of solar and wind generation, almost equivalent to its coal-fired capacity, in the New England region. Australian clean energy investment tailed off in 2019, after surging in the prior two years, in part due to grid congestion which has forced the market operator to curtail the output of some solar and wind farms to safeguard the stability of the network.