sets the scene for a massive flow of institutional capital into Australia’s power and industrial sector to achieve decarbonisation goals, as long as rules are put in place to provide the certainty needed for long-term investments, says the head of a major infrastructure investor in Britain and the US.
Quinbrook, which manages capital for pension funds and institutions, has deployed more than $2 billion of equity into low-carbon infrastructure and renewables in the past 12 to 18 months. However, this has predominantly happened in the US and Britain as its projects in Australia either became stuck in, or deemed risky because of the gap between federal and state commitments to emissions reduction.
Mr Scaysbrook said there was also a huge opportunity to open up industrial decarbonisation through projects such as green steel, green aluminium and green fuels, for example, as well as longer-term green exports. He said it was part of the vision to turn Australia into a renewable energy superpower, where the scale of investment required would overtake that in the domestic power sector.
Mr Scaysbrook also pointed to several big investors looking to make “very significant” capital commitments in green hydrogen and clean manufacturing.… but they’re not the only ones that are out there in the world that are getting prepared to make very, very significant capital commitments to drive this forward,” he said.
If the solar panels are manufactured in Australia good move otherwise the opportunity is mostly to overseas countries