Queensland's 2020 state election is fast approaching and every party is coming to the table with different energy policies. We've collated all the promises that parties have made and rated them on their commitment to building a bright, renewable future for the Sunshine State.

Clean Energy Commitments 

Queensland Labor

• Delivering 50% renewable energy by 2030.
• Investing $500 million in a Renewable Energy Fund for more publicly-owned renewable energy projects and transmission.
• Allocating $145 million to start the development of three renewable energy zones: in the Darling Downs, Central Queensland and North Queensland.
• Extending the solar for hospital trial by allocating $30 million for solar to be installed across 50 sites.
• Supporting the delivery of CopperString 2.0 by underwriting the initial investment costs, on top of $14.8 million in initial investment. CopperString 2.0 will enable more solar and wind resources to be built in North Queensland.
• Government-owned Stanwell Corporation made a power purchase agreement, which will help get the Clarke Creek wind farm to proceed to construction in 2021. CS Energy, another publicly-owned utility, has agreed to purchase all of the output from the 162MW Columboola Solar Farm, allowing it to proceed to construction. 
• Delivering 1000MW of renewable energy generation through CleanCo by 2025. 
  • Progress: CleanCo has committed to purchasing 320MW of new renewable energy generated by Neoen’s Western Downs Green Power Hub, and will build and own another 100MW of the McIntyre wind farm. In addition, CleanCo has signed a 110MW power purchase agreement that will enable the construction of Neoen’s 157MW Kaban wind farm in Far North Queensland. 
• Delivering a 400MW reverse auction.
  • Progress: This has been achieved through CleanCo. The McIntyre wind farm won the tender.
• Investing $97 million to install solar and energy efficiency measures on state schools via the Advancing Clean Energy Schools (ACES) Program.
• Backing a new $23 million Renewable Energy Training Facility to provide skills training for 750 apprentices a year as well as assisting about 26,000 local licensed electricians with further training.
• Rolling out renewable solutions in remote communities Bamaga, Mapoon, Pormpuraaw and Doomadgee.
• Investing $150 million in new transmission infrastructure for North Queensland.
  • Progress: $132 million of this will help connect the Kidston pumped hydro project to the grid.

We wrote to Labor to clarify their policy positions and inform our scorecard. Read their response here. 

Liberal National

• Mandating investment by our government-owned energy companies in renewable energy generation.
• Supporting national emissions and energy targets.
• Ruling out government funds for new coal-fired power plants.
  
• Committing to fully implementing CopperString 2.0 in partnership with the Federal Government.
• Opening a solar recycling plant in South East Queensland.

We wrote to the LNP to clarify their policy positions and inform our scorecard. Read their response here.

The Greens

• Implementing a Queensland Renewable Energy Target (QRET) of 100% to be met by 2030 for electricity generation.
• Providing fair and reasonable solar feed-in-tariffs which incorporate the value of greenhouse gas offsets and reduced transmission needs.
• Transferring subsidies and government support (including research and development) from fossil fuel based energy to fund research and development on improving energy efficiency, storage, and large-scale clean energy sources such as geothermal, solar thermal and wind.
• Constructing base and peak load clean electricity generating plants.
• Supporting the purchase and installation of solar panels to all houses, and then recouping the cost through savings in household energy bills over a 10 year period.
• Maintaining public ownership of electricity transmission and distribution infrastructure as well as current electricity generation infrastructure.
• Assisting affected communities to transition from a dependence on coal mining and coal-fired power stations. This would particularly emphasise the establishment of manufacturing and fabrication in regional areas in association with the construction of solar thermal power stations.
• Encouraging the installation of clean energy generation infrastructure by agricultural producers, business owners, community groups and householders to feed electricity into the grid.
• Facilitating the establishment of small scale, local, clean energy generation and storage cooperatives to supply electricity to cooperative members and feed power into the grid.
• Subsidising the installation of clean energy generation and storage for social housing, low income households, and the not-for-profit sector.
• Planning for a transition from transport dependent on fossil fuels, to transport efficiency and mobile energy from renewable sources.

Katter’s Australian Party

• Supporting CopperString 2.0, which will unlock renewable energy resources in Queensland’s North.
• Introducing a scheme for grants and subsidising loans for primary producers to install solar pumps for irrigation and stock watering, as well as rooftop solar for homes and workshops.