Pitt - turning NAIF into Dirty Energy Infrastructure Facility

The leaked rejection of NAIF funding for Kaban Green Energy Hub makes it clear that Minister Pitt sees the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility as a fund for dirty fossil-fuel burning energy, not the clean renewable energy that Queenslanders need.  

"The ministerial veto of NAIF funding for the Kaban Green Energy Hub is politically-motivated policy idiocy. The strong evening winds that the Kaban project is planning to utilise will provide clean renewable power at the times Queenslanders need it most, “ said Queensland Conservation Council Director Dave Copeman 

“Queenslanders are sick of self-serving political games holding us back from cheaper cleaner electricity".

“Kaban Green Energy Hub is exactly the sort of project we need to provide clean renewable electricity that both keeps prices low and grows our future renewable energy industries. 

“This April in Queensland, wholesale prices between 6pm and 7pm have averaged $200/MWh as the sun sets and coal-fired power stations struggle to ramp up production. 

Kaban Green Energy Hub could help fill this gap. Kaban’s strong evening wind resource, supported by batteries, make it a key part of the electricity generation we need for the smart distributed energy generation of the future. 

It appears that political motivations are the only reason this could be “inconsistent” with the aims of the Federal Government, as Minister Pitt stated in the leaked letter. 

“Turning the NAIF into a Dirty Energy Infrastructure Facility that only provides funding to coal and gas projects is energy policy idiocy. New renewables are cheaper, and the world is ramping up pressure on Australia to take stronger action to reduce our carbon emissions.