We surveyed over 70 senior leaders from across the clean energy industry in order to gauge the investment confidence in the clean energy industry, as well as, employment trends and the specific business challenges felt across the industry.
The results and related comments indicate that since we last surveyed the industry in July 2019 investment confidence has fallen, with the industry continuing to cite grid connection and transmission concerns and a lack of Federal Government policy as the biggest challenges for the industry.
What is your level of confidence to make investments in renewable energy in Australia in the next 3 years?
Compared to 12 months ago, investment confidence fell a whole point to 6.1 with concerns and challenges related to the grid and transmission and a lack of Federal Government energy and climate policy as key reasons for the drop in investment confidence.
How do you expect the number of people your company employs in renewable energy in Australia to change in the next 12 months?
Industry leaders were slightly more optimistic than they were in the last survey taken in July 2019, with 70 per cent of respondents expecting to employ more staff in the next 12 months.
What factors are creating the greatest challenges for your business to develop renewable energy projects in Australia?
The top challenge rated by the industry was concerns and challenges related to grid connection process and technical requirements followed by a lack of federal energy and climate policy. These were rated as the top challenges in the survey taken in July 2019 and December 2018. The other important challenges for the industry were also related to transmission (network capacity and congestion, and concerns about MLFs), the regulatory environment and government intervention and the exit and timing of coal-fired generation.
Download the Clean Energy Outlook - Confidence Index
