The Renewable Energy Target seeks to meet the objectives of the Renewable Energy (Electricity) Act 2000 (the Act) by providing a financial incentive for investment in renewable energy sources, through the operation of a market in renewable energy certificates.
The role of the Clean Energy Regulator is to enable the operation of the Renewable Energy Target by:
- ensuring the integrity of renewable energy certificates created (the supply side of the market)
- ensuring the integrity of renewable energy certificates surrendered to acquit liability (the demand side of the market)
- providing the registry that facilitates administration of renewable energy certificates by market participants.
This chapter describes how the Renewable Energy Target schemes allow accredited renewable energy power stations and the owners or agents of small-scale systems to create and sell certificates that are used by electricity retailers to acquit liabilities determined under the Act.