Western Australia Premier Roger Cook speaks on stage during Global Citizen NOW: Perth at Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre in Western Australia on Oct. 20, 2026. Graham Denholm/Getty Images for Global Citizen
Australia’s mining state has set an ambitious renewable energy target as it attempts to drive down soaring energy costs.
Western Australia’s (WA) Labor government wants 75 percent of electricity in the state’s southwest grid to be generated from renewables by 2030-31.
Premier Roger Cook says the so-called affordable energy plan will put “maximum downward pressure on energy bills.”
“Without our plan for affordable energy, energy prices for businesses could increase by 89 per cent by 2032,” he told reporters on Oct. 27.
Wind turbines at the Albany Grasmere Wind Farm near the regional city of Albany, Western Australia, on Feb. 18, 2024. Susan Mortimer/The Epoch Times
“Delivering affordable energy to businesses is a fundamental part of my government’s objectives to diversify WA’s economy and create more jobs.”
The plan also includes more support for households to invest in solar, batteries, and electric vehicles; and continued support for WA’s domestic gas reservation policy and gas production.
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“Ask any WA household that has solar panels or batteries, they will tell you solar is the cheapest energy that is available,” Cook said.
“Without the plan, we’ll be reliant on aging coal-fired power stations, and that is just not the way of the future.”
About 40 percent of the electricity currently generated on the South West Interconnected System is from renewable energy. Coal accounts for about a quarter, and gas provides the remainder.
The WA government plans to phase out all state-owned coal-fired power stations by 2030.
Opposition energy spokesman Steve Thomas said power prices for businesses had doubled in four years under the WA Labor government.
The new energy plan was an admission of failure, Thomas said.
“That failure has been rebadged as the Future Energy System Outlook, but it is years behind,” he said.
The WA Greens said the plan was “long overdue.”
“WA is the last state to commit to a renewable target,” Greens MP Brad Pettitt said.
It comes as the WA environmental watchdog releases details for a proposed new gas-fired power station about 55 kilometres south of Perth at Keralup, which, if approved, could be the largest in WA.
Meanwhile, environmental activists say a leaked WA Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) letter warned energy giant Woodside that its plan to drill gas wells near a reef off WA’s northwest coast for its Browse project risked harming the environment.
Cook said the letter from 2023 showed the detail the authority went to when examining the project and managing any potential environmental impacts.
“Those conversations are continuing between Woodside and the EPA, and we’ll allow them to take place,” he said.
By Aaron Bunch in Perth.
