This article seems to suggest they are:Australia Lawmakers...

This article seems to suggest they are:

Australia Lawmakers Poised To Pass Renewable Energy Target
CANBERRA -(Dow Jones)-

Australian lawmakers are set to approve late Wednesday legislation that would require 20% of Australia's electricity generation to come from renewable sources by 2020.

The legislation is currently being debated in the upper house Senate - where laws are passed. But it is expected to be passed by a majority after the center-left Labor government earlier Wednesday won the support of key conservative opposition lawmakers by agreeing to certain conditions, including improved assistance for energy-intensive industries.

The approval would follow a move by the government to split its renewable energy program from a plan to cap Australia's greenhouse-gas emissions, which was rejected by the Senate last week.

Although Australia accounts for only 1.5% of global greenhouse-gas emissions, it is the biggest per-capita carbon polluter in the developed world due to its reliance on coal for around 80% of electricity generation.
The government, industry groups and environmentalists hope the new targets will unlock billions of dollars of investment in renewable technologies like wind and solar power.

The plan would create a carrot-and-stick system whereby generators are rewarded for every megawatt hour of green energy they produce, while electricity wholesalers are penalized if they don't source a certain share of their energy from renewable technologies.

Australian Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said the renewable energy program aims to deliver the "largest increase in renewable energy in the country's history."
Renewable energy accounts for only around 6.5% of Australia's total electricity generation now. Much of that is in hydro-electricity power stations, which have no prospects for expansion. The combined contribution of wind and solar power is just 0.4%.

The renewable energy laws would set a statutory target of 9,500 gigawatt-hours from renewable electricity sources in 2010, increasing to 45,000 GWh in 2020.

Under the renewable program, wholesale buyers of electricity would be required to meet a share of the renewable energy target relative to their share of the national wholesale electricity market.

Generators of renewable energy - ranging in scale from homeowners with rooftop solar panels to commercial renewable energy operators - would create renewable energy certificates, or RECs, for every MWh of electricity they generate from eligible sources.

These RECs, once registered, would be able to be traded and sold to liable parties who then surrender them to the Renewable Energy Regulator to demonstrate their compliance with the program, and avoid paying a shortfall surcharge of A$65 per MWh.

Making the task of achieving the 2020 target more difficult, however, is the fact that electricity demand is expanding rapidly, raising the bar on the 20% share renewable energy will need to make up.
To mitigate the impact on industries which may face higher electricity costs under the program, the government would provide interim assistance to certain high energy users that are also exposed to international trade. They include industries such as aluminum smelting, silicon production and newsprint manufacturing.

The passage of the renewable energy legislation would fulfill part of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's 2007 election pledge to green the economy.

But Rudd faces a bigger test later this year, when he has vowed to reintroduce controversial carbon trading legislation rejected by the Senate last week.
That plan would see Australia introduce a cap-and-trade scheme - similar to one operating in Europe since 2005 - capping Australia's carbon-dioxide emissions, forcing heavy polluters such as power generators and aluminum and cement makers to buy so-called carbon permits to account for their emissions.

-By Rachel Pannett, Dow Jones Newswires; 61-2-6208-0901; [email protected]
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