The chief executives of major utilities, including AGL chief...

The chief executives of major utilities, including AGL chief executive Damien Nicks, speaking at the same conference earlier in the week, have all called for policy certainty after Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said the Coalition would not set a 2030 emissions target until after the election, bringing the transition back into political debate.

Mr Brokhof said policy uncertainty could prove fatal for getting the business case for significant investments in the energy transition to work.

“This [hydro] is an investment for 50–100 years. We need a stable environment in order to do this investment, and a proper energy policy and regulatory framework. That’s for all private investors who want to put money into the energy transition,” he said.

Though AGL was “pushing everything forward” in the development stage of its transition investments, Mr Brokhof said any final decision on whether to invest in a project was “very much related to what kind of framework we have”.

AGL is already the largest private owner of hydro assets in Australia, with installed capacity of 785 megawatts. It hopes to increase its overall exposure to clean energy to 5 gigawatts by 2030 and 12 by 2035.

AGL Energy’s Markus Brokhof says investment case for wind and solar is ‘tricky’ (copyright link)