Clean Energy Council keen to clear air on RET

Protracted negotiations on the future of the Renewable Energy Target could be on the verge of a breakthrough with the Clean Energy Council in talks with Labor and the government on a deal.

After Labor rejected the government’s latest offer on Monday, the CEC has made it known it is keen for a deal that would end the impasse, which has frozen investment in the renewables sector for a year and threatens to impose the existing scheme on energy intensive industries like aluminium for another year.

After the government started negotiations around a “true’’ 20 per cent or about 27,000GWh by 2020, and Labor backed the existing 41,000GWh scheme, the government’s offer of 31,000GWh was rejected by the opposition on Monday.

Labor, which backs an exemption for the aluminium industry, is pushing for a deal in the “mid to high 30,000s’’ but The Australian understands the CEC is prepared to negotiate between the two positions. One source said a deal appeared possible at around 33,500 GWh.

CEC executive director Kane Thornton would not be drawn on the figure.

But he said there were more considerations in the RET negotiations than just the final number.

He said an oversupply of renewable energy certificates, which was created when certificates from solar-panel schemes were rolling into the large-scale renewable energy scheme by the Rudd government, also had to be dealt with.

Another consideration was the shape of the scheme after 2020.

However, Mr Thornton said it was “time to get on with it and resolve it’’.