Renewable Energy (Jobs and Investment) Act 2017

Renewable energy source is defined as solar, wind, hydro, and any other energy source the Minister declares by gazette notice, except a source prescribed in regulations (s 3). This gives the Minister broad discretion to add technologies such as tidal, geothermal, or biomass, while regulations can block specific sources. The definition matters because the renewable energy targets count electricity generated from these sources. Large-scale facility means a generation facility with a capacity of more than 100 kilowatts (s 3). This threshold is low; many commercial rooftop solar installations exceed it. The objects of the Act refer to increasing the proportion of electricity generated by large-scale facilities (s 5(a)), but the targets themselves (s 7) refer to “electricity generated in Victoria” by facilities that utilise renewable energy sources without the “large-scale” qualifier. This creates ambiguity about whether small-scale generation such as rooftop solar counts toward the targets. The reporting provision (s 8(1)(b)) specifically covers schemes promoting large-scale facilities, suggesting the primary focus is utility-scale projects. Energy storage facility is defined as a facility connected to a distribution or transmission system that has the capacity to store and dispatch electricity, other than a facility the Minister declares not to be an energy storage facility (s 7A(3)). The exclusion power gives the Minister unfettered discretion to remove facilities from the count. The definition requires the facility to dispatch electricity, which likely covers batteries and pumped hydro but may exclude thermal storage that stores heat for later conversion. Offshore area of Victoria is defined by reference to section 8 of the Commonwealth Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006 (s 3). This means the offshore wind targets cover waters within Commonwealth jurisdiction, not state coastal waters. Victoria cannot unilaterally authorise projects there; those projects require Commonwealth approvals under the Offshore Electricity Infrastructure Act 2021 (Cth). Capacity determination under s 9 requires the Minister to calculate and publish by gazette notice the minimum amounts of renewable energy generation capacity needed to meet each renewable energy target. The determination is for “contributing to the achievement of” the targets, which suggests it is a planning figure rather than a binding generation requirement. The deadlines for making these determinations are fixed: for 2020 by 31 December 2017; for 2025 by 31 December 2019; for 2030 by 31 December 2025; for 2035 by 31 December 2030. No similar determination is required for storage or offshore wind targets. Annual report under s 8 must include progress toward each target, the performance of schemes, and investment and employment data for each technology category. The report must be tabled by 31 October each year. The Minister determines the content of the report, subject to the mandatory items listed in s 8(1)(a)-(i). This gives the Minister discretion over the level of detail and methodology.

The direct legal duties under the Act fall solely on the Minister: the duty to report annually to Parliament and the duty to make capacity determinations. The Victorian Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action must compile the data and prepare the reports. The Parliament receives the reports, and opposition members or crossbenchers may use them to hold the government to account. The Act does not impose obligations on private entities, so businesses, investors, and developers are not directly regulated. However, they are indirectly affected because the targets signal government policy direction and are used to underpin separate administrative schemes, such as the Victorian Renewable Energy Target (VRET) auction program. Developers of renewable energy projects rely on the targets to forecast demand for power purchase agreements and to gauge the likely longevity of government support. Energy storage and offshore wind developers now have specific targets that may influence their investment timing and technology choices. Electricity retailers and generators face changes in the generation mix and potential network constraints, but the Act does not impose any renewable purchase obligation on them. Grid operators, such as the Australian Energy Market Operator, must plan for increasing variable renewable generation and storage integration, and the capacity determinations under s 9 may inform transmission planning. Consumers ultimately bear the costs of meeting the targets through higher electricity prices if subsidies or mandates are used, though the Act itself does not specify any cost recovery mechanism. The Commonwealth government is affected because the offshore wind targets depend on Commonwealth jurisdiction over the offshore area; Victoria cannot unilaterally deliver those targets without federal cooperation. The general public, as electors, may use the annual reports to assess government performance. The Act binds the Crown (s 6), so state government agencies are covered, but since no duties are imposed on the Crown beyond the Minister’s duties, this provision is largely symbolic. The Act does not create any rights or remedies for individuals; no person can sue for failure to meet a target. The practical effect on private parties therefore depends entirely on whether the government uses the targets to design and fund support schemes, which is a matter of executive policy rather than statutory compulsion.

The Act imposes three main duties, all on the Minister. First, the Minister must report to the Parliament for each financial year on progress toward the renewable energy targets, the energy storage targets, and the offshore wind energy targets; on the performance of schemes to achieve those targets; and on investment and employment in Victoria related to renewable electricity generation, energy storage, and offshore wind electricity generation (s 8(1)(a)-(i)). The report must be in writing, contain the information determined by the Minister, and be laid before each House of Parliament by 31 October in the subsequent financial year (or on the first sitting day after that if the House is not sitting) (s 8(2),(3)). Second, the Minister must determine by gazette notice the minimum amounts of renewable energy generation capacity required to meet the renewable energy targets, with specific deadlines (s 9). For the 2030 target the deadline is 31 December 2025, and for the 2035 target it is 31 December 2030; the earlier deadlines for the 2020 and 2025 targets have already passed. Third, the Minister must publish any declarations of renewable energy sources by gazette notice (s 4) and any declarations that a facility is not an energy storage facility (s 7A(2)). These are duties to publish, but the content of the declarations is discretionary. The Act does not impose any duties on private entities or on the Crown beyond the Minister. No person has a right to enforce the targets, to challenge non-compliance, or to seek damages for failure to achieve them. The Act creates no private right of action. The Governor in Council has the power to make regulations (s 10), but no specific regulation-making duties are given. The only rights that could arise are general administrative law rights: a person with standing could potentially seek judicial review if the Minister fails to make a required report or determination, but the Act provides no special standing or remedies. The Act therefore creates a one-way accountability mechanism: the Minister must disclose information, but there is no corresponding right for any person to compel performance or to remedy a shortfall. The absence of enforcement rights means that the duties are essentially political obligations, not legal ones in the sense that they can be judicially enforced. This is a deliberate design choice: the Act is a framework for transparency and planning, not a command-and-control statute.

The Act contains no penalties, no offences, and no civil or criminal sanctions. No person can be fined or imprisoned for violating any provision. The only enforcement mechanism is political accountability through parliamentary reporting. If the Minister fails to table the annual report by 31 October, there is no statutory consequence other than potential questions in the House or media scrutiny. If the Minister fails to make a capacity determination by the statutory deadline, no penalty attaches. The targets themselves are not enforceable: failure to achieve a target does not give rise to any legal liability for the Minister, the government, or any other party. The Act does not provide for any enforcement body, such as the Essential Services Commission or the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, to oversee compliance. It does not create any infringement notices, penalty units, or remedial orders. The only potential legal consequence is judicial review of a failure to exercise a statutory duty, such as the duty to report or determine capacity. A court could order the Minister to perform the duty, but such an order would not compel the substance of the report or determination, only the act of producing it. Moreover, the broad discretion given to the Minister over the content of the report (s 8(2)) means that a court would be unlikely to second-guess the adequacy of the information. The Act is thus a “soft law” instrument: it sets aspirational goals and creates transparency obligations, but it does not create a binding legal regime with teeth. This design has implications for investor confidence: private sector participants cannot rely on the targets being met as a matter of legal right. If a future government decides to abandon or reduce the targets, it may do so by amending the Act (which has already happened twice, each time increasing ambition) or simply by failing to implement supporting schemes. The Act provides no safeguard against policy reversal. The lack of enforcement also means that the annual reports serve primarily as a political tool; a government that is not meeting targets can control the narrative through selective reporting within the Minister’s discretion. The absence of an independent auditor or verifier for the reports further weakens accountability.

The Act does not amend or override any other Victorian or Commonwealth legislation, but it operates alongside several regulatory frameworks. The definition of “offshore area of Victoria” in s 3 adopts the definition from the Commonwealth Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006. This ties the offshore wind targets to federal jurisdictional boundaries and means that any project to deliver those targets must have Commonwealth approvals under the Offshore Electricity Infrastructure Act 2021 (Cth) and possibly the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth). Victoria cannot unilaterally permit offshore wind projects in its offshore area as defined; it can only set targets and potentially provide state-based support such as planning approvals for onshore infrastructure. The Act interacts with the Climate Change Act 2017 (Vic), which sets economy-wide emissions reduction targets for the state. The renewable energy targets under this Act contribute to achieving those emissions goals, but there is no formal linkage or cross-referencing in the text. The reporting obligations under each Act are separate. The Act also interacts with the National Electricity Law and the National Electricity Rules, which govern the wholesale electricity market and transmission network. The targets imply that the grid must be capable of accommodating up to 95 percent renewable generation by 2035, and the energy storage targets provide a tool for firming supply. The capacity determinations under s 9 may inform transmission planning by the Australian Energy Market Operator, but they have no binding effect under the National Electricity Rules. The Act’s objects (s 5) include contributing to the security of electricity supply, which aligns with the National Electricity Objective. The Planning and Environment Act 1987 (Vic) governs land use for renewable energy projects such as wind farms and solar farms. While the Renewable Energy Act does not override planning laws, its objects may be taken into account in planning decisions. The Act does not create any fast-track or exemption from planning processes. The Environment Protection Act 2017 (Vic) applies to emissions and waste from energy facilities; no interaction is specified. The Act does not interact with the Commonwealth Renewable Energy Target (RET) scheme, which is a separate mechanism that imposes obligations on liable entities to purchase renewable energy certificates. Victoria’s targets are additional and may be achieved through state-specific schemes such as VRET auctions, which rely on voluntary contracts rather than certificate obligations. The Act’s regulation-making power (s 10) is broad but has not been used to create any substantive regulations as of the version date. Any future regulations could affect interactions with other laws. The Act binds the Crown (s 6), which may extend to Commonwealth activities in Victoria if within state legislative competence, but this provision is unlikely to have practical effect given that the Act imposes no duties on the Crown.

The Act was originally passed as No. 56 of 2017, assented to on 8 November 2017 and commencing on 15 December 2017. The original Act established only two renewable energy targets (25 percent by 2020 and 40 percent by 2025), definitions that did not include hydro, no storage or offshore wind targets, and capacity determinations only for the 2020 and 2025 targets. The first amendment was the Renewable Energy (Jobs and Investment) Amendment Act 2019, No. 42 of 2019, which commenced on 13 August 2020. This amendment inserted hydro into the definition of “renewable energy source” (s 2A), amended the 2025 target wording, and inserted a new 2030 target of 65 percent (s 7(c)). It also added a capacity determination for the 2030 target by 31 December 2025 (s 9(c)). The second and more substantial amendment was the Climate Change and Energy Legislation Amendment (Renewable Energy and Storage Targets) Act 2024, No. 9 of 2024, which commenced on 27 March 2024. This amendment inserted new purposes for energy storage and offshore wind targets (s 1(ab),(ac)), new definitions for “energy storage target”, “offshore area of Victoria”, and “offshore wind energy target” (s 3), new sections 7A (energy storage targets: 2.6 GW by 2030, 6.3 GW by 2035) and 7B (offshore wind targets: 2 GW by 2032, 4 GW by 2035, 9 GW by 2040). It also inserted a new renewable energy target for 2035 of 95 percent (s 7(d)), amended the objects to include storage and offshore wind (s 5(b),(c)), expanded the annual reporting content to cover storage and offshore wind progress and investment (s 8(1)(d)-(i)), and added a capacity determination for the 2035 target by 31 December 2030 (s 9(d)). Notably, the 2024 amendment did not add capacity determinations for the storage or offshore wind targets, leaving those targets without a corresponding planning obligation on the Minister. The pattern of amendments shows the Act being used to escalate ambition over time, adding new technology categories and longer time horizons. The 2024 amendment was passed and commenced within one day of assent, indicating urgency. The two amendments in six years suggest the Act is politically durable but also subject to significant expansion without structural reform to compliance or enforcement.

The source text does not record any litigation relating to this Act. There are no cases cited in the endnotes, and the Act itself does not reference any judicial decisions. Given that the Act imposes no duties on private parties and contains no penalties, it is unlikely to have been the subject of reported litigation. The Act may have been referred to in judicial review proceedings concerning other decisions, such as planning approvals or government scheme design, but the source text provides no evidence of this. The Act’s nature as a target-setting and reporting statute makes it less susceptible to challenge than a regulatory instrument that directly affects rights or obligations. However, the potential for judicial review exists if the Minister fails to perform a statutory duty, such as making a capacity determination by the statutory deadline. As of the publication date of this version (27 March 2024), no such challenge appears to have been recorded. The Act’s litigation history is therefore effectively nil. This is consistent with comparable framework legislation in other Australian jurisdictions that set policy goals without creating private rights or enforceable standards.

First, the targets are not legally binding. The Act states the targets in ss 7, 7A, and 7B using the language “the targets are”, but there is no provision requiring the Minister or any person to achieve them. A government that misses a target cannot be sued, and no penalty attaches. This is a critical distinction for investors: the targets are policy commitments with no legal guarantee. Second, the Minister has an unfettered discretion under s 7A(2) to declare that a facility is not an energy storage facility for the purposes of the storage targets. No criteria are specified. This could be used to exclude entire classes of storage technology, narrowing the scope of what counts toward the targets and creating regulatory risk for developers. Third, the Minister may add new renewable energy sources by gazette notice (s 4), but only “other than a prescribed source”. Regulations could prescribe sources that cannot be declared, giving the executive power to block certain technologies without parliamentary amendment. Fourth, capacity determinations are required only for renewable energy targets, not for storage or offshore wind targets (s 9). This means there is no statutory planning tool to quantify what infrastructure is needed to meet the storage and offshore wind targets, only a reporting obligation after the fact. Fifth, the definition of “large-scale facility” as over 100 kW is low; many commercial solar systems exceed that, but the objects focus on large-scale facilities while the targets themselves do not use the “large-scale” qualifier. This creates ambiguity about what generation counts toward the percentage targets. Small-scale rooftop solar is included de facto, but the reporting focuses on large-scale schemes. Sixth, the renewable energy targets measure “electricity generated in Victoria”, but the Act does not define how to treat generation exported via interconnectors or imported generation consumed in Victoria. This could affect the calculation of the percentage. Seventh, the offshore wind targets measure installed capacity, while the renewable energy targets measure actual generation output. These are different metrics, making cross-technology comparisons misleading. A gigawatt of offshore wind may generate less electricity than a gigawatt of onshore wind due to capacity factors, but both count equally toward their respective targets. Eighth, the annual report content is determined by the Minister (s 8(2)), which allows selective reporting. There is no independent audit or verification requirement. Ninth, the Act has no sunset or review clause. The targets extend to 2040 (offshore wind), and a future government could simply ignore them without legal consequence. Tenth, the Act does not appropriate funds or create a revenue source. Any schemes to achieve the targets must be funded separately, and there is no guarantee that future budgets will support them.

The Act imposes no compliance obligations on private entities. There are no licences to obtain, no returns to file, no renewable energy certificates to surrender, and no fees to pay under this Act. Therefore, the concept of “compliance” for businesses is inapplicable in the traditional regulatory sense. The only duty-bearer is the Minister, who must produce annual reports and make capacity determinations. For the Minister and the department, compliance means ensuring the annual report is prepared with the required content and tabled by 31 October each year. The report must cover progress toward the renewable energy targets, energy storage targets, and offshore wind energy targets; performance of schemes; and investment and employment data for each category (s 8(1)(a)-(i)). The department must gather data from the Australian Energy Market Operator, project developers, and other sources to compile this report. The Minister must also ensure that the capacity determinations under s 9 are made by the statutory deadlines. For the 2030 target, the deadline is 31 December 2025; for the 2035 target, the deadline is 31 December 2030. The 2020 and 2025 deadlines have already passed, and if they were missed, the duty remains technically unperformed, but no legal consequence exists. For private entities such as developers and investors, “compliance” is best understood as awareness: understand the targets because they will influence government policy, auction programs, and transmission planning. Developers of renewable energy projects should monitor the capacity determinations to gauge the likely amount of new capacity required and the timing. Storage developers should note that the Minister may declare facilities not to be energy storage facilities, so regulatory risk should be assessed. Offshore wind developers must comply with Commonwealth offshore electricity laws because Victoria’s Act does not provide a licensing pathway; the targets are separate from the regulatory approval process. Electricity retailers and large energy users should track the targets because they affect the forward price of electricity and the availability of renewable power purchase agreements. There are no compliance costs directly attributable to the Act, but if the government implements support schemes such as VRET auctions, those schemes will have their own compliance requirements for participants. The Act itself is a legislative framework with no red tape for private parties. However, the risk of future regulation under s 10 cannot be discounted: the Governor in Council could make regulations imposing reporting, licensing, or mandatory renewable purchase obligations. As of the version date, no such regulations exist.