A SCHEME which was supposed to boost large-scale renewable energy projects has been swamped by household heating appliances.
There are concerns that favourable treatment for heat pumps, solar panels and solar hot water heaters has led to them hogging the scheme, leaving big projects like wind farms out in the cold.
Bureaucrats have told a Senate budget estimates' hearing that more than half of the scheme's credits were taken up by solar panels, solar hot water heaters and heat pumps last year.
They said it was hoped the small-scale appliances would only take up ten per cent of the credits by 2020, while geothermal energy was expected to take up one quarter of the scheme's credits. Solar thermal power was not likely to be boosted by the scheme, they noted.
Martin Parkinson, secretary of the Department of Climate Change, was optimistic that the problem with the RET would fix itself.
The dominance of domestic appliances has led to a low price for RET credits.
"What we've got is a temporary dip in price that won't be sustained," Dr Parkinson told the hearing.
He said there was an "information gap" in parts of the market whereby some people were not fully aware of how much the RET would ramp up towards 2020.
Greens Senator Christine Milne raised concerns that wind farms were not being built because the RET was not working properly.
The RET is separate to the Government's proposed emissions trading scheme.
