AGL Energy, the Australian utility building the southern hemisphere's largest wind farm, said it would probably hold back $US2 billion of additional projects until prices for renewable energy credits increased.
"Add to that the fact we don't have a price on carbon and no price signal to proceed with new wind farms," managing director Michael Fraser said yesterday after the company reported a 3.7 per cent drop in underlying first-half profit.
While the country has yet to impose a cost on carbon emissions, power retailers have to buy renewable energy certificates from clean generators under the government's plan for 20 per cent of electricity to come from alternatives to coal and petroleum by 2020.
AGL estimates it will spend as much as $A6 billion in the next decade on energy projects if a price is imposed on carbon emissions.
