My question is "Why is Labor committing to vastly increase renewable generation when Europe, to whom we are constantly compared, is applying the brakes?"

Quoting Graham Lloyd:

"Increasingly, however, it is not funny. Particularly not for German electricity consumers whose power bills have risen to become the second highest in Europe, behind Denmark. And not for German industry, which has threatened to shift manufacturing offshore because it cannot compete with lower energy prices in the US.

The German government has since slashed subsidy support for new wind and solar projects after it was forced to face the economic reality of what had been promised. The German experience is relevant for Australia given the ALP’s pledge this week to boost Australia’s renewable energy target to 50 per cent by 2030 without any real details on how this would be achieved and the possible cost.

Also relevant is the green energy subsidy train wreck unfolding in Britain since the national election. This week, the Cameron government’s Energy and Climate Change Secretary, Amber Rudd, cut the subsidies to small-scale solar projects following earlier cuts to subsidies for onshore wind, large-scale solar and energy efficiency schemes. The newly re-elected government also has angered the renewable energy industry with the introduction of a tax on producers of green power.

But Britain and Germany are not alone.

Since the global financial crisis, renewable energy subsidies have been slashed across Europe including Spain, Italy, The Netherlands, Denmark and elsewhere. The lesson around the world is that while projections for future investment in renewables remain high, the free ride from electricity users in developed nations is coming to an end."

The European land area easily fits inside the continent of Australia with a fair bit left over, it is obvious that the greater the land area the greater the potential to produce renewable energy.

http://blog.australian-native.com.au/2009/12/03/australia-europe-comparison-map/

Europe generates at least 3 times more electrical renewable energy, than the total amount of electrical power generated in Australia. This suggest to me that for us to achieve 50% renewables by 2030 would be a walk in the park.

The cost however depends so heavily on the assumptions one chooses to make, as to make it impossible to make an estimate that will be widely agreed to be accurate, but what is certain is that the fossil fuel fired stations will fight tooth and claw to resist the rise of renewables.

WarmAir,

The problem with reaching the renewable target of 50% by 2030 is that we already have excess generation capacity, and the additional renewable generation will cost about $100bn, push the cost of electricity through the roof, and make the grid unstable.

At 30% renewable generation, Europe is already having serious problems with the costs to industry making them uncompetitive and is getting a backlash from consumers/voters. Yet Labor seems determined to repeat the same mistakes.

Europe's merely easing off the accelerator. Whereas in Australia, the government stamped hard on the brakes by sabotaging the CEFC as well as removing the price on greenhouse gas emissions.

just more hot air from Labour. Remember Bob Hawkes promise of no child being left in poverty, Rudds biggest moral issue of the century before dumping an ets and now Billy boy. It might give the gullible a rush but surely anyone who can think just a bit know its hot air. I suppose with groups like getup and the abc we have dumbed down people enough to accept anything that is said from any progressive no matter how ludricous and how many broken promises.

It is interesting indeed as Mark Kenny points
out in his article in the Sydney Morning Herald -

"the decision to go hard on climate change sets
an intriguing political contest with the Abbott
government in the next federal election which could
come as early as the last part of 2015 but which is
due in any event by Spring of 2016."

Labor's ambition is to see 50 percent of our electricity
energy mix generated by renewable energy by 2030.

"The 50 per cent renewables mandate would propel Australia
towards the top of the list of environment-conscious
economies, with Denamrk committed to the same target
but by 2020, and California aiming also at 50 per cent
renewable energy by 2030."

Kenny tells us that "Australia still lags behind
New Zealand which is aiming at 90 percent renewably by
2025, and Germany which is pitching for 55 to 60 per cent
by 2035."

Kenny explains that - "last year fossil fuels -
black coal, brown coal, gas - accounted for 86.53 per cent
of energy production while renewables - wind, solar,
hydro and others accounted for 13.47 per cent at 16,000
gigawatt hours for the year."

Bill Shorten has stated - "...We will have sensible
policies designed to reduce pollution over time
with minimal impact on households and businesses.
This will include an Emissions Trading Scheme using market
forces (and) linked to international markets."

The Abbott government is yet to announce its post 2020
emissions reduction target - that is expected in
August.

It promises to be an interesting election contest.