The promise comes as a new report shows that renewables are now firmly established as competitive, mainstream sources of energy in many countries around the world.
This morning opposition leader Bill Shorten has announced a plan to set up 10 community power hubs to close gaps in household access to small scale solar and wind power.
The hubs will offer technical and legal advice and start-up funding to help households which have found it too difficult to access technology like solar panels.
"Every Australian deserves the chance to benefit from the rise of renewable energy, wherever they live," Shorten said.
"Renewable energy is putting millions of households and tens of thousands of small businesses back in control of their power bills."
Projects under consideration will include solar gardens or shared arrays of panels renters, retrofitting of existing social housing to promote energy efficiency, community wind farms and working with social housing and aged care providers on solar rooftop installations.
Shorten’s election pitch comes as the Renewables 2016 Global Status Report reveals that 2015 was a record year for renewable energy installations.
Renewable power generating capacity saw its largest increase ever, with an estimated 147 gigawatts added.
The report, produced by policy institute REN21, found that renewables are now cost competitive with fossil fuels in many markets, in part thanks to government policies that have helped drive the growth of renewables, particularly wind and solar, in the power sector.
As of early 2016, 173 countries had renewable energy targets in place and 146 countries had support policies, and increasing numbers of cities are looking at 100% renewable targets, such as Adelaide’s plan for 2050.
Additional growth factors include better access to financing, concerns about energy security and the environment and the growing demand for modern energy services in developing and emerging economies.
“What is truly remarkable about these results is that they were achieved at a time when fossil fuel prices were at historic lows, and renewables remained at a significant disadvantage in terms of government subsidies. For every dollar spent boosting renewables, nearly four dollars were spent to maintain our dependence on fossil fuels,” REN21 executive secretary Christine Lins explained.
More than $US300 billion was spent on renewable power and fuels last year, and in the US some 99.2% of new electricity generation capacity came from renewables, primarily solar and wind.
In Australia, despite a challenging year, renewables delivered 14.6% of the nation’s electricity, enough to light up the equivalent of some 6.7 million average homes, the Clean Energy Council said.
There are now 8.1 million people working in the renewable energy sector globally.
But the report warns there are challenges to further adoption, and says there need to be more effective integration of high shares of renewables into the grid, a focus on addressing policy and political instability and regulatory barriers, and fiscal constraints.
The group also called on an increasing focus on transportation policy.
“The renewables train is barrelling down the tracks, but it’s running on 20th century infrastructure - a system based on outdated thinking where conventional baseload is generated by fossil fuels and nuclear power,” REN21 chairman Arthouros Zervos said.
“To accelerate the transition to a healthier, more-secure and climate-safe future, we need to build the equivalent of a high-speed rail network – a smarter, more flexible system that maximises the use of variable sources of renewable energy, and accommodates decentralised and community-based generation.”
