Public ownership of power assets key to smooth shift to renewables, Queensland energy minister says

Queensland households will receive rebates of $175 at a cost of $385m ‘that would otherwise have gone to overseas shareholders’, energy minister Mick de Brenni says. Photograph: Russell Freeman/AAP

Retaining control of its electricity assets has given Queensland an edge over other regions in coordinating and funding the race to decarbonise the economy, the state’s energy minister, Mick de Brenni, says.

Queensland last month unveiled a $62bn plan to rid its power grid of coal by 2036, replacing the generation with 25GW of large-scale wind and solar farms, new transmission lines and two giant pumped hydro plants for storage.