“The scheme and its requirements for gas-fired generation has been the foundation of Queensland’s mushrooming coal seam gas industry,” Wilson said.

Now in its third year, the gas scheme requires retailers and other liable parties to source 13% of the electricity they sell or use in Queensland from gas-fired generation.

“In 2000, when the scheme was announced, coal seam gas was supplying around 2 petajoules of gas a year, or around 2% of Queensland’s gas requirements,” Wilson said during a visit to Origin Energy’s Spring Gully CSM project near Roma.

“Now, in 2007, coal seam gas will supply about half, or around 60PJ, of Queensland’s gas.”

This is expected to increase to 70% by 2010, he said.

Wilson said the CSM sector was expected to receive ongoing investment of $160 million per year, with most of that earmarked for regional areas.

He added that the scheme was also expected to reduce the growth of Queensland’s greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 26 million tonnes over the 15-year life of the scheme.

“When the scheme was announced in 2000, Queensland’s gas-fired generating capacity was about 900MW,” he said.

“The commissioning in 2006 of the 450MW Braemar Power Station, west of Dalby, brought Queensland’s gas-fired power station capacity to over 2000MW and there is at least as much gas-fired generating capacity under development or under consideration in Queensland.”