Shelved windfarms 'commercial decisions' - Breaking News - National - Breaking News

The shelving of two windfarm projects was a commercial decision and could not be blamed on federal government spending policies, Environment Minister Ian Campbell said on Friday.

The Roaring 40s company has stopped work on its Heemskirk windfarm in Tasmania and wound back work on the South Australian Waterloo farm. The company said it was now also unlikely to build another farm in the north-east of Tasmania.

The company blamed the federal government's decision to not increase its mandatory renewable energy target (MRET).

The MRET permits government assistance to renewable energy projects in order to achieve a set target which in turn reduces greenhouse gas emissions.

The current renewable energy target is two per cent, which has been reached.

Senator Campbell said the decisions to shelve windfarm projects were purely to do with the industry and had nothing to do with this year's budget.

"They (developers) know what the target is and they have known for a long time," he told AAP.

"The decision that has been made by these developers is a commercial decision for them."

Senator Campbell said the government had set a renewable energy target within a world-leading policy and investors knew where they stood.

"That target has seen the number of turbines in Australia go from 20 under the previous Labor government to 600 - as a result of that policy and a number of other policies," he said.

"We made a decision two years ago after a very thorough review done by former senator Grant Tambling that the (MRET) was an appropriate policy, that it was achieving its objectives and that the target should not be changed.

"It was a target for 2010. We're not at 2010 now but we're ahead of the game in terms of achieving the target.

"We decided at that stage to invest close to another billion dollars in support for the renewable and low-emissions technologies, and that's what we're doing."

Senator Campbell said he was incredulous to hear media accusations that renewable energy had missed out in the budget.

"We are investing hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars into renewable energies, over and above the massive boost we gave to the renewable sector through the target program," he said.