Failure by the Turnbull government to settle on a clean energy target risks it losing recently restored momentum in the clean energy industry and undermining the credibility of Australia's global climate commitments, the head of General Electric's renewables division says.

The US energy giant has $1.6 billion in new wind farm projects under way in Australia that will add 800 megawatts of capacity to the grid as the industry rebounds from policy uncertainty during the Abbott government.

"We've seen the market go from good to zero, to now from zero to very good," Jerome Pecresse, president and chief executive of GE Renewable Energy, said, adding he was "very positively impressed by this momentum".

But divisions within the federal Coalition have prompted the Turnbull government to postpone a decision on a clean energy target beyond 2020, as recommended by the Finkel Review into energy security by chief scientist Alan Finkel.