* ANALYSIS: Last-minute move chips away at renewable energy industry's future

Major renewable energy companies have angrily hit out at the Abbott government for its vow to maintain regular reviews of Australia's clean energy target, describing the decision as a broken promise that will hurt industry.

The wind and solar industries were blindsided on Friday when Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane declared two-yearly reviews of the renewable energy target would be kept, despite previous public pronouncements they would go.

Keeping regular reviews threatens to scupper a compromise deal on the target that the Abbott government has hammered out with Labor over 14 months. On Friday the two parties agreed to reduce how much renewable energy the target will support by 2020 from 41,000 to 33,000 gigawatt-hours.

The industry dislikes regular reviews because the prospect of further changes to the target undermines its ability to attract investment for new wind and solar farms.