The Clean Energy Council has written to Prime Minister Tony Abbott urging the government to support a reduced target of 33,500 gigawatt hours of renewable energy production per year.

The figure is a compromise on the council's previous position which was for a reduced target in the mid to high 30,000s.

But the government would also have to agree to preserve the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency and find measures to immediately kickstart an industry that has been frozen for more than 12 months.

"This proposal represents a major compromise for the clean energy sector, the government and the opposition," the council's chief executive Kane Thornton said in the letter.

"I believe it is in the national interest that both major parties support this proposal and finally resolve this issue."

If both parties agree to the proposal it will end an impasse that began with the government's Warburton review of the renewable energy target.

The government appeared as though it would not budge, saying its door was open but its position was clear.

Its most recent offer was a large scale target of 32,000 gigawatt hours and it has not shifted from this figure, which both the industry and opposition have rejected.

The government's original position last year was that the target be reduced from 41,000 gigawatt hours to a so-called "true 20 per cent" of energy production, which would be about 26,000 gigawatt hours a year.

Labor's environment spokesman Mark Butler said the opposition placed "a high value on advice from the Clean Energy Council".

"Labor would always give serious consideration to CEC positions in consultation with other key stakeholders," Mr Butler said.

"However, Labor understands that the government has reaffirmed its refusal to budge from a position of 32,000GWh which remains unacceptable to everyone."

Infigen Energy said the compromise was reasonable, would finally unlock the industry and urged both parties to support it.

"We call on both parties to show leadership in the face of the freeze in investment in modern emission free electricity generation technologies that has occurred under the impasse," managing director Miles George said.

General Electric Australia also called for bipartisan support to be restored "to unleash some $10 billion of investment for Australia, including thousands of new jobs".

But Friends of the Earth said if both parties agreed to a figure of 33,500 they would be agreeing to cut the target by nearly 20 per cent.

"Based on the Clean Energy Council's own figures, this cut will result in 3312 less jobs in Australia's renewable energy sector by 2020," renewable energy spokesman Leigh Ewbank said.

If the council's offer is accepted by both parties, it is likely to frustrate some quarters of the renewables sector, including the Australian Solar Council, which has run a national campaign demanding no reduction to the target.

Mr Thornton said on Wednesday it was disappointing the industry had to consider a significant reduction, but the deadlock could not continue.

"While this compromise represents more than a 30 per cent cut to the amount of new renewable energy required, accepting this package can quickly unlock over $10 billion of new investment, protect the 21,000 jobs in the sector and create more than 6000 new jobs around the country from large-scale renewable projects," he said.

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