A manager of a 64-turbine wind farm to be built near Yendon has urged the state government to bring back its Renewable Energy Target (RET) to ensure future investment and jobs for regional Victoria.
WestWind’s manager of project delivery and development, Steve Crowe, said that while WestWind was fortunate its project was past the application stage, the state restrictions on wind farms were “extreme”.
WestWind’s planned wind farm near Lal Lal was approved by then-planning minister Justin Madden in 2010. The company has until April 2017 to build the turbines.
Mr Crowe’s comments come as the Abbott government considers scaling down Australia’s RET, following a submission from the Napthine government.
The submission argues the RET – ensuring at least 20 per cent of Australia’s electricity is derived from clean sources – should be scaled back and suggests that gas-fired power and power generated using waste wood from native forest logging be counted as a “clean source”.
“If the federal government scales down the RET, it will halt investment in regional Victoria,” Mr Crowe said. “A state RET could attempt to counter this.”
The WestWind project is expected to generate electricity for 44,000 Victorian homes and create 45 jobs once construction is complete.
Meanwhile, an Environment Victoria report claims the state government has made it almost impossible to get approval for wind farms.
Environment Victoria chief executive Mark Wakeham accused the government of being “joined at the hip” with coal companies, risking billions of dollars of investment.
“Most of Victoria’s policy agenda for a cleaner and more efficient energy mix has been deliberately dismantled over the past four years,” he said.
Victorian Wind Alliance state co-ordinator Andrew Bray said it was easier to build a coal mine than a wind farm.
“In the 21st century, that’s the wrong way around,” Mr Bray said. “It’s become so difficult to build a wind project that many companies give up in the planning phase. Since 2011, just two permits have been approved for a total of nine turbines.”
In a joint statement, Environment Minister Ryan Smith and Energy Minister Russell Northe accused Environment Victoria of a “complete disregard” for cost-of-living issues.
“Environment Victoria is clinging on to the outdated view that state governments must lead on emission reductions measures, when it was federal Labor that said states should take the lead on climate adaptation and not mitigation,” the ministers said.
They said renewable energy already made up 12 per cent of Victoria’s energy use.
– with The Age
