$480m turbine boost
A WIND farm west of Geelong is among six green projects backed in the State Government’s first renewable energy auction.
The suite of wind and solar energy projects will generate $1.1 billion of investment and be capable of producing enough electricity to power almost 650,000 households.
The second largest wind farm will be built at Berrybank, about 80km west of Geelong.
The 79-turbine development, which received modified planning approval last February, will produce 180MW of energy.
It is expected to cost about $480 million to build and support 150 full-time equivalent jobs during construction and about 14 permanent jobs once it is operational.
Premier Daniel Andrews said the auction smashed the initial target and would deliver 928MW of renewable energy through projects from Mortlake to Benalla and Mildura.
“It’s simple — greater supply of renewable energy means lower power prices and more jobs for Victorian families,” he said.
“We’re making Victoria the capital of renewable energy.”
Liberal Member for Polwarth, Richard Riordan, said taxpayers’ money was being used to subsidise foreign investment, such as Spanish company Union Fenosa’s Berrybank wind farm.
“Local communities support renewable projects, but find the lack of planning and co-ordination hard to live with, and have deep concerns about the long term consequences on the Western Victorian landscape,” he said.
The initiative has been welcomed by Environment Victoria and Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Chamber chief executive Mark Stone said the investment would cut energy bills and grow jobs in the sector, while reducing emissions.
“In the absence of a national energy policy, it’s good to see Victoria getting on with the job,” Mr Stone said.
However the chamber believes more needs to be done to keep electricity and gas bills down, and has called for the moratorium on conventional gas exploration to be lifted.
Environment Victoria labelled the auction result a major step in the state’s transition to a zero-carbon economy.
“This is the largest clean energy auction result we’ve seen to date in Australia,” CEO Mark Wakeham said.
“We’re particularly pleased that the Andrews Government has decided to grasp the opportunity to build more energy than originally planned.
“Victoria has the most polluting power supply in the country so we need to be taking the largest steps to bring on renewables as quickly as possible.
“The next step will be to set a schedule for future auctions so we have a constant pipeline of new clean energy projects and jobs.”
Outgoing Liberal Member for Western Victoria, Simon Ramsay, last week called for all wind farm permits in the state’s southwest to be put on hold “to enable a comprehensive review of the impacts of wind farms in this region to date”.