Premier claims WA a ‘renewable energy powerhouse' but leaked document shows wind and solar projects have ‘stalled'

The Guardian

02-03-2025

Officials have warned the Western Australian Labor government that work to build wind and solar farms for the state's main electricity grid has stalled under its leadership, a leaked document shows.
A confidential state government document reveals state bureaucrats advised the government that the 'decarbonisation work program' in Perth's electricity grid had 'stalled to date'. It said there were 'few new wind developments' advanced enough to be added to the grid before the promised closure of a coal power station in 2027.
The advice, seen by Guardian Australia, was written late last year, before a state election campaign that will be decided on Saturday.
It reinforces independent data suggesting the amount of electricity from large-scale wind and solar developments has effectively flatlined at about 18% of total generation in the grid, known as the South West Interconnected System, or Swis, since 2021.
WA organisation Sustainable Energy Now found no major wind or solar developments were added to the grid in the first three years of the last term of parliament, between 2021 and 2023.
One wind project, the 76 megawatt Flat Rocks farm at Kojonup, was connected last year and a solar farm, the 128MW Cunderdin plant, came online in January. The organisation said only two further windfarms had been confirmed by 2028.
The clean energy slowdown does not apply to electricity from rooftop solar panels, which last year provided 19.8% of Perth's electricity – for the first time more than the total from solar and windfarms – or utility-scale batteries. Several large batteries are in development and the government has promised a rebate scheme for household batteries if re-elected.
The premier, Roger Cook, last week told Guardian Australia that Labor wanted WA to be a 'renewable energy powerhouse, utilising the extraordinary solar and wind assets that we have', and that zero-emissions generation in the grid had more than doubled since it came to power 2017.
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But the Liberal energy spokesman, Steve Thomas, said it was 'the worst-kept secret in energy discussions in Western Australia' that the government was 'years behind any sort of schedule that would keep the lights on while an energy transition plan was in place'.
'They will not be able to shut the coal-fired stations on the timeframe they have predicted,' he said.
Greens MP Brad Pettitt said there were no large renewable energy developments currently under construction in the state's main power grid.
He accused the government of 'putting its foot on the hose' in developing major renewable energy projects despite promising to close the state's coal-fired power plants by the end of the decade. 'This should be a point in time when we are seeing renewable projects expanding thick and fast,' Pettitt said.
Pettitt said WA Labor had been more focused on supporting new and expanded fossil fuel developments – particularly a 50-year life extension for Woodside's North-West Shelf gas exporting facility and new gas basins to feed it – than on ensuring a rapid expansion of renewable energy in the south.
Part of the delay in connecting new large-scale renewable energy has been blamed on a lack of new transmission links to join them to the grid.
The confidential document shows officials backed a government proposal to release $500m funding to develop the Clean Energy Link north of Perth, which they say will need to be finished by December 2027. It shows the estimated cost of that link had increased by more than 50% from $655m to $1bn.
The document stated the state-owned energy generator Synergy was operating in a 'challenging financial position' and required new subsidies. The government has committed $3.7bn for new state-owned windfarms and battery storage but 89% – about $3.25bn – had been allocated and there more than 900 megawatts of wind and storage capacity was yet to be funded.
In a statement, the Labor energy, environment and climate action minister, Reece Whitby, said the Cook government was 'already delivering on its clean energy plan', with the total share of renewable energy increasing from 14% to 38% since 2017.
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He said there were 'scores of major wind projects under development', listing four: the second stage of the Warradarge windfarm, Synergy's King Rocks farm, the Atmos Renewables Parron farm and Neoen's Narrogin Farm.
'This is part of our comprehensive plan, under way since 2022, to use wind, rooftop solar, utility scale solar and big batteries, backed by gas when required, to remove coal from the system,' Whitby said in a statement.
Whitby accused the Greens of 'talking down WA's achievements in decarbonisation' and said the Liberals were 'environmental vandals' that 'oppose renewable energy projects at every turn', wanted to extend the life of coal plants and build a nuclear reactor.
Pettitt said modelling by the grassroots group Sustainable Energy Now had found the cheapest Perth grid of the future would get 87% of its electricity from renewable energy. He said getting there would require a 'huge amount of extra wind' – 4,800MW – but the state government was aiming to build only 810MW.
The chair of Sustainable Energy Now, Fraser Maywood, said there were several major proposals 'in the pipeline' but investors were not making financial decisions as it was difficult and expensive to get connected to the grid.
'It is dire. There is little sign of life in that pipeline,' he said.
Maywood said 1.2 gigawatts of large renewables had been added to the grid over 20 years and government forecasts suggested another 50GW would be needed in the next two decades to replace retiring plants and meet rising electricity demand.
He said if the lack of construction was not addressed, it would lead to a greater reliance on gas, which currently provides about 30% of electricity, and higher greenhouse gas emissions.
The Liberal party has proposed extending fossil fuel generation by building a 300MW gas-fired power plant and keeping coal plants open for longer than Labor.
Thomas said he expected Labor would announce it would extend the life of generators, including the Collie power station that is scheduled to shut in 2027, if it won re-election. He said all parties agreed it was inevitable the state would get out of coal but the Liberals believed it would be needed until about 2036.
Labor won 53 of 59 lower house seats at the last WA election in 2021 and is an overwhelming favourite to win another term.