Latest news with #Windlab
The Advertiser
26-05-2025
- Business
- The Advertiser
Winds of change: govt urged to seize energy mandate
Large solar and wind power projects should be approved faster and nuclear options taken off the table following Labor's comprehensive federal election win, energy experts have told a conference. But international investors could still face substantial hurdles to putting up money for renewable projects in Australia, they warned, and the rush to install discounted household batteries was likely to prove challenging. Experts, including Climate Change Authority chair Matt Kean and Windlab chief executive John Martin, made the comments at The Energy's policy panel on Monday. They all urged the incoming Labor government to use the election result as a signal to accelerate the renewable energy transition. The stark contrast between policies from the major parties represented a "fork in the road" for the nation's future, Mr Kean said. "The government has a mandate to get on with this energy transition," he said. The coalition had committed to developing seven nuclear power plants if elected, while Labor planned to expand renewable projects and launched a $2.3 billion policy to cut the price of household solar batteries. Mr Kean, a former Liberal NSW energy minister, said opposition parties should listen to voters and remove nuclear energy from their plans. "It was clear that nuclear was always too slow, too costly and too emissions-heavy," he said. Speeding up the delivery of renewable energy projects should take precedence for the Labor government in its second term, Mr Martin told participants, with urgent action to "unplug the pipeline" of proposed projects. No wind developments were approved in 2023, he said, and while the process had sped up in subsequent years, it needed to be more efficient to meet Australia's 2050 net-zero target. "We really need to be approving gigawatts a year and that's the target the government should be setting itself on all approvals," Mr Martin said. Most Australian consumers would also embrace renewable energy, consultant Gabrielle Kuiper said, although she warned that the industry would need to "scale up" to meet the demand for discounted household batteries. "It will be inevitable that there will be a battery rush," she said. "What is important is that there are a number of complementary measures that are taken to support this rebate." Additional policies could address the adoption of electric vehicles, their use as batteries to power households and the grid, and greater investments in public and active transport, she said. Large solar and wind power projects should be approved faster and nuclear options taken off the table following Labor's comprehensive federal election win, energy experts have told a conference. But international investors could still face substantial hurdles to putting up money for renewable projects in Australia, they warned, and the rush to install discounted household batteries was likely to prove challenging. Experts, including Climate Change Authority chair Matt Kean and Windlab chief executive John Martin, made the comments at The Energy's policy panel on Monday. They all urged the incoming Labor government to use the election result as a signal to accelerate the renewable energy transition. The stark contrast between policies from the major parties represented a "fork in the road" for the nation's future, Mr Kean said. "The government has a mandate to get on with this energy transition," he said. The coalition had committed to developing seven nuclear power plants if elected, while Labor planned to expand renewable projects and launched a $2.3 billion policy to cut the price of household solar batteries. Mr Kean, a former Liberal NSW energy minister, said opposition parties should listen to voters and remove nuclear energy from their plans. "It was clear that nuclear was always too slow, too costly and too emissions-heavy," he said. Speeding up the delivery of renewable energy projects should take precedence for the Labor government in its second term, Mr Martin told participants, with urgent action to "unplug the pipeline" of proposed projects. No wind developments were approved in 2023, he said, and while the process had sped up in subsequent years, it needed to be more efficient to meet Australia's 2050 net-zero target. "We really need to be approving gigawatts a year and that's the target the government should be setting itself on all approvals," Mr Martin said. Most Australian consumers would also embrace renewable energy, consultant Gabrielle Kuiper said, although she warned that the industry would need to "scale up" to meet the demand for discounted household batteries. "It will be inevitable that there will be a battery rush," she said. "What is important is that there are a number of complementary measures that are taken to support this rebate." Additional policies could address the adoption of electric vehicles, their use as batteries to power households and the grid, and greater investments in public and active transport, she said. Large solar and wind power projects should be approved faster and nuclear options taken off the table following Labor's comprehensive federal election win, energy experts have told a conference. But international investors could still face substantial hurdles to putting up money for renewable projects in Australia, they warned, and the rush to install discounted household batteries was likely to prove challenging. Experts, including Climate Change Authority chair Matt Kean and Windlab chief executive John Martin, made the comments at The Energy's policy panel on Monday. They all urged the incoming Labor government to use the election result as a signal to accelerate the renewable energy transition. The stark contrast between policies from the major parties represented a "fork in the road" for the nation's future, Mr Kean said. "The government has a mandate to get on with this energy transition," he said. The coalition had committed to developing seven nuclear power plants if elected, while Labor planned to expand renewable projects and launched a $2.3 billion policy to cut the price of household solar batteries. Mr Kean, a former Liberal NSW energy minister, said opposition parties should listen to voters and remove nuclear energy from their plans. "It was clear that nuclear was always too slow, too costly and too emissions-heavy," he said. Speeding up the delivery of renewable energy projects should take precedence for the Labor government in its second term, Mr Martin told participants, with urgent action to "unplug the pipeline" of proposed projects. No wind developments were approved in 2023, he said, and while the process had sped up in subsequent years, it needed to be more efficient to meet Australia's 2050 net-zero target. "We really need to be approving gigawatts a year and that's the target the government should be setting itself on all approvals," Mr Martin said. Most Australian consumers would also embrace renewable energy, consultant Gabrielle Kuiper said, although she warned that the industry would need to "scale up" to meet the demand for discounted household batteries. "It will be inevitable that there will be a battery rush," she said. "What is important is that there are a number of complementary measures that are taken to support this rebate." Additional policies could address the adoption of electric vehicles, their use as batteries to power households and the grid, and greater investments in public and active transport, she said. Large solar and wind power projects should be approved faster and nuclear options taken off the table following Labor's comprehensive federal election win, energy experts have told a conference. But international investors could still face substantial hurdles to putting up money for renewable projects in Australia, they warned, and the rush to install discounted household batteries was likely to prove challenging. Experts, including Climate Change Authority chair Matt Kean and Windlab chief executive John Martin, made the comments at The Energy's policy panel on Monday. They all urged the incoming Labor government to use the election result as a signal to accelerate the renewable energy transition. The stark contrast between policies from the major parties represented a "fork in the road" for the nation's future, Mr Kean said. "The government has a mandate to get on with this energy transition," he said. The coalition had committed to developing seven nuclear power plants if elected, while Labor planned to expand renewable projects and launched a $2.3 billion policy to cut the price of household solar batteries. Mr Kean, a former Liberal NSW energy minister, said opposition parties should listen to voters and remove nuclear energy from their plans. "It was clear that nuclear was always too slow, too costly and too emissions-heavy," he said. Speeding up the delivery of renewable energy projects should take precedence for the Labor government in its second term, Mr Martin told participants, with urgent action to "unplug the pipeline" of proposed projects. No wind developments were approved in 2023, he said, and while the process had sped up in subsequent years, it needed to be more efficient to meet Australia's 2050 net-zero target. "We really need to be approving gigawatts a year and that's the target the government should be setting itself on all approvals," Mr Martin said. Most Australian consumers would also embrace renewable energy, consultant Gabrielle Kuiper said, although she warned that the industry would need to "scale up" to meet the demand for discounted household batteries. "It will be inevitable that there will be a battery rush," she said. "What is important is that there are a number of complementary measures that are taken to support this rebate." Additional policies could address the adoption of electric vehicles, their use as batteries to power households and the grid, and greater investments in public and active transport, she said.
ABC News
13-05-2025
- Business
- ABC News
Wind farm neighbour payments offered to ease community tension
Wind farm developers are offering multi-million-dollar payments to neighbours of their projects in a bid to ease tensions over who benefits. The gap between those who make money from hosting the turbines and those who do not has divided communities and fuelled opposition. But as Australia's 2030 renewable energy targets inspire a wave of controversial regional projects, companies like Andrew "Twiggy" Forrest's Windlab are for the first time exploring directly paying those who live nearby, but do not host, turbines. Advocates say it will reduce the divide between the "haves and have-nots," but others say there is "a long way to go" to address the challenge of coexistence properly. About 450 kilometres north-west of Brisbane, the small town of Wandoan is watching closely as the proposed 1.4-gigawatt Bungaban Wind Farm on its outskirts awaits federal government approval. Windlab, which is majority-owned by Nicola and Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest's Squadron Energy, estimates the $3.9 billion project could power the equivalent of 860,000 homes. The company is offering neighbours an initial $10,000-$40,000 upon signing, $30,000-$150,000 at construction start, and annual payments of $10,000-$75,000 for up to 35 years, based on proximity to the planned 204 turbines. By comparison, the Clean Energy Council (CEC), which advocates for renewable energy, estimates the average landholder hosting turbines can earn about $40,000 per turbine annually. Windlab's senior community manager Elliot Willemsen-Bell said the payments would not restrict the recipients' right to voice concerns or oppose the project. "[We only ask] if landholders have a concern … they give us a reasonable chance to fix the problem before they escalate it, whether it be through formal complaints or other means," he said. It is a first for the company, but Mr Willemsen-Bell did not say if the model would expand to other sites. "It's got to be specific to the area and specific to that community and those landholders," he said. Queensland Renewable Energy Council chief executive Katie-Anne Mulder said the approach was particularly important in higher-density population areas. About 150km west of Wandoan, the Maranoa region's very first large-scale renewables project is also exploring neighbour payments while it awaits federal approval. WestWind Energy is offering neighbours of its Bottle Tree Energy Park near Roma between $1,000 and $5,000 per year, with no non-disclosure agreements or restrictions on objections. The company's head of development Shane Quinnell said the benefits needed to be shared more broadly. "It's a reality that if we're going to develop and build wind farms, we need to acknowledge there is this visual impact on the landscape and that people do feel differently," he said. Payments to non-hosts have evolved since the nation's first wind farm was built in Salmon Beach, Western Australia, in 1987. By 2001, projects such as Codrington Wind Farm in Victoria were offering "community benefit funds," a pool of money available for not-for-profit groups to support events and facilities. Among the first to propose direct payments to neighbours was TrustPower Australia, which in 2013 offered $2,000 per year to properties within 2km of the Palmer Wind Farm in South Australia though the payments were conditional. "If they're happy to support the wind farm or not object to it and not to do things on their land to interfere then we're happy to pay them," chief executive Rodney Ahern said at the time. After decades of revisions, the project was approved in February 2025. The CEC and lobby group Farmers for Climate Action estimate that over the next 25 years, large-scale wind and solar projects will pay landholders between $7.7 billion and $9.7 billion, compared to contributions to regional communities and councils of about $1.9 billion. According to the Australian Energy Infrastructure Commissioner, which handles complaints about the industry, communities are pushing for a bigger share — one that recognises the impact on amenity, community engagement, natural environment, noise and economic loss they experience. CEC spokesperson Chris O'Keefe said most companies had adopted voluntary standards for community engagement and compensation. "The more they do that, the more success we'll have with this transition," he said. While the standards are voluntary across most local and state governments, Queensland has moved to make them more binding, but stopped short of mandating neighbour payments. Introduced in May, the legislation requires major renewable programs to enter into binding community benefit agreements, which can include neighbour payments, with councils before they can lodge a development application. It does not set out how much those payments should be. Queensland farmer lobby group AgForce welcomed the legislation, but chief executive Michael Guerin said more needed to be done to address concerns around noise, setback distances and compensation for neighbours. "There's a long way to go [and] further reform is required that recognises that coexistence has impacts on all of community."
