Brolgas won’t stop Victoria’s energy transition: Andrews
Daniel Andrews says he is confident Victoria can meet its ambitious renewable energy targets despite warnings that strict environmental rules set for a $1 billion wind farm project in the state’s south-west threaten to hinder the energy transition.
The Victorian premier on Tuesday said it was crucial to “strike the right balance” between developing renewable projects to power the energy transition and protecting the environment and making sure local communities enjoyed a sense of ownership and support.
Daniel Andrews says he is confident Victoria will meet its renewable energy targets. Justin McManus
Victoria is aiming for 65 per cent renewables use by 2030 and 95 per cent by 2035 under updated targets announced last October.
Mr Andrews said the state was now a “boom town” for renewables, compared to being a “ghost town” under the former Liberal government, which effectively banned the development of new wind farms.
But unprecedented rules first revealed by The Australian Financial Review that Victorian planning minister Sonya Kilkenny imposed on the controversial 400-megawatt Willatook wind farm north of Port Fairy have shocked the renewable energy sector, already struggling with cost inflation, social licence problems and slow approvals and connections for projects.
The conditions intended to protect the brolga – an indigenous crane famed for its dancing rituals that is threatened in Victoria – and the 55-milimetre-long, cave-dwelling southern bent-wing bat include wider buffer zones around wind turbines that effectively cut by almost two-thirds the number of turbines that could be installed at the site.
They also impose a five-month ban on construction work at the site every year, which Ben Purcell, managing director
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