Energy transmission rollout 1200km behind schedule
Australia’s national transmission infrastructure rollout is more than 1200 kilometres behind its fast-paced transition target, and is equally unlikely to meet 2030 targets for a slower-paced rollout.
As a growing fleet of energy experts flag their concerns about meeting 2030 climate targets, the country’s peak infrastructure body is urging the federal government to prioritise skilled migration, a streamlined planning process and better community consultation to ensure a transmission rollout returns to course.
Queensland is accelerating its push into renewable energy, but must develop transmission lines to meet its target. Robert Rough
Analysis of the infrastructure pipeline building the poles and wires to connect new renewable energy projects to the National Energy Market reveals that by 2030, work will have been completed on less than 3000 of the total 10,000 kilometres of new wiring needed.
The analysis, completed by Infrastructure Partnerships Australia, also found the number of workers required to complete the transmission rollout will peak in 2027 at more than 220 per cent of the current workforce size.
Failure to address labour challenges, planning issues and hurdles to secure community approval will force governments to rely on coal-fired power stations for longer, the analysis said, while putting net zero goals at risk by slowing the development of new power sources and storage.
“It’s concerning,” Infrastructure Partnerships Australia chief executive Adrian Dwyer told The Australian Financial Review.
“We want to hit those macro targets and we want to switch off the inferior option – coal-fired power – but you can’t switch off before you’ve actually delivered the superior options.
“And that means if we don’t do
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