State government red tape cruelling clean energy transition

afr.com:

It might look like Australia is pushing ahead with the transition to wind energy, but a major player in the market believes legislative red tape is slowing down the clean energy transition to a crawl.

While wind farm developers face a robust regulatory environment under federal legislation, state governments retain a significant role in the approvals process, handling the application, assessment and selection process for offshore wind energy zones.

Marla Brauer (Westwind Energy’s COO) and Tobias Geiger (Westwind Energy’s MD) in front of a nacelle for a 4.5MW wind turbine during a tour through a wind turbine assembly factory in China. 

WestWind Energy is the developer behind three wind farms in Victoria, with construction of a fourth wind farm at Golden Plains under way. But managing director Tobias Geiger says it takes longer than the public realises to get a project off the ground.

It’s increasingly difficult to get planning permits across the line in Victoria and NSW. Both states have increased requirements of what they are asking for quite dramatically, and that delays projects quite substantially.

“It’s really hard to comprehend when Victoria and NSW have very strong renewable energy targets in place. From our perspective, it feels like there’s a contest taking place to see which state can implement the toughest permits and planning processes.

At times, it feels as though the states are trying to appease the detractors. “We’re very
excited about the prospect of renewable energy, but at the same time, there are many real impediments across the industry that are a big concern to everyone involved in the
development of new projects,” Geiger says.

Of the projects in Australia that he’s across, the average time to market