Tuesday, 13 August 2024

Renewable energy infrastructure

Danny O’BRIEN (Gippsland South) (19:04): (763) My adjournment item this evening is for the Minister for Energy and Resources, and the action I seek is for the minister to withdraw the draft Victorian transmission plan consultation process that is currently underway via Engage Victoria. This process, while the aims may be laudable in trying to better plan our transition lines, has become confused and confusing for Victorians. I say this because what VicGrid is now trying to do is ‘investigate further for suitability to host potential future renewable energy zones’. It has released as part of this engagement process a map of the state showing where there are good locations for renewable energy, most particularly solar and wind, and listing them as tier 1, 2 and 3 zones, tier 1 being the most suitable, including in my case parts of South Gippsland, the beautiful rolling green hills, highly productive farmland and a burgeoning tourism industry. The suggestion that there be wind farms in those areas is just absurd and has caused a considerable amount of community angst and confusion.

This is in the context where the government announced in 2021 that it had established six renewable energy zones, including one in Gippsland, and that one in Gippsland was a very vague map on the government’s website at the time. It certainly did not include South Gippsland at the time. But the minister said at the time in a media release that this was ‘signalling to developers Victoria is ready for new solar and wind projects’. Well, what were those projects about back then, three years ago, that we now have to have a new transmission plan that looks at entirely different areas? This is of great concern to my community and I am sure many communities across the state.

If you look at western Victoria, virtually the entire part of western Victoria is a renewable energy zone. At the moment it is also confusing because in Gippsland we have offshore wind, we have CarbonNet, we have Marinus Link, we have onshore wind developments and we have proposed onshore solar farms, and the community is being consulted to death. I do not say that they should not be talking to us, but this plan is just causing confusion. It is causing unnecessary angst, and there is no point. VicGrid is meant to be planning transmission, not telling the developers where good spots are for wind and solar or any other renewable energy. That is not what the government should be doing. It should be letting developers do that work and plan the transmission lines accordingly. This is just a ridiculous piece of work that has been put out in our communities. It is causing confusion and it is causing angst in our communities, and the minister should withdraw it.