We won’t be silenced into energy submission, say rural NSW identities

NSW is under pressure to deliver its transition and to do so developers say it must amend planning laws. But rural communities say their views must be heard.

The transition to renewable energy will cause significant disruption and communities must be protected, allowed to object and there must be adequate compensation if projects proceed, communities in regional NSW have demanded.

Australia’s electricity network is being rapidly reshaped as coal generators retire and developers move to build renewable energy alternatives to meet Labor’s plan to have zero-emission sources generate more than 80 per cent of the country’s power by the end of the decade.

The transition, however, is drastically uprooting local communities. In NSW concentrated areas of new zero-emission generation known as Renewable Energy Zones will be in regional areas, leaving authorities grappling with how to deliver the energy transition while simultaneously safeguarding the rights of local communities.

Renewable energy developers say the balance is skewed, and locals have too much power to veto projects, but affected residents say they will not be steamrolled into submission.

Ambrose Doolan, a farmer and mayor of the Warrumbungle Shire where two of the country’s largest zero emission developers, Tilt Renewables and ACEN, have proposed major wind farms, said communities were often divided but forcing projects through would damage the communities.

“We are doing all the heavy lifting. It is all well and good for someone in Sydney’s northern beaches to say we must get on with the transition, but the communities out here are the ones at the sharp end of things, and our voices deserve to be heard,” Mr Doolan told The Australian.

“For the landowners who host these wind farms, it can be a nice revenue stream that can droughtproof the farm, but these projects will impact everyone. These projects need water, they will have an impact on housing and other infrastructure like roads. If they have to be built, then we need adequate compensation. That is how I see my job – to extract every pound of flesh I can from these developers.”

Mr Doolan is in the emerging epicentre of Australia’s energy transition debate. Coolah – some 400km west of Sydney – is in the Central-West Orana Renewable Energy Zone – one of five that NSW is planning to establish.

Warrumbungle Shire mayor and Coonabarabran farmer Ambrose Doolan.

By concentrating large-scale wind and solar projects in five regions, NSW hopes to minimise the number of new high-voltage transmission lines it will need to build.

But planning laws are now shaping up as the biggest obstacle for the policy.

NSW is unanimously regarded as having the country’s most difficult planning laws by Australia’s energy industry, and the Central-West Orana REZ is considered most susceptible to falling foul of those laws.

But still developers are trying. Tilt – part-owned by AGL Energy – is proposing the Liverpool Range Wind Farm.

If approved, it would have 185 wind turbines measuring more than 200m high.

ACEN – owned by the Indonesian Ayala Group – is proposing 131 wind turbines, potentially even higher, at its Valley of the Winds project.

Both are in the midst of seeking planning approvals, and have drawn strong opposition.

“Our family has lived in the district since the times of earliest settlement in the 1840s,” said Annette Piper, a local jewellery maker in Coolah. “We purchased this property over 30 years ago, well before there was any thought of wind turbines, yet we are having this wind farm thrust upon us – changing our lives forever.”

Ms Piper’s views will be problematic for ACEN. Her property is 3.8km away from a proposed cluster of turbines, which under NSW law means her opposition will be considered when authorities access the project.

But developers privately claim the likes of Ms Piper have too much clout. NSW has some of the most liberal planning laws in the country. Unlike in Victoria – where residents more than 1.5km away have no say over renewable energy projects – NSW considers the views of people up to 8km away.

Developers insist NSW runs the risk of missing its transition goals without following the lead of Victoria, which this week moved to propel zero emission projects into reality.

“NSW is in a world of its own when it comes to planning. Getting wind projects in some parts of the state where there are lots of people like the Central West is going to be very, very difficult,” said one senior executive who declined to be named as he is not authorised to talk to the media.

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan on Thursday said that from April 1, a requirement for applications to go before a planning panel would be removed, and third-party ­appeals to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Appeals Tribunal would be blocked, as the state moves to ­urgently meet its net-zero ­targets.

The announcement was seen as an acknowledgment that Victoria is struggling to meet its transition goals – some of Australia’s most aggressive – and pressure is growing.

Victoria can ill-afford ­delays in developing renewable energy, with its two largest coal generators – Yallourn and Loy Yang A – set to retire in little more than 10 years.

Yallourn, which supplies about 22 per cent of Victoria’s electricity, is to close in 2028.