Bulldozing the renewable energy transition on land

For most people, Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen’s ambition to supercharge the renewable energy rollout with thousands of kilometres of high-voltage transmission lines is an abstract concept. But not for the farmers and property owners on whose land the transmission lines will be built to get the power to market. And not for future electricity users who will have to pay the bills. But with billions of dollars at stake for companies, and the federal government under pressure to deliver on its ambitious legislated decarbonisation target, it is more than egos that are getting trampled.

As chief writer Christine Middap reports on Saturday, NSW farmer James Petersen was investigated by police for criminal trespass on his own property. His lawyer, Lochie Gittoes, says it is part of a pattern of intimidation by companies building the infrastructure as temperatures rise on the land over access and amenity.

It is a familiar pattern for anyone who has studied the emergence of renewable energy projects. Former wind farm commissioner Andrew Dyer said transmission lines were a particular bone of contention among landowners. Middap explores the two conflicting issues at the heart of the transmission rollout: companies on tight deadlines to construct critical energy infrastructure at the lowest cost require land that quite often runs through agricultural areas, native habitat or near family homes.

For some landholders it’s no big deal: access payments and compensation help droughtproof their properties and the impacts of a few towers built out of sight on back paddocks are negligible. Others planning their own wind or solar farms need the transmission infrastructure. Farmers with livestock, difficult terrain and more complex practices face greater impacts on their businesses. Inevitably, as with many major public infrastructure works, the end result will be compulsory acquisition.

Landholders are being forced to negotiate terms on what is essentially already considered to be a done deal. The scale of the renewable energy build means there is a lot of community pain still to come. Landholder revolts are likely to be only the first instalment of unintended consequences for government. High-voltage power lines running through state forest and other timbered land are considered to be a high fire risk. As regulated assets, the full cost of what is built will be passed on to energy users in perpetuity. The rush to renewable energy is tipping the scales in favour of development. The risk is the process is sidestepping rigorous cost-benefit analysis that is supposed to accompany decisions on whether the projects should proceed.

Clearly, there is a political dimension to the infrastructure rollout. Mr Bowen is desperate to get the transmission lines built to meet ambitious carbon abatement targets set by the Albanese government. Peter Dutton is calling for a new approach that makes greater use of existing infrastructure, including transmission lines, at sites where coal-fired power generation will be retired. The federal Opposition Leader says such an approach could remove the need for so many grid interconnections. This may or may not be true. On the land, as Middap reports, things are a mess. Farmers have every right to feel put upon to satisfy the unrealistic demands of city dwellers divorced from the reality of where the electricity they demand actually comes from. Taxpayers also should be alarmed that if the rollout of transmission lines is mishandled they will be paying a lot more for the great green ambition than they otherwise have been led to believe.