Cunningham: Save the outrage for the amount of money wasted on NT’s failed solar farms

There’s a healthy dose of hypocrisy in the calls for greater transparency around the NT Government’s agreements with Tamboran Resources and Empire Energy to supply gas from the Beetaloo Basin for our domestic energy supply, writes Matt Cunningham.

The Batchelor Solar Farm. Picture Katrina Bridgeford.

There’s a healthy dose of hypocrisy in the calls for greater transparency around the NT Government’s agreements with Tamboran Resources and Empire Energy to supply gas from the Beetaloo Basin for our domestic energy supply.

This column has long advocated for greater transparency in government and there’s a good argument taxpayers should know how much of their money is being used to buy this gas.

But why have those now calling so loudly for transparency around the cost of the gas that will keep our lights on, had nothing to say about the outrageous expense of the solar debacle that has almost turned the lights out?

Here’s a quick history lesson for those who haven’t been following.

When it came to power in 2016, the NT Labor Government promised to deliver 50 per cent of our domestic electricity from renewables by 2030.

This was something the previous Giles CLP Government, and in particular its cost-conscious treasurer Dave Tollner had baulked at, primarily because of the cost.

Some estimates had put the bill at $1.5 billion with no guarantee there wouldn’t be impact to reliability.

Labor’s new commitment to renewables saw three new solar farms built at Katherine, Manton Dam and Batchelor.

They were purchased by Italian company ENI, the same outfit supplying gas to the Top End’s electricity system from the offshore Blacktip field.

The Batchelor solar farm project. Picture: Che Chorley

When it bought the farms in 2019, ENI was full of optimism.

“The installation of innovative cloud coverage predicting technology will ensure optimum operational performance in all weather conditions,” the company said.

“This technology will forecast possible variations in solar irradiation so as to minimise the impact to the grid. State-owned Jacana Energy will purchase 100 per cent of the new plants’ output, which will supply clean energy to over 5,000 homes each year.”

That’s right, the NT Government-owned Jacana Energy signed a power-purchasing agreement to buy the energy from these solar farms before they’d even been built (or proven to work). How much was this deal worth? We don’t know, of course, because just like the Government’s deals with Tamboran Resources and Empire Energy, it’s “commercial in confidence”.

To borrow a quote from Frack Free NT: “These excuses and secret deals are not good enough, and don’t pass the pub test.”

The other, more important, test the solar deal didn’t pass was the reliability one.

After committing to its courageous renewable energy target in 2016, the NT Government and its Government-owned Power and Water Corporation soon realised dumping a whole heap of intermittent power into an ageing grid was a sure recipe for disaster.

So, not long after ENI had bought these solar farms, it changed the rules, forcing the company to adhere to new Generator Performance Standards.

Site images of Katherine Solar farm on the outskirts of Katherine. Picture: Che Chorley

ENI vented its fury to the Independent Utilities Commission, saying the new regulations would cost at least $25 million upfront, plus higher maintenance costs over the life of the project.

Threats of legal action have followed, but the cost of this mess remains unknown.

The NT Government commissioned a report in 2018 to find out what it would cost to achieve its 50 per cent renewables target.

When this column applied for the report through freedom of information, 116 of its 118 pages (everything but the front and back cover) were completely blacked out.

In April this year, NT News journalist Alex Treacy asked ENI and then NT Renewables Minister Kate Worden about the cost of any compensation that might be paid to the company for its stranded assets.

The answer was either a firm “no comment”, or an argument that providing the information would breach “commercial-in-confidence” rules.

Queue the outrage? Not so much.

Instead, over the past week we’ve been treated to headlines about the estimated cost of the Government’s deal with Tamboran for gas – required after ENI’s Blacktip field ran dry – calculated on the back of an envelope by an environmental group.

But if we’re outraged about the cost of an energy source that helps keep our lights on, we should be livid about the amount of money wasted on one that doesn’t.

Originally published as Cunningham: Save the outrage for the amount of money wasted on NT’s failed solar farms