Victorian Government wants 900 more turbines, nine million solar panels and 3600 batteries

The Victorian Government has rolled out a plan to triple the area of farmland under solar panels and build 900 more wind turbines. This is what you need to know.

Victorian Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio is pushing ahead with plans to massively expand the renewables rollout.

The Allan Government’s renewables rush will see at least 900 more wind turbines dotting Victoria’s rural landscape within a decade, plus another 3600 battery units and nine million grid-based solar panels.

Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio released the government’s Our Plan for Victoria’s Electricity Future last week, which outlines how the government will force all Victorians to subsidise a fourfold increase in the state’s renewable generation capacity.

Victoria currently has just 4409 megawatts of wind farm generation capacity.

But in a bid to meet the government’s target of 95 per cent renewable generation by 2035, it wants to raise the state’s onshore wind-generation capacity to 9700MW, equal to building another 900 turbines.

The state’s grid-based solar capacity, which currently sits at 1079MW, will also have to be tripled to meet the 2035 target – equating to about 9 million more panels installed as part of grid-scale developments.

The Allan Government’s renewables rollout

The fact that solar and wind developments only deliver about a 25 to 30 per cent of their nameplate capacity, means up to three times as many turbines and panels need to be installed to replace the 4800MW generated by the state’s three remaining brown-coal fired power plants that the government wants taken off the grid.

Ms D’Ambrosio said the government’s plan would “deliver an affordable, reliable and secure electricity system for all Victorians and this consolidated plan will ensure community and industry are at the centre of our orderly transition”.

“We mean business. We’re powering ahead with our big renewable energy build and creating and maintaining the right conditions for renewables investment.”

But clouds are already darkening the outlook for more grid-scale solar developments, with Origin Energy announcing it had cancelled two solar farm developments in Victoria and South Australia last week.

“Due to unfavourable conditions, we are no longer pursuing the (SA) Morgan solar farm and the (Victorian) Carisbrook solar development project has been impaired as it is considered unlikely that it can earn a suitable return on investment.”

Community resistance to the rollout of transmission lines that are needed to feed regional solar and wind generation into the national grid also poses problems for the government.

Victoria has also been hit by a wind drought, which has slashed wind turbine generation across the nation to 14 per cent of the total fuel mix in the past 12 months.