Tyrrell says private members bill will protect prime agricultural land in Northern Victoria Region
Member for Northern Victoria Region Rikkie-Lee Tyrrell has introduced her first bill of the parliamentary year, aimed at protecting Victoria’s prime agricultural land from large-scale solar farm development. Mrs Tyrrell introduced The Planning and Environment Amendment (Soil Protection) (Solar Power Generation Facilities) Bill 2023 in State Parliament last week to protect precious agricultural land and water catchment areas from large scale solar farms.
No stopping nation’s nuclear discussion now: Katter
Solutions to the nation’s growing energy crisis, which has seen Australian electricity bills rise by up to 20 per cent over the past 12 months, were debated by energy experts, industry leaders and rural and regional representatives in a first-of-its-kind outback energy forum in Mount Isa ... Katter’s Australian Party (KAP) Leader and Traeger MP Robbie Katter’s Mount Isa Nuclear Power Forum saw dozens converge in the industrial city that is surrounded by “legally un-mineable” uranium deposits.
Draft corridor for VNI West narrows area of interest: TCV
Transmission Company Victoria (TCV) has ... released the draft corridor for the Victorian component of the VNI West transmission line project. TCV has narrowed the area of interest for the proposed transmission line to width of about 2km.
Wake up Australia – Renewable energy won’t save the planet if it costs the earth: Robert Onfray
Robert Onfray. I am not sure many people are fully aware of the massive engineering changes currently underway in our rural landscape. The changes are on a scale never attempted in this country before, and it is swallowing obscene amounts of money for minimal benefit and, indeed, no proof it will improve the climate ... Australian Rural & Regional News will open a page for discussion on this comprehensive and provocative article on the renewable energy transition.
QFF’s energy saving program expands to Toowoomba and Western Downs regions
The Queensland Farmers’ Federation (QFF) are pleased to announce the expansion of their free energy saving program, Energy Southern Queensland (EnergySQ), to the Toowoomba and Western Downs regional council areas ... The expansion of the program will now give access to farms in all four regional councils areas supported to develop an Energy and Carbon Action Plan specific to their operation.
Innovative project aims to deliver region’s first community battery
The Mildura region could soon boast its first community battery following the launch of an innovative regional project. The Regional Greenhouse Alliance Neighbourhood Battery Investigation Project aims to develop investment-ready business cases for single community batteries at 18 locations across regional Victoria, including Mildura.
Cheap power push watered down
Touted as the biggest thing since irrigation by Gannawarra Shire Council mayor, Charlie Gillingham, the VNI West project is set to stamp its 70-metre-high 500KV power lines across the landscape and skyline. One of the project’s biggest advocates has been Gannawarra Shire Council (GSC) itself with a transmission company spokesperson confirming the only reason the project is “this far west” has been the Council’s push for a terminal station to sprout an explosion in wind and solar farm.
Moah Creek Wind Farm reaches key development milestones: Energy Estate
The Moah Creek Wind Farm project has recently reached two development milestones. Firstly, it has been granted planning approval from the Queensland State Assessment and Referral Agency ... consent from the Queensland Government under the Planning Act 2016 for the construction of the wind farm and its associated vegetation clearing.
Farmers welcome new powerline inquiry: NSW Farmers
The state’s peak farming body has welcomed a new Parliamentary Committee to re-examine underground transmission lines following strong community outrage. A recent government-dominated review into undergrounding high-voltage transmission lines ignored community concerns and strong opposition from the farming sector, recommending enormous above-ground towers and powerlines...
Mount Isa to host nuclear power forum: Katter
Mount Isa will next month host a first of its kind, community-led event discussing Australia’s energy future, with a particular focus on nuclear power technology. The Mount Isa Nuclear Power Forum: “What if we went nuclear?” is being staged by Katter’s Australian Party Leader (KAP) and Traeger MP Robbie Katter, who has promised a “frank discussion around the possibilities of nuclear power production in outback Australia”.
Investors visit solar farm
The Grong Grong Solar Farm team hosted crowd equity investors and other stakeholders onsite last Thursday ... The Grong Grong Solar Farm team showed them through the site, and took time to explain how bifacial solar panels work...
Lessons from Germany’s industry
Germany's brown coal industry in the famous Rhineland region, which inspired Sir John Monash to build the State Electricity Commission using Latrobe Valley coal, still packs some punch, despite the drive towards more renewables. And the carbon dioxide being produced by the region’s modern brown coal power stations can be redirected into a number of industrial uses.
Abandoned wind farms going cheap
What would it cost? And what is the carbon footprint of the physical effort to remove the footing of one of the many 200m tall wind turbine towers soon to be seen scattered across the Wheatbelt? ... I wonder how many of the Greenpeace activist types have watched the doco Thrown to the Wind about the whale deaths off the East Coast of the United States?
Statement from AEMO
In last Tuesday’s edition, the “Buloke Times” published a report from a reader, critical of the visit by Transmission Company Victoria to the area of the VNI West. Subsequently, the “Times” received the following statement from a spokesperson for Australian Energy Market Operator, AEMO: “The landholder liaisons were on their way to an appointment with a local landowner, who had spoken with them the previous day and agreed to meet and receive some information on the project ..."
Regional Victorian Power Alliance visits Murrabit
It was a full house as Victorian and NSW community members gathered in the Murrabit Hall to hear from Vicki Johnson and Gavin Ronan from the Regional Victorian Power Alliance (RVPA). The RVPA was created in May 2023 after communities who had been battling the Western Renewables Link … expanded to include VNI West impacted communities.
Undergrounding report released
As state and federal governments continue their push to renewables, the mad scramble to build 10,000 kilometres of new power lines by 2030 has rural communities across the eastern seaboard not only gravely concerned about the social and environmental impacts, but also methodology. Last week, the NSW parliamentary inquiry into the feasibility of undergrounding HumeLink was released...
Marinus Link cable agreement another significant step forward: Barnett
…Marinus Link has agreed to a capacity reservation agreement for a high-voltage direct current cable with Prysmian Powerlink … “This agreement ensures production and offshore installation capacity for one cable of the Marinus Link project, a 750MW cable system, with negotiations continuing for the second 750MW phase": Minister for Energy and Renewables, Guy Barnett.
Labor have lost their way on energy: Young
Liberal Member for Franklin, Dean Young, said Labor’s thought bubble of a price cap is a dangerous threat to our energy security. “Labor talks up supply issues but want to interfere in the market with price caps, damaging competition and causing supply to drop,” Mr Young said.
Showdown at farms along VNI West
Jacinta O'Sullivan. Wednesday, August 30, Transmission Company Victoria ran into approximately 30 farmers and local supporters as they continue to stealthily door knock landowners in the area of the VNI West. Several pensioners, isolated and absent landowners have been targeted by the state appointed company Transmission Company Victoria in an attempt to blindside locals who will live with the 80-metre transmission lines in their local community.
Country concerns ignored in power tower push: NSW Farmers
NSW Farmers has accused the state government of ignoring the concerns of regional communities, with the Premier reportedly vowing to build enormous overhead powerlines across the state. Media reports on Thursday revealed the Premier told a Business Sydney event that overhead powerlines were the only option...
South Australian Government opposes southern ocean offshore windfarm zone: Close, Scriven
The State Government has recommended South Australia not be included in the Commonwealth’s proposed offshore wind farm zone that runs from Warrnambool in Victoria to Port MacDonnell … State Government has expressed concerns about the potential impact construction of an offshore windfarm in that area could have on South Australia’s southern fisheries and marine environment.
Green transmission is “just a fairytale”
Once upon a time, not that long ago, in places not that far away, the Australian Energy Market Operator, AEMO, thought it could devise a “renewable” energy and transmission scheme to outsmart the locals ... Locals along the lines have fought against the plans ...
