Landmark legislation protects Queensland energy workers and public ownership: de Brenni
The Palaszczuk Government has taken the next steps to enshrine the Queensland Energy and Jobs Plan into law, with a commitment to legislate renewable energy targets, and guarantee the financial security of workers. Following months of consultation, the Energy (Renewable Transformation and Jobs) Bill 2023 was introduced to Parliament after receiving overwhelming support from the community and industry.
Dulacca Wind Farm powers up for Queensland: Palaszczuk, de Brenni
The 180MW project, owned by Octopus and developed by RES, created 150 jobs in regional Queensland at its construction peak. State-owned CleanCo has a long-term power purchase agreement with the Dulacca Wind Farm to acquire 70 per cent of the output (or 126MW), meaning that the renewable energy generated here in the Western Downs will support CleanCo to provide affordable, clean energy to its customers.
Major partners for Pilbara green iron renewable hydrogen study: Johnston
South Korean steel making company POSCO and French energy generator ENGIE will conduct a pre-feasibility study for a major renewable hydrogen project in the Pilbara. The study will determine the feasibility of using renewable hydrogen to power POSCO's proposed Hot Briquetted Iron (HBI) plant in Port Hedland.
NSW introduces landmark Climate Change Bill to set emissions reduction targets: Minns, Sharpe
The Minns Labor Government has introduced its landmark Climate Change Bill, to enshrine emissions reduction targets in law in NSW and establish an independent Net Zero Commission. The Climate Change (Net Zero Future) Bill 2023 commits NSW to cutting greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50 per cent by 2030 and reaching net zero by 2050.
Power play, VNI West debate rages
Just as Transgrid has announced an expansion of the preferred corridor, an ‘Explosive’ energy report exposes serious flaws in the $20 billion Rewiring the Nation plan. Australia is on the verge of an energy crisis as politicians continue to close down traditional baseline power sources for the green dream.
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.
