As renewable surge continues, regions face ‘social licence’ balancing act

Jutting into Bass Strait, it’s hard to find a place as windy as Stanley.

And so Epuron — later Ark Energy — proposed a 12-turbine wind farm on cattle-grazing land at the tip of the peninsula.

The towers would have been 150 metres tall, just over 4 kilometres from the township, and fed to a substation via an underground powerline.

But Stanley is one of Tasmania’s most picturesque towns, set beneath The Nut — a 143-metre-tall volcanic plug.

The wind farm proposal gained some support in the small town, but also increasingly vocal opposition, including from its immediate neighbour, potato farmer Robert Smith.

“I’m not against wind farms or anything like that, but just where they were going to put them,” he said.

“I didn’t think I should sit and have to look at them bloody things turning all the time.

After six years of consultation, Ark Energy decided to withdraw in 2023, instead focusing on its larger projects interstate.

At the same time, the local council sought to add scenic protection to the Stanley peninsula to prevent future similar developments.

By Australia’s standards, the proposal was among the smallest, but the degree of opposition is not uncommon.

The issues of social licence and community expectation in regional areas is something that is constantly evolving for governments, councils and multinational energy companies as Australia tries to significantly ramp up its renewable energy generation.

Town’s long road to wind power

One town that has mostly come out the other side of the wind farm debate is Mortlake, in south-west Victoria.

The region’s volcanic soils are among Australia’s most productive for dairy and cattle farmers, while the plains are prone to consistently windy conditions.

In 2010, Acciona proposed a 51-turbine wind farm 5 kilometres south of the town. The proposal was later scaled down to 35 turbines.

It came at a time when organised opposition to wind was gaining significant traction in regional Victoria, with claims wind farms could cause “depression, high blood pressure, headaches, sleep deprivation, ear pain, motion sickness”, among other supposed ailments, to nearby residents.

An emotive public meeting was held where such claims were aired.

After nine years of consultation, small-scale community grants and planning approvals, construction was able to start, and the wind farm became fully operational last year.

Local resident Kelvin Goodall — a former Moyne Shire councillor — supported the wind farm, and said he believed the concerns ended up being unfounded.

“You still get some people who don’t like them, most of the time it’s because they don’t like the look of them, he said.

Around the same time, an 80-turbine wind farm was built 23 kilometres north-east of the town at Dundonnell.

Mortlake now has 115 wind turbines nearby, plus a 566-megawatt gas power station to the west.

And there are another 81 turbines in the works at Mount Fyans to the immediate north.

Council wants improved biodiversity and approval standards

Moyne Shire now has 371 turbines with a further 300 awaiting planning approval.

The council has been taking an increasingly cautious approach, urging the government to slow the pace while stronger guidelines are developed.

Among its concerns is the requirement for a planning permit for accommodation to be built on neighbouring properties if they are within one kilometre of a wind farm title boundary, which Moyne argues can impact on farmers’ ability to build worker accommodation.

The council is also worried about the displacement of south-west Victoria’s famous brolga — a crane that relies on the region’s wetlands.

A 3.5-kilometre setback near brolga breeding habitat was recently reduced to 900 metres.

“Council does not support it,” a Moyne submission reads.

“On-ground compensatory measures, such as wetland restoration, are currently underway.

Most of Moyne Shire is listed in the two highest priority categories for wind farms — so more proposals are expected.

Industry wants all interests considered

Nine-year approval processes are far from ideal for wind developers.

But the Clean Energy Council believes that community engagement and planning has been constantly evolving as the federal government and some states continue to prioritise wind.

Spokesperson Chris O’Keefe said the companies that achieve the best outcomes are those that are able to balance all community expectations from the start.

“And that means generous landholder payments for the farmers and the landholders who are hosting these wind turbines or solar panels,” Mr O’Keefe said.

“It means good neighbouring payments for people who might be swept up in the development and the construction of these things.

Landholders can generally receive $35,000 to $40,000 per turbine on their properties per year.

If Australia is going to meet Labor’s target of 82 per cent renewables by 2030, the pace of wind farm development would need to increase further.

Last year, the University of Technology Sydney estimated that 0.8 per cent of Australia’s land mass could be required for wind by 2050.

Community feels powerless ahead of transmission proposal

It’s not just wind developers that have faced a battle to achieve a “social licence” in the regions.

The federal government has been pursuing a significant increase in transmission line infrastructure in the regions.

But some are facing criticisms of poor planning and sidelining community interests.

Residents of Loongana Valley, a remote corner of north-west Tasmania set among forests, rivers and streams, heard about a proposed transmission line in their area via rumours.

The proposal involves 60 kilometres of high-voltage lines and the clearing of 129 hectares of native forest, while 10 kilometres of the route had to be realigned due to the potential for landslips.

It is meant to form part of plans for the second Bass Strait interconnector, Marinus Link.

Ben Marshall, from Supporting Our Loongana Valley Environment, said the environmental impacts would be irreversible, all for a project that he says benefits energy investors rather than Tasmanians.

“A transmission line is not just a line on a map, you’ve got a 60 to 90 meter wide high voltage transmission easement … you’ve got all the downstream effects as well because this is a catchment,” he said.

TasNetworks described the transmission line as a “vital link” for north-west transmission developments, and a permit application could be lodged by the end of this year.

It would have a “significant impact” on the spotted-tailed quoll and wedge-tailed eagle, according to environmental approval documents.

Victoria becomes transmission lines battleground

While transmission line proposals in Victoria and New South Wales might not require the same scale of native vegetation clearance as in Tasmania, they are far from being universally welcomed.

VNI West in particular — intended to further link Victoria’s existing renewables network, and NSW’s planned increase in renewables — is continuing to cause a divide, with some farmers threatening to block access to their properties.

Gerald Feeney, whose property sits between St Arnaud and Donald — but not in the direct line of VNI West — said a top-down approach on communities had caused concern.

The developer — Transmission Company Victoria — says it consulted with almost 500 landholders over 18 months, and held further consultation late last year.

Victoria Energy Policy Centre director Bruce Mountain argued against the transmission lines in 2023, believing they would be unnecessary, take too long and cause issues for regional communities.

He said the fact that planning was continuing two years later proved part of his point.

“Landholders have a great deal of influence in this, and I think it’s been their opposition which has meant that these things have not moved forward at anywhere near the pace that the governments had said they would,” Professor Mountain said.

He said this could be achieved by upgrading existing transmission infrastructure, but this has been ruled out by the Victorian government, which instead wants to stick to the Australian Energy Market Operator’s plan.

AEMO predicts Australia needs about 5,000 kilometres of new and upgraded transmission lines over the next decade, of which 1,000 kilometres has already been completed.

Governments want improved processes for communities

Sensing that things were not going entirely to plan, the federal government commissioned a review of transmission planning and investment.

Released early last year, Australian Energy Infrastructure Commissioner Andrew Dyer found that poor site selection was causing community opposition and long delays.

He made nine recommendations, including giving people the ability to rate developers as an incentive for improved community engagement, and better mapping to identify suitable land.

He pointed out that in 2022, 32 per cent of Australia’s electricity was generated from renewables, but this was intended to rise to 82 per cent by 2030.

The government is now planning to introduce a rating scheme for renewable developers, while the Victorian government has promised to carry out “early and meaningful engagement” with landholders and communities.

It conceded the current process for transmission planning “is not designed to anticipate the significant changes to the energy system and network that we are now seeing”.

Transmission policy an election issue

The Coalition has promised to “scrap” the Rewiring the Nation program, which will fund VNI West, Marinus Link and other transmission projects.

But energy spokesperson Ted O’Brien said existing contracts “will be honoured”.

“The real question is what financial commitments Labor has actually made,” he said.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has already committed to funding Marinus Link infrastructure, including north-west transmission lines, and Nationals leader David Littleproud said the Coalition would pursue “significantly less” renewable energy.

Initial agreements for VNI West were reached under the previous Coalition government.

Labor will continue with its current targets, and a spokesperson for Energy Minister Chris Bowen said the Coalition should outline which transmission projects it would cut.