On Thursday the 46-year-old received the bad news he had been expecting for many months - he would lose his job at one of Australia's largest wind turbine tower manufacturers.

Management at Portland's Keppel Prince Engineering informed workers it would axe 100 staff in the Premier's electorate in south west Victoria, blaming the cuts on uncertainty over the renewable energy target and significant losses.

The announcement came a day after federal Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane confirmed the Abbott government wanted to slash the renewable energy target, reducing the amount of energy produced by renewable energy projects by 2020 from 41,000 gigawatt hours to about 26,000.

"There's nothing left in town. There's no job opportunities, everything is in wind-down mode. This is another nail in the coffin for Portland," Mr Teal said.

Mr Teal, who paints towers that are up to 80 metres tall, said around 40 local businesses would suffer as a result of the job cuts.

Keppel Prince is the second-largest employer in Portland, and the announcement is a significant blow for Premier Denis Napthine, who has vowed to create 200,000 new jobs in the next five years.

Keppel Prince's general manager Stephen Garner said doubts about the future of renewable energy caused by the federal government's plan to review and now cut the target had stalled investment.

"With the uncertainty with [the renewable energy target], investors have just put their hands in their pockets."

In May, Keppel Prince workers wrote to their local MP, Dr Napthine, saying a weakened target would devastate the local community, costing jobs, investment and businesses.

Dr Napthine blamed the job losses on the local wind energy industry, which he said was using cheap turbines from Asia.

"The most recent wind farms built here in Victoria have used imported wind towers, and similarly in South Australia and New South Wales."

He refused to blame the job cuts on the Abbott government's move to review and cut the target, and said the state government supported the 20 per cent renewable energy target.

Under a controversial proposal by the Napthine government, the target would include gas-fired power derived from fossil fuels.

Dr Napthine made the comments while announcing expansion plans for the Australian Meat Group in Dandenong South, which he said would create 370 jobs by 2019.

State Labor's energy spokeswoman Lily D'Ambrosio said it was a dark day for Keppel Prince, and that Dr Napthine had ignored their calls for help.

"They have reached out to the Premier -  you would have thought he would have shirt-fronted Abbott when it counted."

She said the state government's "job-killing" planning laws for wind farms had compounded the issue.

Victorian Greens leader Greg Barber said the jobs losses were "a tragedy" for Portland, which was already struggling.

"It's an even bigger tragedy that billions of dollars of renewable energy investment is on hold indefinitely while Labor and Liberal negotiate about how deeply they will cut the Renewable Energy Target."

Friends of the Earth spokesman Leigh Ewbank said the news underscored the need for a state Renewable Energy Target, calling for political leadership from the Premier and Opposition Leader Daniel Andrews.

- with Peter Hannam