Western Victoria needs to seize the opportunity to become a wind powerhouse, after the state government was returned to power.
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The state’s renewable energy target, 50 per cent by 2030, will require major investment in new projects, and regional communities can benefit from the injection of jobs as more projects are announced.
Already, the southern hemisphere’s largest wind farm project is planned for Rokewood, south of Ballarat, and several other projects will come online in the next 18 months.
Having policy certainty in Victoria, in regard to encouraging more renewable projects, will in turn attract more investment.
The Committee For Ballarat’s chair, Melanie Robertson, has a background in the wind industry, and said there is potential for Ballarat and surrounds to become an energy production hub, similar to the Latrobe Valley.
“We know that if these companies know what’s on the agenda into the future, then they will invest,” she said.
“Really strong policy certainty, in a short time frame (the 2030 goal) will really drive that.”
The $12 million Asia-Pacific Renewable Energy Training Centre, which is due to complete its business case before the end of the year, is one example.
Should the centre go ahead, it will provide sustainable employment in the region - there are no other wind turbine construction or maintenance courses in Victoria.
It will also drive down costs, as foreign workers would not be required, nor would components need to be shipped overseas for repairs.
“If there’s x amount of components, they’ll know if it’s more cost effective for them to be made here or shipped overseas,” Ms Robertson said, noting in Germany more people were employed in renewables than in the car industry.
The key aspect was including the community, as more and larger turbines are installed.
“Regional Victoria needs a picture of what’s actually coming,” she said.
“What’s the area of land used for energy production?
“It’s important for benefits to flow to regional Victoria - cheaper power, increased reliability, and jobs.
“For me, it’s really critical, being the producers of that energy that we get the benefits and we prosper.”
The state government has estimated about 11,000 jobs would be created through the $9 billion investment in renewables and energy efficiency across Victoria.
A picture is forming of how western Victoria will contribute to the state’s energy future.
Ballarat is at the centre of a major wind area - as the hundreds of turbines cropping up demonstrate.
The recently commissioned 30MW/30MWh battery at Warrenheip will help smooth national energy grid demands as more renewable sources come online.
The next step is attracting industry surrounding power generation, and councils have already mentioned the need to take full advantage of the resources.
Around the Grampians, huge projects are taking shape, according to Grampians New Energy Taskforce chair Stuart Benjamin - he described western Victoria as a “gold rush”.
“Ballarat is blessed that we are the largest community that’s on the edge of, without a doubt, Australia’s richest renewable energy region,” he said.
“We think conservatively we’ve got about $5 billion coming through in the Grampians.
“All the way from Moorabool, Golden Plains, Pyrenees, right up to Horsham, we’re experiencing an absolute gold rush in renewable energy.”
GNET is a proponent of the renewable energy training centre at Federation University, and Mr Benjamin said action needed to be taken to ensure communities could make the most of the boom, adding there were potentially two generations worth of maintenance jobs available.
“What we realised is that at the moment most of the highly-skilled jobs in the renewable sector are being filled by people overseas,” he said, adding the business case still needed to be completed.
“Early indications are that it’s incredibly promising, being supported by state government and university itself, as well as industry - it’s a tripartite arrangement where industry are putting dollars in as well.
“Wind turbines, even some of the older ones, like Waubra, were originally expected to have a life of about 25 years, but due to good maintenance, we think it could be 40 years.”
The training centre would also include solar and battery technologies, again setting up Ballarat as a space for apprentices to learn their craft as the Andrews government spends big on household energy.
The government has offered half-price solar panels to homeowners, as well as schemes to help renters access panel installation through splitting costs with landlords.
A $40 million program will also help homeowners install solar batteries.
With all this power generation, as well as the increasing size of the turbines, manufacturing could be the next step.
Mr Benjamin said the training centre was already considering this.
“To put it in perspective, Stockyard Hill’s turbines are over 200m tall, the blades are just very difficult to transport, it makes sense to make them locally,” he said.
“Given Ballarat is the gateway to 80 per cent of Victoria’s wind resources, it makes sense for that manufacturing to take place there.”
The Clean Energy Council’s Mark Bretherton said the promise was there for the regions because of the decentralised nature of wind turbines and solar farms.
“If you look at solar, you see sparkies who’ve gained additional skills ... and there’s lots of jobs as these projects come online,” he said.
The flow-on effects from subcontractors during construction would also help smaller communities, but proponents need to keep up communication with residents, Mr Bretherton said.
“Even though this is a pretty established technology, we need to make sure we’re bringing community on the journey with us, and accept not everyone’s going to be on board without putting the time in with landowners and addressing legitimate concerns, and dealing with them with patience and respect,” he said.
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