It’s not easy sharing your story about living and working with renewable energy, let alone fronting up as a witness to a Senate Committee public hearing.
Last week I joined two incredible farmers – Sally Hunter from Narrabri and Lindsay Marriott from South Gippsland – to present as witnesses for the Senate Committee on Information Integrity on Climate Change and Energy.
Sally is a farmer and community leader who has spent the last three years trying to establish a community battery for Narrabri. Despite strong community support, this project has now been derailed because of the spread of false and exaggerated information.
Lindsay is a beef and sheep farmer who also hosts 12 wind turbines and a substation on his family property. The wind farm has been in operation for just over 10 years. Lindsay spoke about the campaigns that ran against his wind farm during the planning process, some of the scary claims that were made, and how the reality 10 years later has been so different from the claims.
I spoke in my capacity as National Director for RE-Alliance, a not for profit organisation who support the shift to renewable energy. We do this by fighting for regional and rural communities, to make sure they get the best outcomes from hosting wind, solar, storage or transmission projects.
After nearly 13 years working on the ground we have a deep understanding of how complex Australia’s shift to renewable energy is, and how false and exaggerated claims are increasingly being used to divide communities.
Of course there are a range of opinions about renewable energy in the regions, but repeated data demonstrates a clear majority of Australians in renewable energy regions support renewables.
I made my way to Sydney via a trip through the Wimmera in Western Victoria and into South West NSW. The people we speak and work with in those places – farmers, leaders of community groups and local council staff and representatives – understand the generational opportunities the renewables build out presents for their communities, but they also understand that seizing those opportunities requires a lot of hard work and the support of their communities can’t be taken for granted.
The rollout can be messy and communities have legitimate concerns that deserve to be addressed.
But one of the biggest contributors to community anxiety is not being able to easily access factual, locally-relevant and trusted information.
When there is an information void we see it filled, time and time again, by false and exaggerated claims.
Which is why our submission to this Senate Committee Inquiry recommended to the federal government that they should establish a network of Local Energy information Hubs in renewable energy regions – like New England – across the country.
Local Energy Hubs are proposed local information service centres run by councils or community organisations. Each Hub would have a team of trusted local staff working to ensure communities are genuinely seeing the benefits of renewables at all levels, from accessing bill subsidies to helping electrify farms and small businesses, to responding to large-scale projects in development.
Local Energy Hubs are not simply shopfronts or drop-in-centres. They are designed to dramatically increase the capacity and agency of rural and regional communities so they can lead the shift to renewables, incorporate a range of local perspectives and tackle challenges as they arise.
This community-led, robust solution to information integrity has been in front of the Federal Government for almost two years so we think it’s about time they got on with the job of implementing them.
Got something on your mind? Go on then, engage. Submit your opinion piece, letter to the editor, or Quick Word now.
Yes the ha ha’s and coal/gas lovers may not realize how fast our nation is growing, and the demand that a growing nation puts upon the energy sector. If we were to put coal or gas fired power plants on or even near their properties instead, wow, we would hear a lot more complaining.
The alternative to renewables are fracking wells. One only has to compare farmers reviews, and the returns they get from that economy, and how consumers are paying for the law suites that plague the fossil fuel industries economics. Do we see “Lock The Gate” signs on wind farmer gates?Media: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=32495254503453886&set=p.32495254503453886&type=3
Media: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2651596601864310&set=p.2651596601864310&type=3
giddy upfolks
As long as multinational developers are allowed to tell baldfaced lies to pseudo planning departments that are trying to push this industrialisation of our landscape, aided by our grubberment nothing will change. #notrenewable #notaffordable #notgreen
The misinformation from the coalition is beyond laughable. We have to get integrity back into politics. Trump is the extreme but it’s now becoming the norm, led by social media’s lack of oversight.
Phil Blann fair to say that there is misinformation from all sides of the debate, all sides pick and choose what they want to use and what they don’t and to claim that one side is worse than the other only shows what side you are on
Garry Gosling so you’re anti-renewable then?
Garry Gosling Even Littleproud admits climate change is a problem. He referred to it as a 2015 debate. The LNP appointed Chief Scientist advised us It was a problem and we had to reduce global emissions. There are no more ” two sides” than there was to the 50s “debate” over whether smoking is dangerous.
The question now is only how best to reduce global emissions and how quickly we can do it ,not whether we need to.
Peter Hatfield the coalition have just been delaying the inevitable for the last 20 years at the behest of the fossil fuel industries. They’ve just been obstructing businesses who realise the potential to use renewables for the country
Peter Hatfield You use the term Global emissions and that is right but unfortunately unless countries like China, India and USA do the same nothing will change and they are actually increasing their emissions. But I guess you would be happy turning Australia into a third world country and bankrupting it in the process
China has massive renewable energy generation happening – the most renewable energy generation of all nations.
Alisa Perks yes they do but they are also increasing their coal and nuclear at the same time
Garry Gosling only really replacing old units either more modern ones though. And their incredible rate of built electric vehicles instead of ice vehicles is making a huge difference to their environment
Garry Gosling Australians’ per capita emissions are pretty high:Media: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=122156212508685141&set=p.122156212508685141&type=3
Garry Gosling it’s called a collective action problem, and the solution is… collective action.
Phil BlannMedia: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=25551664511096826&set=p.25551664511096826&type=3
Phil Blann that’s the extreme and you talk about integrity 🤭
Ben Amy Booth hardly extreme to want integrity in politics.
Phil Blann what brainwashing future generations through the education systems isn’t extreme to you?
Ben Amy Booth but it’s the truth backed by science v misinformation from the cashed up fossil fuel lobby. One will give us cleaner air, less microplastics and other plastic rubbish and a healthier planet, the other will likely make a lot of the world unliveable. Your choice.
James Barrie it’s ridiculous that every factory, office block and shopping centre together with the car parks isn’t utilised. All new ones should be mandated
Phil Blann absolutely. This approach is a big mistake and only benefits energy corps.
And that is green energy??
Bruce JonesMedia: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=25551660744430536&set=p.25551660744430536&type=3
Great to see this in the NE Times. Keep it up.
Glen KelleherMedia: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=25551602154436395&set=p.25551602154436395&type=3
Well said. People need access to facts.
Heidi McElnea how do the “facts” help neigbouring landholders get there land value back?
Jack McIver Unfortunately it’s no different from the farmers in the Hunter Valley where mining companies were granted access to their land.
Jenny Dyson yeah so why should it be that way? How many thousands of surrounding landholders do you think there will be?
Jack McIver Socialists don’t seem to care to much about that sadlyMedia: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=25551618014434809&set=p.25551618014434809&type=3
Jack McIver
Because with finite coal supplies & too little, too late (not to mention too expensive), for nuclear as an option, we require new sources of energy, so the transition to renewables is inevitable which will affect some landowners & their neighbours, just as coal mining did.
However, for every person who is opposed to it, there are others who have embraced it & in Europe renewables have been a source of energy for decades.
With the LNP in disarray & likely to remain in opposition for at least the next 2 terms, there’s no stopping the transition to renewables now.
Jenny Dyson hopefully we get good at making lab food with all there energy! And a lot less land for real food. Its beyond me why renewables are going on good land and not desert or marginal country!
Jack McIver
It’s not that I’m unsympathetic, but the land ear-marked for the New England REZ renewables infrastructure corridor is no more valuable than the loss of prime agricultural land in the Hunter Valley which was resumed for mining.
The only difference is mining was driven mainly by the LNP, whereas renewables are now being driven by Labor in an LNP heartland whipped into a frenzy by Barnaby Joyce’s misinformation.
He may as well resign before the next election, because it’s going to happen whether he’s there or not.
Hopefully whoever replaces him to represent the New England won’t also be denial & will be better able to steward the changes ahead.
Jenny Dyson yeah but unfortunately they not sticking to the rez. The project im annoyed about is 15 mins south of tamworth prime cropping country. Gets thick crops off every year!
Jack McIver
I used to drive from Tamworth to Sydney fairly often, so I understand why you’d be upset, because it’s beautiful country.
All I can suggest is be the squeaky wheel & get on the phone/drop into the local REZ office to find out what’s going on, because all governments regardless of whether it’s Labor or Liberal need to be held accountable.
All the best!
Jack McIver a lot less land for food thats hilarious its not even 1% of agricultural land in Australia
Philip Walsh how much land in Australia is arable? I think you will find its 4%.
Jenny Dyson or people in Valla who got a highway built near their homes.
Jack McIver 4% arable is about right. That’s cropping land. A huge amount. But Australian agriculture accounts for:
55% of Australian land use (426 million hectares, excluding timber production, in December 2023)
74% of water consumption (9,981 gigalitres used by agriculture in 2021–22)
10.8% of goods and services exports ($71.5 billion in 2023–24)
2.4% of value added (GDP) in 2023–24
5.9% of rural employment and 2.2% of national employment (315,600 people in 2023–24).
So the space taken up by solar and wind and batteries and pumped hydro and all the rest of it is a drop in the ocean.
This is Australia not Luxembourg!
Jack McIver Solar and wind farms won’t lower the productive value of adjacent farms. In fact, farm land has seen big increases in value over the past decade… celebrate the win!
Jenny Dyson we can only hope for a more sober approach.
David Williams
At the very least, a broader, more balanced approach.
David Williams not when your on a lifestyle block mate. Only value is in the veiw and being able to run a horse or two
Jack McIver Then you’re between a rock and a hard place. It would really depend on the specifics of the situation as to how much compo. you’d be able to get.
David Williams unfortunately zip. Looking over 3500 acres of it. Sharing a boundary.There bullies these foreign developers.
How do they recircle all that glass and Fiberglass.???as they only last 25 years.
Jack Lesley Pennell check it out. Info on Google. And where’s the fibreglass?
Marea DonnellyMedia: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=25551600901103187&set=p.25551600901103187&type=3
Jack Lesley Pennell The University of Sydney
https://www.sydney.edu.au
Australia faces solar waste crisis
13 Sept 2024 — Australia is world leading in its uptake of residential rooftop solar, installing new solar panels at ten times the global average rate. Solar waste is estimated at 54-160 million tonnes by 2050, and wind turbine waste at 42 million tonnes. Per person, this is 201kg solar and 19 … large amount of lithium-ion battery waste? Lithium-ion battery waste is growing by 22 per cent annually and could exceed 136,000 tonnes by 2036 As …
Haha the only trouble is that a lie can only go so far .people are waking up and starting to see the truth.
Raul Jarquin exactly 👍Media: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=25551621621101115&set=p.25551621621101115&type=3
Raul you are correct and people are doing more extensive research then ever and watching other countries approaches very closely.
Australians won’t be bullied by politicians who think they know best and they will be held to account every step of the way .
Disgusting butchering of the landscape!🤮
Natasha Groves visit Ulan or Jerry’s Plains
One man’s options don’t constitute truth or misinformation
Interesting, where do you start? I guess the first bit of misinformation you need to deal with is climate delay and denialism?
If people have been misinformed about anthropogenic climate change they won’t see much point in large scale free-source electricity!
It’s a bit of a chicken and egg situation. Once you understand the implications of AGW, you can understand the necessity for large scale FSE generation, but if that means the further and unwanted industrialisation of your backyard, it becomes attractive to hold onto any doubt that can be sown regarding AGW…
what a bloody eyesore
Big wind is NOT green
Ted Key Oh Ted. It’s certainly greener than your oil, gas and coal friends. Do a bit of reading and research, it’s not hard to find facts.
Howard Michell but it’s not those to compare with, now try nuclear? How is the fact that each of these turbines shed a hundred fifty pounds of microplastics into the ocean and land each year? Add it up to millions of bottles. Endocrine disrupting toxins. And let’s not even consider the fossil fuels required to service them. Yea real geeen dude
Ted Key where did you get your 150 pounds figure from
Philip Walsh a study by Norway’s turbine group. Part of it was for the industry itself I suspect. I’d attack it but facebook doesn’t allow me. The title of the study is leading edge erosion
Ted Key these days LEP leading edge protection is used on blades and its also getting applied to existing turbines figurs as low as 200grammes per year are achieved. Less microplastics than a washing machine or clothes dryer adds to the already worldwide problem of microplastics
Philip Walsh send me that info if you have it. It seems that’s not widespread from all of he surface repair. It’s more than leading to dye though hail, ice birds etc tear them up in such caustic locations. And of course lightning.
Philip Walsh bottom line the units are expensive in efficient and clunky big footprint monstrous compared to one nuclear plant
Ted Key just look it up on the internet mate I’m busy currently
Ted Key you forget that nuclear plant requires a mine, a transport corridor a uranium enrichment plant and a nuclear wast storage area,
Ted Key ok, ill bite what’s your alternative??
John Hockley 4th gen nuclear
So you are talking about a technology that is nowhere near large scale commercial use, still under R&D testing and is decades away from widespread use, just to name a few things and thats not going into the high cost of construction and complex safety and engineering challenges 🤔
John Hockley nope not he TVA has tapped NuScake for 6GW. Might want to have a look at Westinghouse AP1000
4th gen nuclear
So true we are getting so much misinformation from our government. They are destroying our country.
James Barrie what’s ecocide? Where’s it happening?
Marea Donnelly ecocide is the destruction and death of ecology.
In Australia along the Great dividing range and in the U.S at Coyote Creek, and many other places. It’s a tragic misstep.
Marea DonnellyMedia: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=25551629744433636&set=p.25551629744433636&type=3
Marea DonnellyMedia: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=25551633847766559&set=p.25551633847766559&type=3
Marea Donnelly https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/felling-in-kosciuszko-national-park-for-snowy-20-sparks-anger/news-story/01b92c09ecf8f3b415fb0fc3cdcfe610?amp
Marea Donnelly https://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/news/victoria/wimmera-wind-farm-to-clear-127ha-of-native-vegetation/news-story/cb35de7a4aa27012681c2821180f8d29?amp
Marea Donnelly https://reneweconomy.com.au/huge-wind-farm-cleared-to-add-another-seven-turbines-in-state-nearing-100-pct-net-renewables/amp/
James Barrie yes a lot of farming destroys ecology
Philip Walsh doesn’t call itself green though does it? And just because some irresponsible farming destroys ecology doesn’t give a licence to renewables to do the same. That sort of weird logic is deflative and deflective and is helping big corporations get away with big destruction. They don’t need to defend their bad ethics when they’ve got you doing it for them.
James Barrie renewable energy doesn’t call itself green energy at all. If a renewable energy project is put on farmland it saves further degradation
Philip Walsh are we talking about the same thing?
James Barrie your talking about renewables on buildings and carparks did they not destroy ecology. The only carparks that I know of was the $600 million worth of carparks that LNP failed to deliver
Philip Walsh your position keeps deflating under the notion that we may as well kill more because killing has happened before.
But enough killing has happened. Biodiversity is in peril and that peril is a greater and more immediate threat than even climate change.
Renewables should not commit ecocide.
There plenty of places for them to safely exist that are already brown spaces.
Any support for large scale infrastructure is not support for the environment but for energy corporations.
James Barrie what renewables are destroying the environment?
Marea Donnelly you haven’t seen yet? wind farms and solar placed on sensitive ecosystems. Coyote Creek in the U.S, Lotus Creek in Qld, and many others. It can’t be at the expense of biodiversity – especially when it doesn’t have to be. There’s plenty of brown space that could be covered in panels where nature is already destroyed. Doesn’t have to be on top of habitats that survived land clearing. it;s only happening that way because of corporate profit priorities. It’s really serious.
Media: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10242701066488628&set=p.10242701066488628&type=3
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Far from it !
not at all, renewables have a place in the mix, and I have solar panels on my roof, but also know that the panels aren’t worth having without a battery to store the energy, which is where in this country we have made a mistake by not doing battery storage to keep up with solar and wind generation. Also destroying critical habitat for some of the infrastructure when there are better options and refusing to openly look at all options will never give the best end results
Garry Gosling i agree with you 100%, we need a mix in our supply. We have panels and reduced our bill to 1/3 of what it was and no battery yet. What i question is why all the subsidies to billionaires when the government could give interest free loans to householders. The householders that could do with help can do a payback and still end up with saving.
that is the big question, give away billions in subsidies to big business instead of looking after average Australians, I guess it all comes down to who donates to them, and it makes no difference which side, and they wonder why politicians are regarded so low
New England Solar Farm is getting a battery.
Garry Gosling yes we need a mix and yes we need storage.
Your better options sure sounds like the liberals nuclear option though. Let’s have an open debate on it with construction costs and timelines not provided by the nuclear lobby.
Yeah stop listening to Barnaby
Where are you going to get the copper from when try and double the grid.
Damian Lyle It’s in the ground, start digging.
Damian Lyle Good question, but remember High voltage lines are not copper AND increased demand is being filled by, not driven by, renewables
Damian Lyle Aluminium is used as a transmission line. Copper is the best conductor but it is too heavy to string from the power poles. All the lines in Australia are aluminium.
Opinions are not allowed??
This is propaganda
Media: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=3002839486555203&set=p.3002839486555203&type=3
James Barrie I’ve never heard it said better. Thankyou
A huge amount of money being spent on misinformation now. It can all be tracked
A fact missing is that solar panel farms actually contribute to warming climate through its own photovoltaic process. Solar panels emit heat because they convert only a portion of the sunlight they receive into electricity; the rest is released as heat, which can cause local temperature increases, a phenomenon known as the photovoltaic heat island effect
Grogerio D Pilar dont know why you are laughing, what I said is scientific fact, released by solar panel companies as well.
Jen Mac please link that science. There is a difference between warming locally and impacting global warming.
Jen Mac yes your heat island effect is real but it has also been found to be incredibly localised, typically dissipating 300m from the solar farm.
That’s disgusting
will be fantastic when all the renewable projects are built! those that listen to the misinformation spread by the incompetent LNP, One Nation and the out of date coal industry need to wake up to themselves, Renewables are the future and we need all the renewable projects built!
Us farmers don’t want this, they’ve done enough damage with the solar farms taking up hundreds of acres of prime agricultural land.
When are people going to see through this nonsense of destroying our environment to save it…
Hayden Martin do you mean US farmers or “we” farmers?
Interesting, where do you start? I guess the first bit of misinformation you need to deal with is climate delay and denialism?
If people have been misinformed about anthropogenic climate change they won’t see much point in large scale free-source electricity!
It’s a bit of a chicken and egg situation. Once you understand the implications of AGW, you can understand the necessity for large scale FSE generation, but if that means the further and unwanted industrialisation of your backyard, it becomes attractive to hold onto any doubt that can be sown regarding AGW…
I guess we’re all NIMBY’s in our own way…