Ahead of the state election, the Coalition has sought to capitalise on growing anger from regional areas, where there has been strong backlash from farming communities which argue they should not have to shoulder a disproportionate share of Victoria’s energy transition on agricultural land. As part of its analysis, the council compared the Coalition’s setback policy with policies in other jurisdictions and found the plan would give Victoria some of the most restrictive renewable planning rules in Australia. In NSW, the government implements a buffer
of between one and 2.2 kilometres, depending on the height of the turbines, while South Australia enforces a setback of between 1.5 and two kilometres. The council said comparable restrictions in Europe – including in the German state of Bavaria, where a two-kilometre buffer was enforced – crippled the local industry. As well as vowing to set back wind farms, the Coalition has promised to give regional communities more input into projects in their areas, and has committed to building urban solar parks in metropolitan
areas.
Victoria election, Coalition, wind farm setbacks, regional communities, farming backlash, renewable planning rules, energy investment, jobs, buffer distances, solar parks
Setbacks for wind farms?? Sounds like they’re just trying to stop progress.
I don’t get it, they’re acting like turbines are gonna eat the crops or something. If there’s buffers from like 1 to 2.2 km then why not just adjust instead of “crippling” the industry??
This is wild, they keep talking about jobs but also “most restrictive renewable rules” like that’s somehow good for farmers. Europe did it and it crippled them… so now we’re doing the opposite? Seems backwards. Also solar parks in the city?? so rich people get solar and farmers get nothing lol
Wait, was this about Victoria (Australia) or is this somehow our election too? Because I swear I saw something like this and it was all about batteries and like global warming blah blah. If they’re forcing bigger setbacks then that means less wind power right, which means higher bills, right? But they say it’s about giving communities more input like they can vote turbines out of existence.