WA Renewables rollout takes a pause

29 August 2024

This month in WA Business News there was an interesting article by Mark Beyer: “Renewables rollout takes a pause”

Its startling subheading reads: “All the talk is on renewables, yet there are no major wind or solar projects currently under construction in WA’s South West”

The article goes on to say:

“If talk translated to action, Western Australia would be awash with new wind farms and solar farms.

The state government has committed to phasing out Synergy’s coal-fired power stations by 2030, with renewables to fill the gap. It has also set aside funding to expand its own wind portfolio, and encouraged the private sector to invest.

That has fostered a long list of potential projects but, as we speak, nothing is under construction.”

In light of the recent debate about the potentially growing need for more domestic gas this is both bizarre and troubling. How – in what should be a time of rapid transition to renewable energy – has WA got no projects on the go?

The answer is frankly a failure of WA Government policy: Policies that mean good projects aren’t getting the offtake or power-purchasing agreements they need; policies that have delayed the much-needed new transmission lines by unsuccessfully trying to push to cost of building it to the private sector; policies that have resulted in painfully long delays in approvals by government bodies like Western Power; and policies that have failed to give industry the certainty it needs to invest in renewable energy in WA at scale, like being the only state without a 2030 emissions target or a renewable energy target.

As a result, WA’s main grid has only had one significant renewable energy project come online since 2021. There were none in 2022, none in 2023, and only Flat Rocks wind farm in the first half of 2024. At what should be a time of rapid transmission this is unacceptable.

All this said I remain hopeful that a swathe of renewable energy projects will still come on stream in the next year or two. I know that the renewable energy sector is keen to go, the question is: will the WA Government move to enable this or continue to put there foot on the hose”