Liberal energy minister likes wind energy, supports new wind farm

The minister for energy in Tasmania’s Liberal state government, Matthew Groom, has broken ranks with his federal and state counterparts, coming out in support of renewables, in general, and wind farms in particular, at a conference on Thursday.

“I support the renewable energy (target) broadly,” Groom told the Tasmanian Minerals and Energy conference at Queenstown, where he also called for more renewable energy infrastructure to be built – namely a second Bass Strait cable connecting Tasmania to the NEM – to capitalise on the state’s “extraordinary” green energy potential.

“We have extraordinary resources in Tasmania and some of the best sites on the face of the planet on which to build them,” he said.

In particular, he said, he looked forward to seeing progress on a 99MW wind farm proposed for Granville Harbour, on the state’s west coast, which – despite having full development approval – has been on hold for years due to uncertainty around the Renewable Energy Target.

The wind farm, which was proposed by local beef farmer Royce Smith, would see the installation of up to 33 turbines on Smith’s 120 hectare property, and deliver a projected $120-200 million into the local economy.

“It hasn’t been trouble finding investors, it’s just the uncertainty in the Renewable Energy Target has held everything up at the ­moment,” Smith told the Sunday Tasmanian in November last year.

“I know it’s 20 per cent but that’s a floating number which would make investors fairly nervous I should imagine.”

As Tasmanian ALP Senator Anne Urquhart told the Senate in March, the Granville Harbour project’s proponents approached the member for Braddon, Brett Whiteley, last year about the possibility of grandfathering the project under existing RET conditions.

“This would have guaranteed investment and ensured that investments and jobs would follow,” Urquhart said. “Despite Mr Whiteley proclaiming that he was very supportive of the project, we have seen no tangible action from him to protect or advance the Granville Harbour wind farm. The proponents have tried to overcome the sovereign risk put in their way by the Abbott government’s broken promise, but government members have done nothing.”

Groom – who in October last year, expressed disappointment at the cancellation of Hydro Tasmania’s $2 billion wind farm project proposal for King Island – said he hoped the passing of the amended RET legislation would offer the kind of certainty the industry needed to advance projects Granville Harbour.

And he said building a second interconnector cable across the Bass Strait to export power to the mainland was a key part of making the most of Tasmania’s renewable energy advantages.

“If a second cable is justified by a business case, it should be seen as a regulated asset funded through mainland users and perhaps a federal contribution,” Groom reportedly told the conference.

He said Japanese investors who recently visited Tasmania were gobsmacked by the state’s energy mix, and that government and industry needed to harness that competitive advantage.