“Scientifically tenuous:” Investors warn half-baked EPBC reforms will leave wind industry in the wilderness

Sweeping reforms to Australia’s national environment laws are at risk of baking in major pitfalls for renewable energy developers, a new report has warned, and of sending the beleaguered wind sector further into the development wilderness. 

Last November, federal parliament passed the most significant reforms to the EPBC Act in a generation, in a bid to strengthen environmental protections while delivering more efficient, robust and transparent project assessments.

But the Clean Energy Investor Group (CEIG) says it is still hearing from developers, and particularly developers of wind farms, that some of the draft conditions that are being explored are “way too conservative” and will have disproportionate impacts on the viability of their projects.

A report published on Wednesday by the CEIG finds that, while the proposed reforms introduce significant changes to the operation of the EPBC Act, they do not resolve some of the biggest challenges being experienced by the renewables sector.

Even more worryingly, the report warns that the addition of new statutory tests for EPBC decision making – weighing projects against National Environmental Standards, “unacceptable impacts,” and “net gains” – there is a risk of adding a further layer of complexity, rather than clarity.

“We’re at a point now where we’re really struggling to get any major wind project to close, and the markets are not sending the right signals to invite that investment,” CEIG chief Richie Merzian told Renew Economy.

“We’re in a real pinch. And so this is the time for the [federal government] to look at this with fresh eyes.”

Most pressingly, the CEIG wants the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) to rethink the EPBC Act’s “unduly conservative and risk averse approach” to assessments, which it says “appears to respond to uncertainty rather than to ecological risk.”

And on the flip-side, it wants the overhauled EPBC Act to give more weight in its decision making process to environmental benefits of renewable energy projects, like the mitigation of climate change or broader species protection measures. 

The report zeroes in on a “particular concern in industry” about the increasing imposition of curtailment conditions that make investment and financing of wind farms difficult – a grievance that was aired openly at the recent Australian Wind Energy conference in Melbourne.

“What keeps me awake at night at the moment in that development space is… a propensity to use curtailment as a cure for everything, and it’s the perfect cure for a wind farm, because it [means the project] will never get built, it will never kill a bird,” said Westwind managing director Tobias Geiger. 

“It’s really something we need to work our way through, so we don’t end up with permit conditions that make the project unfinanceable.”

The CEIG agrees.

“There’s been this sort of conservative approach, particularly to conditioning, that puts a disproportionate burden on project proponents,” says Merzian.

“I mean, there are some wind projects now that that are being faced with conditions that would render them unviable for pretty tenuous scientific reasons.”

The report sets out a number of improvements that could be made to the proposed reforms before they are signed off by federal environment minister Murray Watt, and flags the additional statutory tests and legislative instruments that could make or break the new system.

The report also notes that there are still a number of critical parts of the reformed rules that remain undecided, and a number of statutory instruments and guidelines that need to be developed ahead of the December 2026 deadline for the full commencement of the reforms.

The CEIG says overly conservative and precautionary decision making on renewable energy projects has been driven by a lack of data and understanding of a relatively new industry.

But Merzian says the report also sets out practical recommendations on how the EPBC process can move forward, with tweaks and further reforms that can be bedded down in the next 12 months – including ensuring that the new national EPA gets off on the right foot.

“We know what not to do because we looked at this issue for years and years and years,” he tells Renew Economy.

“We can and we should be doing things better, and we shouldn’t see projects just languishing in government approvals.

“As [DCCEEW] go ahead and build the [EPA] and they bed down the new standards and they come forward with some of the regulations on how this will all work, make sure that regulations don’t add additional burdens or complexity, but actually simplify and answer answer problems.

“And where there is you know, a gap in data and knowledge … then let’s actually fill that gap rather than just, you know, defaulting to the most conservative approach, which has been the case to date.”

The report recommends that the new National EPA works with external bodies over the coming 12 months to develop a “good working knowledge” of the renewables industry, including an understanding of the key risks for projects, including commercial. 

The EPA should also agree on data input and survey requirements to best allow decision makers to produce feasible conditions and to develop a better information base for risks to the environment, with a focus on outcomes for species. 

“For example, a narrow focus on wind turbine curtailment conditions might lead to worse overall outcomes for a species, compared to an outcome-focused condition that instead focuses on pest management and strategic offset,” the report says.

“The new framework must give decision-makers the confidence to make timely, evidence-based decisions,” says Merzian. 

“The successful implementation of the reforms is critical not only for investor confidence, but also for supporting the renewable energy projects needed to reduce emissions, which is fundamental to protecting the threatened species and ecosystems the EPBC Act exists to conserve.”

To join more than 29,000 others and get the latest clean energy news delivered straight to your inbox, for free, click here to subscribe to our free daily newsletter.

To support independent media, and combat AI slop, you can click here to make a one off donation or become a regular supporter of Renew Economy.