“We’re dealing with outrage:” Calls for industry to shape up as policy uncertainty dogs shift to renewables

Wind and solar developers are increasingly being met with “outrage” in Australia’s regional communities, a major energy conference has heard, as confusion around the shift to renewables, and debate over the Coalition’s nuclear push, causes widespread uncertainty.

Marla Brauer, the chief development officer for Westwind Energy, told All Energy Australia on Thursday that the ongoing treatment of energy as a “political football” was hampering efforts to gain social licence for the next stage of the national transition to renewables.

“What we have right now is we have a situation where at the very top level, politically, we’re talking about nuclear, no, we’re going to do offshore, no … there’s no real certainty or planning guidance or leadership …of what, exactly, we’re trying to accomplish.

“So it’s creating masses amount of uncertainty everywhere. And …when you have mass uncertainty, you get to this real … kind of outrage. And I think that’s where we’re at right now as an industry. We’re in a stage of outrage.”

Westwind is one of the biggest renewable energy developers in Australia and is one of the companies behind what will be the biggest wind farm in Australia, the 1.33 GW Golden Plains facility that is now under construction, and which has started sending power into the grid.

Brauer says that when she started at Westwind, it was on the back of a “very difficult project” that had just been completed, and was followed by a community feedback process of “about three weeks of people telling us how horrible we were.”

“So that was kind of my initiation into the industry. And I said, Never, ever, ever again. We’re going to fix this, and we’re going to do it from the top down.”

Brauer says that while engagement with communities is vital, there needs to be a higher level of honesty and transparency about the urgency of the task ahead for Australia as it transitions away from coal towards its targets of 82 per cent renewables by 2030.

“There needs to be a time to engage, but it needs to be very certain to people what that is, how long are we going to be out there? What is … the process? And then we move on, and we get things done and allow people to move into acceptance.

“If you look at the Australian Energy Infrastructure Commissioner’s report, the real angst is around this period of uncertainty. It isn’t about the projects that are operating and after that, because people move on. Australians are fantastic and a brilliant country about getting on with it,” she says

“I also think that the government needs to be a little bit stronger. I think we need to be stronger in the industry, and I think we need to be proud of what we do, and I think we all need to be carrying the torch for for the industry and realising that, yes, there’s going to be some impacts.

“Will you hear the wind farm? Yes, you will, we go out and we tell our landholders. And in construction, we’re going to make a mess of your property. And the bottom line is, this period is going to be really hard.

“And let me take you to another wind farm where we’re right there so you can see how bad it’s going to be, and then you can make a conscious decision if you want to be in this partnership with us. And it’s a partnership,

“So it’s really about going along on that journey, but also …I think we’re all, as an industry, a bit soft. I think we think we’re doing a really good thing and so we shouldn’t have to have hard conversations, or work as hard, say, as fossil fuels or mining.

“We need to equally be as hard and strong in our message about what we’re doing is good, and we should stand proud of that.”

Andy Bray, the national director of the RE-Alliance, which has worked tirelessly over the years to build a bridge between regional communities and renewable energy developers, says the message is pretty simple.

Bray and RE-Alliance have long argued that there needs to be much clearer messaging, from top political levels down, on where Australia needs to get to with renewables to replace coal and minimise dangerous climate change – and on what is in it for the regions – good and bad.

“I think industry needs to put its big-boy pants on and I think it needs to … acknowledge that it’s having a big impact,” he told the conference in Melbourne.

“Industry talks to one another about [community] engagement … but the community is not really part of that discussion,” Bray said.

Bray, and others at the plenary session, pointed to the example of the current power outages being experienced in Broken Hill in regional New South Wales, that have left left 20,000 people with little or no electricity.

“If you’re a regional community and your power experience is pretty bad, why would you be happy with the big… piece of infrastructure if it’s not improving your your electricity situation?”

“We all have a part to play in this,” adds Martine Holberton, the director of Renewables at The Energy Charter.

“Fifteen years ago … we probably did see these projects as infrastructure projects, whereas …[now], this is a huge energy transformation, where we are seeking to un-tether from one energy source and tether to something completely different, much cleaner and more sustainable.

“So this is a different era of community engagement and it needs to … ensure that these people out in the regions feel supported.

“We are dealing with outrage, and so … it’s about prioritising trust and prioritising those meaningful … impacts [your project can have] … and I think you can start building them into that process right from the start.”