Moorabool Shire Council recently adopted a High-Voltage Transmission Line Setback Policy in response to current and proposed energy infrastructure projects. What does this new policy mean and how does it relate to recent setback policy development?
The transition to renewable energy generation must be harmonised with broader environmental goals to enable the exploitation of co-benefits and minimise negative socioeconomic and environmental impacts. Underground HVDC options should be deployed, using existing rights-of-way where technically feasible.
The transition to renewable energy generation in the name of climate change must not degrade the environment and biodiversity we are striving to protect. It is critical that electricity network planners seriously consider Wedge-tailed Eagle nesting, territory and habitat requirements.
AusNet’s preliminary findings require further scrutiny. Misconceptions may have inadvertently led to overhead HVAC construction being recommended as the preferred solution by the investigation and an underground solution prematurely dismissed.
AusNet Services have today announced the final preferred transmission path for the Western Victoria Transmission Network Project (WVTNP). This announcement should come as a shock to all Victorians as failure to meet the requirements of the EES risks genuine failure of the process.
By working together, with smart thinking and technology, we can engineer resilience, safeguard reliability, reduce carbon emissions, encourage renewable generation investment, create new and exciting jobs and avoid unnecessary impacts on our economy and environment.
An article today, published by The Courier, states that renewable energy advocates call for powerline construction. Stuart Benjamin, chair of the Grampians New Energy Taskforce says "no one has been able to explain why this asset can't go down the highway". It's crucial that all feasible alternatives are explored as part of the EES process.
A recent media article stated that AusNet Services will pay landholders more than $200,000 to compensate for each high voltage tower it builds on their properties. This has created heated debate around the amount of compensation and need to be discussing this now. Is the offer fact or fiction?
The EES should proportionately document the likely environmental effects of feasible alternatives, particularly where these offer a potential to avoid or minimise adverse environmental effects whilst meeting the objectives of the project. Is there a genuine risk that the EES process won't be in AusNets favour.
An open letter to Australia, published in the The Age & Sydney Morning Herald on 27 October 2021, claims that 'Transmission Delivers a Clean Energy Future'. Lets' dig a little deeper to see if these claims stack up. It's quite possible Transmission Could Deliver a Clean Energy Future!
