We’re helping UNE researcher Heidi Naylor get to the bottom of why people support or oppose large scale solar farms in Australia and we need your help. So grab a cup of coffee and jump onto https://loom.ly/mHpz1_w and tell us what you think. The survey takes about 15 minutes and the outcomes will be published and of interest to the sector.
Why’s this important? Well, at the National Renewables in Agriculture Conference held in Dubbo in May, we heard from a number of speakers about the challenges associated with community support for large scale renewables projects and Renew Economy published a piece just last week talking about the importance of social licence in new renewables developments.
According to the Local Power Plan developed by Indi MP, Helen Haines, AEMO’s analysis shows that the “least-cost pathway” to meet Australia’s electricity needs would involve building up to 47 gigawatts of new grid-scale renewables like solar and wind farms, 21 gigawatts of dispatchable energy like batteries, pumped hydro and virtual power plants, and a five-fold increase in distributed solar generation like rooftop panels. You can view the Local Power Plan here.
Long story short, we need ‘a lot’ of renewables development to replace Australia’s aging fossil fuel production and that’s going to involve a significant amount of community consultation.
What are you waiting for, let us know what you think and complete the survey now (thanks in advance).
