Federal environmental laws 'single biggest challenge' for delivering renewable energy projects in Australia

A new report has identified assessments under the EPBC Act as the “single biggest challenge for delivering renewable energy projects” in Australia. (Supplied: Tadgh Cullen (DP Energy))

In far north Queensland, traditional owners, clean energy developers and conservationists had spent three long years sweating on this decision.

Depending on which side you believed, this development would either supply 150,000 homes with clean, green energy or destroy the forest habitat of threatened native species.

Late on Friday, the wait was finally over.

An email from Ark Energy landed in inboxes, announcing the company had “withdrawn the Wooroora Station Wind Farm proposal from the federal environmental assessment process.”

In other words, the proposed project was dead.

The Korean-owned developer had planned to clear more than 500 hectares of native vegetation next to the Wet Tropics of Queensland World Heritage Area, home to animals including the koala and magnificent brood frog.

It had been so fiercely contested that the developer was forced to change the name of the project, from Chalumbin to Wooroora, late last year and drastically scale back the number of turbines from 200 to just 42.

In its email on Friday, Ark Energy said it had received information that the project — which had been in the federal environmental assessment process for almost three years – was unlikely to be given the green light.

Conservationist and nature photographer Steven Nowakowski, who was strongly opposed, expressed both relief and frustration at the outcome.

“We had to fight against a project that should never have been proposed in that location in the first place,” he said.

Any development that could impact, or is seeking to clear, the habitat of threatened species must be assessed under federal environmental protection laws called the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act.

Federal environmental assessments taking too long

A record 130 renewable energy projects are currently being assessed under the federal regime, a process that Clean Energy Investor Group CEO Simon Corbell said “lacks predictability, transparency and timeliness”.

“We see many instances where projects are taking several years to achieve an assessment decision and we’re also seeing instances where after several years, projects are still being asked for more information well after the time that they’ve originally lodged,” he said.

Mr Corbell said “substantive improvements” were needed if Australia is to reach its target of doubling renewable energy generation within six years.

A new report from the CEIG and law firm Herbert Smith Freehills has identified assessments under the EPBC Act as the “single biggest challenge for delivering renewable energy projects” in Australia.

According to government figures, it’s taking around 80 weeks, or 20 months, to reach a final decision under the EPBC Act. For the failed Wooroora Station Wind Farm, a final decision was delayed five times.

This often comes on top of the state approvals process that varies greatly, according to the report.

Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek said she had approved 46 clean energy projects since coming to power in 2022.

She recently announced an extra $100 million in funding to help speed up assessments, but Ms Plibersek has delayed making more substantial changes to environmental laws that she has previously conceded are bad for both business and nature.

‘You can’t solve climate change by destroying nature’

It’s a careful balancing act for Albanese government: supporting the rapid rollout of renewables to cut emissions, while ensuring the wave of new projects doesn’t harm the environment in the process.

With time and cost pressures rising, renewable companies are increasingly seeking out uncleared land for potential new developments because of pushback from farmers and regional communities who won’t want wind, solar and transmission projects on their land.

But this is “not the solution”, according to the Australian Conservation Foundation CEO Kelly O’Shanassy, who said renewable projects should be limited to the vast amount of land that’s already been cleared in Australia.

Ms O’Shanassy wants stronger planning laws and clearer guidelines to ensure “we’re not putting renewable energy in places that will damage nature”.

“You can’t solve climate change by destroying nature,” she said, noting land clearing was one of the biggest causes of extinction in Australia.

Felicity Wade from Labor’s Environment Action Network (LEAN) strongly supports a rapid clean energy transition but warns “you can’t rob Peter to pay Paul”.

“The bottom line is, important habitat is not the place to put renewable energy,” she said.

By 2030, the government wants 82 per cent of Australia’s energy to come from renewable sources, up from about 32 per cent now.

The often chaotic and ad hoc approach to development has seen tensions arise over land-use, and the planning process bogged down by projects that in some cases, shouldn’t be built.

Mr Corbell applauded federal government moves to map “no-go zones” for future developments, and the states for embracing renewable energy zones to coordinate where wind, solar and transmission projects should be built.

Former energy infrastructure commissioner Andrew Dyer — who wrote the Community Engagement Review — said a whole of government response was required to ensure an orderly exit of coal from the power grid.

“We need to figure out what we need to build and where we need to build it,” he told The Australian.