Labor lies yet again on promising renewables it won’t deliver
Labor’s Energy Minister, Lily D’Ambrosio, hasspruiked plans for renewable energy projects that she alleges “will help drive Victoria’s economic recovery from coronavirus.”
While the Liberal ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾s support renewables, and the need for a considered clean energy transition to reduce emissions, the Andrews Labor Government has consistently failed to effectively manage the introduction of new renewables into Victoria’s energy grid.
MinisterD’Ambrosio’s recent media release claims the Labor Government’s Victorian Renewable Energy Auction Scheme (VREAS) has delivered of renewables. This is false.
None of projects the Government supported under VREAS is listed on the Government’s own website as operational. Five are listed as ‘under construction’, one is ‘approved but not operational’.
Only 13 of 82 announced Victorian large-scale solar are actually operational, providing a tiny of the total energy promised. Of 55 announced wind projects, only 28 are operational, providing just of the energy promised.
The Government’s own website estimates these projects will now only deliver 669.5MW of renewable power, 32 per cent less than the the Minister referenced today. The Minister is either ignorant of the truth or simply attempting to mislead Victorians
Daniel Andrews’ failure to invest in Victoria’s transmission network means the power which is being generated is not actually reaching Victorian homes.
The Government has known since at least mid-last year that its poor planning of renewables projects in Western Victoria required in transmission network upgrades d for power to be transmitted to Victorian homes. Construction on those upgrades has not even started.
This means, staggeringly, almost a quarter of the energy produced by some renewables projects is lost in . That is power from the few projects that are fully operational, entering the grid but being lost before it gets to Victorian homes.
With all these failures on renewables, it is no wonder that Victorian electricity prices have gone up in under five years, which times where over suffer blackouts.
As stated by Shadow Minister for Energy, Ryan Smith:
“The Victorian Liberal ³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾s support renewables. We do not support Daniel Andrews’ approach, which produced just 8.4 per cent of promised solar and 37 per cent of promised wind.
“You cannot trust Daniel Andrews and Labor to deliver renewables or keep power prices down.
“With Labor’s complete failure to invest the $370 million needed to upgrade our electricity grid, is it any wonder power prices have gone up and energy is less reliable?”
