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Australia’s Victoria to speed up renewable projects

  • Spanish Market: Electricity
  • 14/03/24

Australia's Victoria state government announced today that all new renewable power projects will be treated as significant economic development and gain access to an accelerated pathway, as it looks to speed up renewable capacity additions.

The changes will make new solar and wind power projects eligible for a streamlined planning pathway under Victoria's Development Facilitation Programme (DFP), with projects then able to bypass lengthy planning panel processes. Renewable projects currently stuck in approvals will also be able to access the accelerated pathway, the state government announced on 14 March.

Since 2015, one in five applications for renewable projects have ended up at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT). The accelerated pathway removes third-party appeals at the VCAT, with decisions to be made within four months from the time a complete application is lodged for an eligible project, the government said. A dedicated facilitation team will oversee all renewable energy applications under the accelerated pathway.

Third-party objections will still have a place in the approvals process, the government said, but the changes "prevent time-consuming and repeated delays that hold these projects back for years."

Australian renewable energy association the Clean Energy Council said that uncertainty on planning process timeframes and outcomes has been a leading cause of delay to renewable projects in Victoria.

"Our understanding is that renewable energy developers will still need to self-assess whether an environmental effects statement (EES) is required," it said. "Currently, projects that require an EES are ineligible for the DFP pathway, which would cover many wind projects."

No new wind farms were approved for development in Victoria during 2023, highlighting the need for a review of planning and assessment processes, the CEC noted.

Coal-fired power dependent Victoria has a legislated target to source 50pc of its electricity generation from renewable energy by 2030, with an intention to raise the goal to 65pc by 2030 and 95pc by 2035. The share of renewables in the local power mix reached 37.8pc in 2023, up from 35.1pc in 2022, 31.6pc in 2021 and 25.6pc in 2020, according to data from the National Electricity Market's OpenNem website.


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