THE Murray River Group of Councils says there is a unique opportunity to unlock northern Victoria’s huge potential for large-scale solar projects.
The group, which includes Mildura and Swan Hill Rural City councils and Loddon, Gannawarra, Campaspe and Moira shires, said that with unprecedented support from political representatives at all levels, northern Victoria was primed to become a renewable energy powerhouse.
The organisation has been calling for urgent investment to increase capacity in Victoria’s transmission network, which would release about $5 billion of investment in solar farms that already have planning permits in the region and get them feeding renewable energy into the grid.
Executive officer Geoff Turner said Member for Mallee Anne Webster recently make a strong speech in Federal Parliament in support of renewable energy for the region.
“We would like to thank Anne Webster, and can I say the Murray River Group of Councils fully supports her calls for investment in the grid and to prioritise projects that will increase transmission capacity — that’s exactly what we need,” Mr Turner said.
“The region is completely united in this — we have support from across northern Victoria.
“We all want to see the same thing — investment in renewable energy in our region and, most urgently, upgrades to the transmission lines to provide the capacity to get that renewable energy back into the grid.”
Unlocking the full potential for solar farms in the region would create more than 3200 construction jobs, according to modelling done for the Loddon Mallee Renewable Energy Roadmap, and would generate more than $1 billion in supply-chain benefits.
Large-scale power generation in the region could also have widespread economic development benefits by enabling the expansion of manufacturing, benefit the agricultural industry and could support hydrogen fuel cell production to power the freight industry.
“This is custom made for stimulus or recovery money as we look to build our way out of the COVID recession,” Mr Turner said.
