NORTH-west Victoria has the potential to overtake the Latrobe Valley as the centre of power generation in Victoria in the long term following a massive boost to the solar industry, a renewable investor believes.
The State Government this month announced its new renewable energy target (RET) of supplying 25 per cent of the state’s energy through renewables by 2020, before increasing it to 40 per cent by 2025.
The goal will require an extra 5400MW of predominantly large scale wind and both large and small scale solar capacity to be built within the next decade.
The current capacity sits at a total of 1200MW of large scale wind and 930MW of small scale solar.
Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio said the target would be achieved through a reverse auctions scheme and would generate 3000 new jobs in the sector by 2020 and a further 4000 between then and 2025.
Phillip Galloway, managing director of Syncline Energy, which is currently working towards developing a solar farm at Bannerton near Robinvale said the Mallee stood to benefit from the resulting increased security in the renewable sector.
“The solar resource in north-west Victoria is as good as through central NSW or south-east Queensland, and it’s superior to a lot of more coastal regions,” he said.
For more on this story, grab a copy of Wednesday’s Guardian (June 22).
