By Jo Nova
The Rainforest Reserves community group has achieved something that the Dept of Environment, Energy and Perfect-Weather has not been able to do.
Not only has Minister Chris Bowen not managed to create a map to show off his achievements, but nor has any other government agency. Even with a billion dollar budget, the CSIRO has not made a map so user friendly, helpful and informative, nor has the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), the Australian Energy Regulator (AER), the Dept of Industry, Science and Resources (DISR), or the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC). Neither was the map done by the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), and the Climate Change Authority (CCA). It can’t be an accident… but it does look like The Blob doesn’t want to make it easy for Australians to know how vast these projects are.
ARENA got $7 billion to throw at renewable projects over 16 years. They and others, spent 3 million dollars mapping Australia to help renewables investors, but didn’t think to do a map to help Australian taxpayers? (The mapping project closed in 2021, and has now been sort of packed away.)
Usually when Ministers build industries they like to cut ribbons, wear hard-hats and brag to locals about how many jobs they are creating. Instead, it’s almost like the government doesn’t want Australians to know about all the Clean Green transformation.
Perhaps because it looks like this?
Clarke Creek Wind Turbines. Queensland. — Photo Steve Nowakowski
Australians wouldn’t be able to see this at all, if it wasn’t for Steve Nowakowski. Where was the ABC photography team? (Off having coffee in Ultimo and just being another billion dollar agency serving itself?)
From the press release: The Truth Map totals include:
- 31,000 wind turbine towers — six times the current national number to be replaced every 15-20 years, operating 30% – 40% of the time.
- 28,000 km of high-voltage transmission lines — longer than [half] a lap around the equator*.
- 7,800 km of undersea cabling — cutting through fragile marine habitats.
- 44,000 km of new haulage roads — longer than Australia’s coastline.
- 350–550 million solar grid panels covering 443,755 hectares — an area larger than metropolitan Sydney to be replaced every 25 years, operating 18% – 25% of the time.
- $1.38 trillion in total costs — overwhelmingly subsidised by taxpayers.
Caught short, Chris “Blackout” Bowen is dishing up the insults for The Australian and Rainforest Reserves.
A normal person might think the Minister for Better Weather would be delighted that volunteers have worked so hard to highlight his work and the glorious transition. Instead he made a social media post with petty insults, saying they vastly overestimated the footprint area, and were just anti-renewable, pro-nuclear activists, and the real area was only 12% as large.
Later it turned out the 12% figure came from a NSW state report and didn’t apply to the whole country. The Australian asked him to clarify, and he sent back a page of points that didn’t answer the question. The Australian prodded again, and this time the Minister’s team said the maps were inaccurate because 5 wind and 1 solar project are not proceeding. Which means, they used the recent renewables “drop outs” to attack the volunteers who had achieved more than 10 government agencies had done.
Meanwhile Rainforest Reserves said they’ve added in some new projects since it was released a few days ago, and the footprint is growing. Bowen’s team said it was “replete with errors” but didn’t explain any. (If only the Minister had an up-to-date map!).
Steve Nowakowski said that Rainforest Reserves keep the withdrawn projects on the database because they often restart in a new form later with a new investor.
Because this map was done by volunteers, there are some projects that are missing and some that have been shifted or canceled. Footprints are often moving, and investors are also running away as they see how angry the protesting farmers are, how expensive the electricity is to build things in Australia, and how delayed every transmission line is. Rainforest Reserves invites people to send in corrections and suggestions.
A few examples I took from the map: The view around Melbourne:
The area near Gladstone in Queensland:
And the giant near Kalbarri in WA. Investors in Denmark have recently abandoned the offshore wind project in this map. But the land based “hydrogen” plant north of the town is still going ahead. They plan to build 500 wind turbines and 10,000 hectares of solar panels, and the government just gave them $814 million dollars of our money to help the foreign investors make a profit.
The small town has a population of about 1,500, and the petition to oppose it had already gathered 4,197 signatures. We could add a few more.
Even if a project has been cancelled, you know the government wants it to be there…
The Rainforest Reserves site and Rainforest Reserves on X
* Corrected the Press Release. 28,000 km is only two thirds of the way around the equator.