A multinational utility in Australia is offering an annual AU$1,000 rebate to ratepayers near its renewable energy projects, which increasingly face delays due to community opposition.
“Everybody wants green power, but a lot of people don’t want it in their backyard,” Rik de Buyserie, French energy giant Engie’s Australian CEO, told Financial Review.
Engie came up with the idea as it moved to establish a 1.9-gigawatt wind and solar project called The Plains in Hay, New South Wales (NSW). “The local community wanted a direct, tangible benefit, rather than just the usual route of a community fund for local sports and facilities,” writes RenewEconomy.
The utility offered $1,000 energy rebates to consumers neighbouring its projects who switched to Engie from another provider.
All of Engie’s future projects will come with this benefit, including the contested Hills of Gold wind farm proposed in northern NSW. “The developer has cut the number of turbines from 97 to 47, following more than 50 objections led by a group called Not in Nundle, and is still waiting on a decision from the NSW Planning Commission,” RenewEconomy writes.
The rebate has been expanded to a wider range of ratepayers, including anyone affected by disruptions to visual sightlines or higher traffic volumes. In effect, it now covers Engie customers within 20 kilometres of a project. It will be available for the life of the project and is tied to the property, so future owners will still be able to receive it.
“Developers have to be on the front foot regardless of what state or federal governments are doing,” said Engie’s head of portfolio growth and commercial, Anna Hedgcock. “It is absolutely imperative if you are going to deliver a good project that is accepted by the community.”
An Engie survey attempting to understand community willingness to embrace renewables found that close to half of respondents felt actively uncomfortable with renewable energy infrastructure in their community, the company said in a release. “The research found that closing this gap relied on education and incentivizing behaviours.”
With community opposition posing a challenge for other energy projects, state governments worried about their net-zero targets have also handed out cash to win community support, writes Financial Review.
Some years ago, the NSW government offered to pay private landowners $200,000 for every kilometre of their land crossed by big infrastructure projects, following an outcry from farmers affected by the Hume Link transmission line connecting a hydropower project to the national grid.
“The mindset is moving, but then you will see another challenge in transmission,” de Buyserie said.
“Australia needs 10,000 kilometres of new transmission lines to meet its targets, and plenty of people don’t want to have them in your backyard, given their impact is far bigger than a solar panel or wind turbine.”
