The Muster
l TRANSMIS SION LINES
Fox in the henhouse NSW is switching to renewable energy, but farmers who ostensibly support the transformation feel their rights – and their lands – are being trampled upon. Words DAVE SMITH Photography ADRIAN MERRIGAN
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ustralia’s proposed journey towards ‘net zero emissions’ by 2050 is gathering pace, with the share of electricity generated from renewable sources jumping from 6 per cent in 2018, to 21 per cent in 2019, to 28 per cent last year. NSW is at the forefront of this transformation. Over the next 15 years, the state is set to retire four of its five coal-fired power plants and replace them with five new Renewable Energy Zones (REZs) hosting wind, solar, pumped hydro and battery storage facilities. As representatives of a sector highly exposed to climate change, NSW Farmers
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THE FARMER
NOV - DEC 2021
supports the decarbonisation agenda. So do the majority of farmers – men and women with dirt under their nails who live, breathe and eat by the grace of the land and the produce it bestows upon us. But there’s a catch: hundreds of kilometres of high transmission power lines suspended by towers taller than the lights at the Sydney Cricket Ground must be built to connect the new REZs to population centres on the eastern seaboard. And Transgrid, the company that owns a 99-year lease over the NSW transmission network, wants to build many of these towers on privately owned farmland that will significantly impact
the lands’ accessibility, productivity and resale value. “This infrastructure is being located … on some of NSW’s most productive agricultural land,” NSW Upper House One Nation representative Rod Roberts said in parliament earlier this year. “Surely there is more marginal country that has less productivity capacity that could house the requirements.” A DONE DEAL
Rod also gave a stinging assessment of Transgrid’s community consultation process. “I have spoken to some of the landowners they’re dealing with and
