Vol. No. Vol. 2218No. 20 27
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Wednesday, January 13, 13, 2019 2016 Wednesday, November PERFORMING PASSION: 2012 Richard Morris Scholarship recipient Grace O’Donnell-Clancy is excited to return to her roots and perform at the RM Showcase at Horsham Town Hall on Saturday. The Horsham singer, whose most recent role was as a cruise ship singer for company Royal Caribbean International, said she was looking forward to being part of the 2019 performing arts event alongside fellow Horsham export Alex Rathgeber. “It’s a very special event for me. I can’t wait,” she said. “It will be great to see Alex perform as well. He’s really set the benchmark.” Story, page 15. Picture: PAUL CARRACHER
‘New gold rush’ BY COLIN MacGILLIVRAY
D
evelopment leaders believe the Wimmera-Grampians region is on the precipice of a potential multi-billion-dollar boom spurred by a new Victorian Renewable Energy Target, VRET.
The State Government last month signed the VRET into law, requiring Victoria to generate 50 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2030. Grampians New Energy Taskforce chairman Stuart Benjamin said the
region was poised to be one of the main contributors to the state’s energy future. He said about $5-billion of projects in the region were ‘in the pipeline at the moment’, with possible future upgrades to power-transmission infrastructure potentially generating another $7-billion. He said limited power-transmission capabilities were the only thing holding the region back from becoming Victoria’s renewable-power centre. “We’ve got a real opportunity here to take control of our own energy
future,” he said. “I’ve referred to it before as a new gold rush, and we’ve got the ability across the Wimmera and Grampians regions to be generating all of the energy that Victoria needs. “We’ve got a community that understands that not only do we get a sugar hit when these projects are built in terms of construction dollars coming into our region, but we get the ongoing jobs that come from the maintenance of those facilities and also the security of having power. “For us to have that as yet another
industry to add to our main industry of agriculture is a huge advantage that other areas don’t have; they don’t have the sun, they don’t have the wind and they don’t have the land area. “We’ve got those things, and once we get the transmission upgrades nothing will stop us.” Mr Benjamin said the Australian Energy Regulator had committed to funding $350-million of power-transmission upgrades within Victoria. A proposed electricity interconnector between South Australia and New South Wales with a link to Red Cliffs
in northwest Victoria has potential to further enhance the power-distribution capability of the region. “That transmission upgrade will allow us to generate more energy in the Wimmera and then distribute it into the national grid, so that if we don’t need it we can sell it to the rest of the country, all the way up to north Queensland if that’s where it’s needed,” Mr Benjamin said. He said other opportunities for reducing emissions could come from innovations such as microgrids. Continued page 3
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