Federal Member for Parkes Jamie Chaffey said ground-breaking mapping data of Labor’s reckless renewables rollout proves the need for nuclear in Australia.
Mr Chaffey said the Rainforest Reserves Australia and Steven Nowakowski analysis, which can be found at https://www.rainforestreserves.org.au/renewablestruthmap , shows the shocking impact Labor’s all-renewables plan will cause on agriculture land, pristine natural landscapes and regional communities, including the Parkes electorate.
The mapping outlines the scale and size of every site in Australia and the footprint it will leave, with clickable, real-time data.
It shows the vast amount of land being taken up by Labor’s 1126 projects, requiring 44,895.5 kilometres of new haulage roads for more than 300 wind projects, along with an additional 443,000 hectares of prime land for 545 new solar projects. The total number of solar panels proposed totals a staggering 584 million.
“I have heard many times from people in the Parkes electorate how concerned they are about this ill-considered rush to rollout more than a thousand wind, battery and solar projects,” Mr Chaffey said.
“This mapping is clear evidence of the huge impact these projects will have on agricultural farmland, and on forests and our naturally beautiful areas. It shows we need to lift the nuclear moratorium. We need to carefully think out a balanced and technology neutral energy mix to prevent the devastating impact of these hasty projects.
“The mapping shows Labor is destroying the very thing we are trying to protect – the environment.
“Regional Australians in the Parkes electorate are being forced to bear the burden of this renewables rollout, but after the all the agriculture land is ripped up, after all the forests are destroyed, it still won’t generate the energy Australia need. It is clearly ripping a path to destruction without achieving its aim.”
Environmentalist Steven Nowakowski said the mapping was the most comprehensive to date.
“This is a trillion-dollar industry yet no one has done this mapping before,” Mr Nowakowski said. “This was a three-year project, the irony being it was undertaken by volunteers.
“Australians can now see the impact for themselves. Every project is online, and clickable, showing the size of the wind farm or the solar farm. It has been a huge piece of work that every Australian needs to know about.”
Rainforest Reserves mapping snapshot across Australia (key data):
- 205 BESS (battery energy storage system) projects
- 13 hydrogen
- 13 hydro projects (expansion of existing or new)
- 24 pumped hydros
- 545 solar
- 296 onshore wind (101 commissioned and operational)
- 28 offshore wind (proposed)
- 2 tidal
Total 1,126 projects
Some keys stats in mapping:
- Total length of proposed new haulage roads for wind – 44,895.5km
- Total surface area for solar
- existing 27,176 ha
- proposed 443,755 ha
- Total undersea cabling length for offshore wind
- Proposed 7,980.9km
- Total number of wind towers
- Existing 4,552
- Total number of wind towers (including hydrogen)
- Proposed 25,869 (5,495 for hydrogen) and offshore wind
- Total number of solar panels (utility and rooftop)
- Existing 82,025,000
- Total number of solar panels (utility and rooftop)
- Proposed 584,000,000
TOTAL COST: $1.328 trillion (excluding transmission, roof top solar, home BESS & 15GW of new gas projects).
ENDS
Caption: Federal Member for Parkes Jamie Chaffey (right) with community members who are concerned about the Hampton Park Renewable Project proposed for a site near Dubbo.