Renewables Roadblock: Wind & Solar Transition Meets Real Community Opposition

When ideology is all, reality has a nasty habit of undoing the grandest of plans. So it is with the great wind and solar ‘reset’. The economic storage of intermittent wind and solar is a fantastic pipe dream; the colossal expense attached to mythical mega-batteries means that it will remain so.

The minerals required for any kind of wind and solar transition will outstrip the world’s resources 10 times over; hence rocketing prices for base metals, like copper and the rare earths that go into every turbine and solar panel. And the demand for land is already seeing renewable energy rent seekers forced to rub up against real community opposition, which will only increase in its hostility.

Gone are the days when wind power outfits could throw $10,000 a year to spear a turbine into the back paddock of some gullible farmer. These days, they’re aware that the owner of that turbine gets annual REC subsidies in the order of $800,000-1,000,000 (for a single turbine) in addition to the electricity they sell and tend to bargain harder, if at all.

One way of avoiding hostile reactions from closely settled farming communities is to head further afield. To that end wind and solar outfits are looking at Australia’s sparsely populated pastoral rangelands, a fair proportion of which are subject to Aboriginal land or native title rights.

Credit to their leadership, they don’t appear all that keen on being treated in the same way that Australian farming communities have been by wind and solar outfits, to date.

Eric Worrall reports on some real community opposition to the great wind and solar scam.

Australia’s Green Energy Dream Sinking Under Royalty Demands, Tradie Shortages
Watts Up With That?
Eric Worrall
21 November 2022

Was this in the budget? Australian Aboriginals have joined farmers in demanding cash payouts or royalties for renewable energy installations which impact their land.

‘Don’t make the same mistake’: Traditional Owners’ warning over renewable projects on Aboriginal land
SBS
Tom Canetti
20 November 2022

First Nations experts and Traditional Owners say the federal government must properly consult and share benefits with Aboriginal people in the development of the new green economy.

Published 20 November 2022 at 6:45am
By Tom Canetti

HIGHLIGHTS

• • Indigenous climate activists have protested at COP27.
  • First Nations people in Australia say they aren’t consulted on fossil fuel mining projects on their land.
  • They say this is a mistake Australia can’t make in the renewables transition.

Traditional Owners and Aboriginal sustainability experts have warned the Australian government against making the same “mistake” it did with fossil fuel mining, and to properly consult First Nations leaders before developing renewable energy projects on their land.

It came as Indigenous activists from across the planet called on governments to respect First Nations’ land rights during COP27 – the United Nation’s annual climate conference.

Experts say coal and gas projects, which have received bipartisan support from Australian governments, have gone ahead on Aboriginal land without their approval and without equal sharing of benefits.

With the transition to green energy and and an influx of investment into renewable projects, Dr Heidi Norman, convener of the Indigenous Land and Justice Research Hub, told SBS News that now is the “best opportunity for Australia to rethink its relationship with Aboriginal people”.
SBS

A few weeks ago farmers reached an agreement to be paid $200,000 per km ($320,000 / mile) for green energy grid lines which cross their land, on the grounds that the new lines are a fire hazard – fire fighting helicopters refuse to approach power lines, for obvious reasons.

Australia is facing a severe skills shortage – there aren’t enough electricians to implement the green revolution AND service Australia’s ongoing mining projects.

On top of this, greens have started demanding energy storage targets, to address obvious problems with their green energy revolution.

In every direction people are demanding cash payouts, with substantial justification – Aboriginals, because they don’t want to be exploited without compensation, farmers, to cover loss of land use and increased fire risk, and greens, to address the obvious need for energy storage to back the unreliables.

Something tells me Prime Minister Albanese’s green revolution is either going to suffer a gigantic cost blowout, or die a death of a thousand cuts.
Watts Up With That?