The renewables front has become a real source of anxiety in rural areas, so it was no surprise that Andrew "Twiggy" Forrest's comment at a recent National Press Club appearance in Canberra got a few people stirred up.
Subscribe now for unlimited access to all our agricultural news
across the nation
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
He made some valid points, like the need to compensate farmers fairly - that should also probably include their neighbours - as well as the need to protect prime agricultural land ("Forrest urges renewable rush", The Land, February 29, p8).
It was also promising to see he has plans to decommission at least some of the renewable energy generation set-ups he'll be building under his operation, called Squadron.
One point that needs more context though is Twiggy's message around how much land these projects will require.
He said "only half a per cent of Australia's land mass" will be needed to enable environmental sustainability.
However, if the location of where many of the existing renewables were being built or planned is considered, it quickly becomes apparent there is a conflict with protecting prime agricultural land.
Additionally, the location to transmission infrastructure on land that allows as easy, cost-effective power delivery access to populations also happens to coincide with the eastern state's main cropping and mixed farming belt.
So if you take Twiggy's seemingly innocent point that we only need half of a per cent of Australia's total land mass to build enough renewables to counteract our emissions and put this against where these renewables are most likely to be cost-effectively built, and also the fact that Australia only has about 4pc of its land mass that's suitable for arable use, then it starts to quickly eat into our food producing capabilities.
In fact, if all those renewables went onto arable land, it would take out about 12pc Australia's arable total.
Obviously set-ups like the wind farms are also built in the hills, but it just shows how quickly these projects can cause a land use problem when people throw around what seems like insignificantly small values, but which translate very quickly into extremely significant areas of land indeed.
Along with actual infrastructure and land access issues that come with development, it quickly becomes clear why farmers are frustrated at the blasé attitude many have towards this growing issue.
