Monday 17th March 2025
| What’s missing in the renewable/nuclear debate? In this newsletter we examine issues that the government are failing to disclose and where we have been misled by the government, experts and energy generators as they carve up of the Australian energy market. We also look at who pays? It’s Australian taxpayers, rural and regional communities, landowners, businesses and communities that are being unnecessarily wiped out. |
1 – Property devaluation
Property values can be directly affected by easements for transmission lines and siting of wind turbines, that are addressed through compensation packages and leases. Whether these are sufficient in the long-term would need to be assessed on a case-by-case basis. It is also unclear whether these costs are properly incorporated into financial models or passed on to taxpayers through other mechanisms.
A further issue effecting properties is referred to as the site demographics. Features around a site that effect it’s value. For instance, being close to a nuclear power station, or within sight of wind turbines and transmission lines would reduce the demographic appeal of a property and its corresponding value. This is very hard to assess as every property is different and there are a range of factors apart from site demographics that effect property values [1].
Importantly there are only 7 nuclear power stations currently proposed compared with 10,000km of new transmission lines and some 41,000 wind turbines for the 100% renewables pathway. This makes the impacts of property devaluations due to deteriorating site demographics orders of magnitude worse for the 100% Renewables pathway, than the nuclear power alternative. It’s understandable that many regional and outback communities are very upset by current renewables projects [2].
| Figure 1 – Net Zero Australia proposed siting for solar farms, wind farms and transmission lines, has been ignored by the government and developers in the Capacity Investment Scheme (CIS) where it is far more profitable to develop sites along the Great Dividing Range, Hinterland and Coastline [4]. |  |
2 – Environmental Damage
For coal-to-nuclear (C2N) projects, the same site is re-used, and environmental damage is kept to a minimum. Renewables projects by comparison take up thousands of square kilometers of land that can be damaged [3].
Major research was presented in ‘Net-Zero Australia Report’ July 2023 [4] where this issue was addressed, by locating zones for wind turbines and solar farms in arid areas where environmental damage could be minimized. These were well inland from the Great Dividing Range on far less valuable land, see Figure 1.
This is not where the wind farms are going. Instead, it is quicker, easier, and more profitable for developers to locate wind and solar farms close to existing grids and road infrastructure. As a result, considerable environmental damage is occurring along the Great Dividing Range, hinterland, coastal areas and critically sensitive areas around Armidale in NSW and the Atherton Tableland in Queensland [5].
3 – Loss of Biodiversity
A loss of biodiversity occurs through direct damage to areas that are cleared for roads, transmission lines and wind farms. Birds and bats can be hit by turbine blades. These are countered in small but not unimportant numbers. What is of more concern is large migrating flocks of birds that aren’t considered, and if they are blown off course deaths could be in the thousands. This is particularly concerning for coastal and offshore wind farms as migratory birds often follow coastlines, the same locations that make optimal sites for wind turbines.
Biodiversity is also affected by a process of fragmentation, or dividing a nature reserve into parts, as occurs when transmission lines, roads and wind farms are installed. The reasons for this are that some animals flee, and for others the pool of breeding partners in each fragment is reduced and this has a knock-on effect to animal health and the risk of genetic weaknesses [6].
4 – Added Road Infrastructure
The transportation of wind turbine blades that are up to 80m long requires road widening, clearing trees at road intersections, and clearing of zones adjacent to wind turbine installations, for hoisting the blades into position.
This involves road works, tree removal, road widening, and clearing of land. When this is done without regard for removing spoil, and providing drainage, it can result in knock-on damage to surrounding bush.
The costs for this work and any site remediation needs to be considered in cost assessments, and identified as developer, utility, federal, state or local government cost. There aren’t any studies for the thousands of roads and intersections that will be needed but putting it in perspective a single road bypass at Muswellbrook, NSW is $340 million. This hidden cost is massive and points to something no one is talking about, the price of building road systems for wind farms [7].
5 – Added Port Facilities
Port facility changes are needed for unloading onshore wind turbines, and for unloading and preassembly of offshore wind turbines. Added port facilities, or new ports are needed to provide construction and operational facilities for offshore wind farms. The costs of these facilities need to be included in costing energy options [8].
Port facilities also may need to be modified for handling nuclear power plant components, due to the weight of reactors and pressure vessels, being at the upper end of crane liftin capacities.
6 – Energy Intense Industry Closures
There’s a saying in consulting companies that “our assets wear shoes.” In other words, if they don’t like a given situation, they can just walk out. The same is true for businesses operating in Australia. If energy and other costs are too high, they can just shutdown, walk out, or relocate to another country.
Financial incentives to keep these businesses may work in the short-term at a cost to taxpayers, but there are no guarantees that effected businesses will stay. If this strategy is used, then the costs of these incentives need to be factored into energy cost comparisons [9].
7 – Inability to Attract High Value Industries, Large Datacentres and Emerging AI
Microsoft, Apple, Google and Amazon all demand very reliable, baseload, green energy, and as a result there has been a significant increase in the demand for nuclear energy in the USA that is set to continue. In addition, datacentre precincts are forming in the USA within proximity of nuclear power stations [10].
8 – Losses in Established Communities
Long established communities in both the Latrobe Valley and Hunter Valley, and other coal mining and power generation centres in Australia have gravitated around employment opportunities at both the power stations and mines. This includes towns, businesses, schools, hospitals and a wide range of other facilities that have serviced these communities, many from the 1950s onwards.
In a coal-to-nuclear (C2N) energy transition, these communities are bolstered with construction activities, followed by new power generation and associated businesses such as datacentres that are ideally located close to power stations.
It is expected that coal mining jobs will be lost, but there will be lots of opportunities created by a range of other business activities, that would be lost in a closure of coal power stations and the erection of China made wind turbines and solar farms, spread out to other areas. The overall consequences of this change involve significant personal losses for effected communities as well as added government costs associated with building new communities to accommodate dislocated regional centres [11].
References
[1] https://www.conciergebuyersadvocates.com.au/post/is-it-ok-to-buy-properties-near-powerlines
[3] https://www.eait.uq.edu.au/files/46224/nuclear-energy-study-what-would-be-required.pdf
[5] https://www.rainforestreserves.org.au/impacts-of-largescale-renewables
[7] https://bigrigs.com.au/2023/07/12/340m-bypass-needed-to-truck-giant-wind-turbines-to-nsw-sites/
[8] https://latrobevalleyexpress.com.au/news/2025/03/11/port-of-hastings-wind-project-in-limbo/
[9] https://frontline.asn.au/news/manufacturing-in-australia-is-in-terminal-decline/
[10] https://www.jll.com.au/en/trends-and-insights/research/data-center-outlook