Aust Greens in major NSW renewable energy push

The Australian Greens Party have moved in the New South Wales state parliament to radically step up the renewable energy sector in Australia’s most populous state.

The Australian Greens says they are confident new jobs will be created in the state’s Hunter Valley region if MPs back its legislation to transform the energy sector.

The party has seized on the conservative Liberal-National state government’s support for the national Renewable Energy Target (RET) with a Bill calling for at least one 500 megawatt coal fired electricity generating unit to be shut down by 2017.

The party also wants sensible, science-based wind farm planning guidelines introduced.

Australian Green’s energy spokesman John Kaye said the move away from coal fired base load power would not hurt the Hunter region.

“There’s a whole lot of studies out there that show pushing up the RET, moving out of coal into wind, bring three or four times the number of jobs that already exist,” he said.

“We can create new jobs, high quality jobs, unionised jobs in the wind industry, in the solar industry that will more than compensate for any loss of jobs in the coal industry.”

Plans for two Upper Hunter wind farms could benefit from the Australian Greens push to make renewable energy a bigger part of the state’s energy mix.

Scone’s Kyoto Energy Park is already approved while planning continues on the proposed Liverpool Range Wind Farm.

Mr Kaye says the government should support his party’s legislation.

“What the government is going to do to remove the barriers for renewable energy, what they’re going to encourage public and private investment,” he said.

“Hopefully (Premier) Mike Baird is turning a corner, he’s taking his government to new days where some of these Hunter wind farms can go ahead,” Mr Kaye said in parliament.