The New South Wales Government has released its Renewable Energy Planning Framework, aiming to speed up planning decisions, provide investment certainty and boost economic benefits for regional communities.
The new framework includes a suite of guidelines and tools that will play an important role in supporting the State Government’s legislated Electricity Infrastructure Roadmap and emissions reduction targets.
The New South Wales Government said that while there is broad support for renewable energy across the state, there have increasingly been calls from local communities for greater certainty and transparency from government on how renewable projects will be assessed and managed over their lifecycle.
In response to these calls and the recommendations of the Electricity Supply and Reliability Check Up, the new Renewable Energy Planning Framework includes five new and updated guidelines:
- Wind energy guidelines – provides advice on planning considerations relevant to wind energy development, including visual impacts, site selection and decommissioning
- Transmission guidelines – addresses route selection, community consultation expectations and visual impact assessment
- Solar energy guidelines – revisions to the existing guideline to provide additional advice on decommissioning and incorporate other aspects of the framework
- Benefit sharing guidelines – encourages equitable and sustainable distribution of benefits to local communities
- Private agreement guidelines – advises landholders and renewable energy developers on key considerations when negotiating commercial agreements for hosting renewable energy projects
The framework introduces setbacks to avoid significant visual impacts from wind energy and transmission infrastructure, updates requirements for assessing hypothetical dwellings and establishes the government’s expectations for how benefits from renewable energy projects will flow directly to regions. This is expected to generate over $400 million to support community and local government initiatives.
The New South Wales Government said it is an important step in its plan to deliver clean, affordable energy to the grid, reduce emissions, create jobs and boost regional economies by driving down pressure on electricity prices.
The State Government has also released the Renewable Energy Transition Update to summarise progress on government actions to deliver a clean, affordable and reliable energy system.
The New South Wales Government said planning approvals are an important step toward the state reaching its goals, having approved 29 renewable energy and transmission projects that will deliver 5.7GW of new energy generation and 6.3GW (or 15.4GWh) of storage since 2023.
In the same time frame, the State Government said it has also granted planning approval for the Central West Orana Renewable Energy Zone (REZ) transmission project and declared six renewable energy projects Critical State Significant Infrastructure (CSSI).
The New South Wales Government said it is committed to taking further action to manage the impacts of the transition in order to support host communities while enabling and incentivising development in the state, including:
- Investigating further opportunities to fast-track assessments, including evaluating impacts and issues at a strategic level, so they do not need to be interrogated on a project-by-project basis
- Addressing cumulative impacts in REZs such as traffic and transport, housing and workforce accommodation, social infrastructure and services, water security and waste management
- Engaging and supporting communities by expanding the role of the Energy and Water Ombudsman NSW to provide independent ombudsman services for new transmission and renewable energy infrastructure projects
The new framework was developed based on extensive consultation with stakeholders, including industry and local communities and incorporates feedback received through the public exhibition period from 14 November 2023 to 29 January 2024.
New South Wales Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Penny Sharpe, said the state is leading a once-in-a-generation upgrade of the electricity network, building the infrastructure needed to keep the lights on and put downward pressure on prices.
“We are working across government to reduce barriers to investment and deliver lasting benefits to regional communities,” Ms Sharpe said.
“Having a clear, transparent planning system will pave the way for a reliable and clean energy system.”
New South Wales Minister for Planning and Public Spaces, Paul Scully, said it’s vital the planning system actively supports the energy transition and delivers timely approvals on development applications.
“Greater certainty and transparency over renewable energy assessment processes means more renewables faster, cheaper electricity bills and more jobs. It also means communities and industry know what to expect of the planning system.
“It is critical that we continue to work collaboratively with communities and industry to minimise impacts, develop effective solutions where challenges exist and provide support where it’s needed, which is why the addition of a Benefit Sharing Guideline is so important.”
