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SupportSix years ago, leading solar energy advocate and businessman Andy McCarthy was telling Gippslandia about the recent installation of his public electric car charging station. At the time, Andy spoke of getting ridiculed for the investment, repeatedly being told lines like, “Yours will be the only car using it for years!”
These days, Andy’s phone buzzes with texts from folks grateful for being able to top up their rides with a lil’ extra juice. In fact, the charging station frequently has a line of vehicles waiting to tap into it now.
Andy would never say ‘I told you so’ outright, but he hasn’t needed to be so brash, as the growth of his business kinda does it for him. In the debut edition of Gippslandia, Andy was rightly proud of his 25 staff. Now, he’s employing about 170 people across the state, and is one of the largest employers in the renewable energy sector.
“The Stone Age didn’t end because of a lack of stones. The coal age won't end because of a lack of coal.”
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The first issue of Gippslandia was launched after the announcement of the closure of Hazelwood Power Station. Its aim was to push back against what felt like unanimous pessimistic media coverage of the news and hypothesise alternative futures that were more beneficial for the Latrobe Valley and Gippsland.
Post-announcement, the community was understandably in shock and there was a healthy degree of anger. As we swung those very first pages out of the printer and out into the street, the State Government’s media team were whirring into gear with promises of assistance, support and programs to support a ‘just transition’ – the term de rigueur.
You’ll agree, the situation has shifted substantially in the past six years.
Originally, while trying to grasp the magnitude of Hazelwood’s closure, and the future of the Latrobe Valley’s other coal mines (Yallourn: mid-2028 closure, Loy Yang A: 2035 closure and Loy Yang B: 2047 closure), we read furiously, looking for similar situations to draw parallels and promise from.
Briggs’ (1980) model – developed through examining transitioning Canadian mining towns – posited that the final stage in such a transition is New Beginnings, which occurs 3–5 years post-event and that you, “don’t force change, timing has to be right: create a long-term plan with a role for everyone; reinforce the new beginning”.
Still feels apt.
Similar to the vibrancy of epicormic shoots exploding out of blackened trunks after a bushfire – the other great trauma Gippsland has endured in the past few years – new growth and new thinking related to the energy industry is springing up throughout the region.
The following comments were received when collating the current issue are somewhat representative of the shifted outlook:
“Did we get true value from the coal mines?”
“If Gippsland is to become a renewable energy hub, are we just shifting the energy creation method, but possibly not addressing the narrative?”
“Surely, there have been opportunities to improve the current system since the 1950s… Money shouldn’t have been an issue.”
“Gippsland’s competitive advantage is electricity generation, and the knowledge of the grid and transition, not the coal anymore.”
“The Stone Age didn’t end because of a lack of stones. The coal age won't end because of a lack of coal.”
And, then there’s the following excerpt of a letter from a year 7 student in Gippsland, who was openly despondent about the future of the region and the planet:
My thoughts for Gippsland’s future have indeed changed. Instead of maybe a 7 [out of 10] earlier, I’m closer to a 9 now. As now I’m more informed about Gippsland’s future as a renewable energy
hub, and the great progress that is being made in this area.
I would say the most powerful message I heard in the conference would be that, “It’s not our future we’re building this for, it’s our children’s.” It got me thinking about how much the world has gone to the dogs with climate change over the years, and how this is going to be one step closer to healing it.
This is exactly the group, Gippslandian youngsters, that Corio Generation’s regional stakeholder manager Kate Foster believes we should be speaking with more to lead us through the coming transition.
To Kate, Gippsland has clear advantages, especially in regard to offshore wind energy, as “We’re in a unique geological position of having winds and shallow water, the transmission grid, skills and proximity to Melbourne,” making it a growth industry for tomorrow.
This preferable energy generation cocktail is why the Australian Government declared Gippsland as Australia’s offshore windfarm zone, and the first feasibility licence applications are closing next month.
Considering International Women’s Day was recently celebrated in early March, can we highlight that the majority of the Gippsland offshore wind projects are led by women: Chief Development Officer of the Star of the South, Erin Coldham; Head of Operations: Australia Project Development Manager for Flotation Energy's offshore wind project "Seadragon", Carolyn Sanders; and Development Director of Offshore Wind at Corio Generation, Penny Pickett.
To return to Andy, he stresses that now’s not the time for complacency.
“[We were] 15 years too late in starting this roadmap to a net zero world. But I don’t feel the moment has passed. We have abundant land, staff and skills. We can still capture the opportunity here.
“We haven’t done enough to assist people that are struggling with energy bills. It brings great sadness that we’re not bridging the gap in energy poverty.”
Filmmakers and podcasters Josie Hess and Stephanie Sabrinskas also highlight the need for inclusivity and action. There is hope, but we must bring more people along for the journey, which creates more varied solutions; also, we must urge communities to organise and take the steps to make change. To their credit, Josie and Steph are among a collection of people who have been instrumental in making the vast swathes of mine research undertaken since 2016 more easily accessible for all.
“Supporting community agency by assisting people to understand what level of decision making they are being provided and to act on that in a valuable way,” recommends Bodye Darvill in her 2022 research.
Adding that “the renewable energy transformation in Gippsland will be significant,” that social licence for this transformation is not currently a problem, but that this could change if “multiple projects mismanage their implementation and engagement strategies”.
Gippsland’s First Peoples are intrinsic to this conversation. The Gunaikurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation (GLaWAC) has released a position statement on the proposed offshore renewable energy infrastructure in Bass Strait off Gippsland. Ramahyuck District Aboriginal Corporation in Sale was set to launch Victoria’s first Aboriginal-owned solar farm.
The continued democratisation and decentralisation of energy in Gippsland has been a key element of the ongoing transition: from individual sporting clubs and community organisations placing photovoltaic panels on their properties to offset energy costs, to edge-of-grid communities like Heyfield, Venus Bay and Omeo creating their own microgrids and community power hubs.
Totally Renewable Phillip Island hope that a range of projects will help them become 100% renewable by 2030. Ironically, Mallacoota, the last Victorian town to switch to State Electricity Commission (SEC) power in 1972, is on its way to becoming one of the first towns to step away again.
As Gippsland Climate Change Network (GCCN) CEO Darren McCubbin explains, “Decentralised power gives towns ownership over their electricity, as well as options, choice and resiliency.”
Darren also highlights the 50-kilowatt floating solar demonstration project on the Lardner Park dam – a collaboration between the GCCN and Lardner Park. The floating system will help bolster energy for major events, with a 100-kilowatt solar system already installed on the Baw Baw Pavillion.
Discussing floating power generation systems in Gippsland would have seemed somewhat foreign six years ago, but now we are talking about hydrogen-powered vehicles and carbon capture, and the national media is penning pieces on ‘Japan to spend $2.35 billion on turning
Latrobe Valley coal into clean hydrogen’.
Heck, apparently Gippsland has a world-class geothermal resource (temperatures up to a balmy 67°C) and is rich in biomass resources that can be utilised in bioplastics, cosmetics, fuel and cleaning products.
There’s also the Marinus Link interconnector, a 255 km high voltage direct current (HVDC) cable under the Bass Strait, which will provide a two-way connection of electricity and telecommunications between Tassie and Victoria. The flow of electricity in both directions aims to allow consumers to tap into the cheapest available energy from each state.
Yes, we still have a way to go, but there has been a tectonic shift in the region over the past six years. You tell us, is the transition ‘just’?
In another six years, it will be 2029, which is the anticipated launch period of Australia’s most advanced offshore wind project – Star of the South, possibly the stepping-off point for the next phase of our transition. If developed to its full potential, Star of the South will generate up to 2.2 gigawatts of new capacity or 20% of Victoria’s electricity needs, powering around 1.2 million homes across the state.
Just over one hundred years since Sir John Monash turned one of the first sods of soil for the Yallourn coal mine, Gippsland is again on the verge of a new age – one that rests firmly in the hands of its residents. If so, surely we could get nudged up to a 10/10…at least a solid 9.5 in the right lighting!