‘Damaging Queensland’s future’: Watt again takes aim at state over renewables

The federal government has given environmental approval to two major renewables projects in Queensland, despite the state government scrapping similar projects, with the federal environment minister warning the state it might be harder than it thinks to use fossil fuels to power data centres.

The Bungaban wind farm and solar farm, both on the Western Downs, were approved by minister Murray Watt on Friday, with power from the wind farm to be funnelled into Rio Tinto’s aluminium smelter in Gladstone.

The projects are expected to provide 1000 jobs at peak construction, and 50 ongoing jobs once they are finished, with Watt estimating they will provide the region with $500 million.

“This renewable energy investment is what’s going to keep those power prices at a point where Rio can keep operating, and keeping those large numbers of jobs available in heavy industry in Central Queensland,” Watt said.

The Queensland senator said the 500-megawatt solar farm received a fast approval as it was on already degraded land, while the 1400-megawatt wind farm went through strict approval processes.

The number of renewable projects in Queensland has been dwindling since an ambitious energy agenda in set by the former Labor government in 2022 was scrapped last year.

Under the new plan, coal-fired power stations will remain open until 2046, rather than 2035, thanks to a $1.8 billion upgrade package – a move Smart Energy Council chief executive David McElrea claimed earlier this month undermined investor confidence in renewables.

In an interview with the Australian Financial Review, Watt accused the state government of driving up power prices in the name of ideology.

“This ideological, anti-business stance by the LNP is scaring away companies that want to invest in our state. It’s also putting at risk jobs in heavy industry, which is craving cheaper energy to continue running their businesses,” he told the paper.

“The LNP have damaged our credit rating, damaged our reputation and are damaging Queensland’s future.”

The approval of the Western Downs projects marks the second time the region has made headlines recently, after Queensland struck a deal with Anthropic to build the nation’s largest data centre in Dalby late last month.

Queensland Premier David Crisafulli has said the deal would not be possible under the federal government’s plan for renewable energy to power all data centres, and celebrated the state getting a carve-out.

However, Watt said the state would still have to prove in every case that the use of fossil fuels for the centres would not drive up power prices.

“Frankly, I think that is going to be very hard for them to demonstrate,” Watt said.

“Because we know renewable power is the cheapest form of power available.”

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