New England perfect place to build renewable energy industry

Starfish Initiative executive director Adam Blakester said the region’s location, along with its high quality solar and wind resources, would play a big part in its development as a renewable powerhouse.

To build a financially viable renewable energy project, the electric generated by the project has to be able to go somewhere.

“It’s a very strategic position we’ve got, we are halfway between south east Queensland and the Newcastle, Sydney and Wollongong population centres,” Mr Blakester said.

“We’ve got the potential over the next couple of years to be a major exporter of renewable energy into the two largest population areas of Australia.”

The big players have already picked New England as a future force to be reckoned with in the renewable sector.

Transgrid is preparing to development a Renewable Energy Hub in Glen Innes to handle the massive amount of energy expected to come out of the region.

The Leader recently revealed four massive renewable projects, worth close to $2 billion, were in the planning stages and were expected to bring hundreds of jobs to the region.

While Mr Blakester said the complexity of such large developments shouldn’t be underestimated, he was enthusiastic about the impact they would have on the region.

“It’s exciting to see projects that big,” Mr Blakester said.

“For our region specifically, they will bring in construction jobs and ongoing employment.

“Those developments are really good news for our region.”