Our investments in solar and wind energy are locking-in cheap and reliable power for Victorians.
Electricity from the Glenrowan Solar Farm and Mortlake South Wind Farm will soon power our hospitals and schools. This will cut our emissions and deliver cheaper power.
Both projects are supported by the Victorian Government's Victorian Renewable Energy Target (VRET) auctions. The VRET auctions provide long-term contracts that create investment certainty to bring forward new renewable energy projects.
Glenrowan Solar Farm
- Pacific Partnerships’ 102-megawatt Glenrowan Solar Farm will power about 55,000 homes annually. It was built over the past year and supported 125 jobs during construction.
- It is the first project supported by the second Victorian Renewable Energy Target auction (VRET2) to begin generating electricity.
Mortlake South Wind Farm
- The 158-megawatt Mortlake South Wind Farm created 100 jobs during construction. Its wind turbines will come fully online before the end of the year and will generate enough energy for 115,000 homes.
- It is the final project to come online as part of VRET1.
VRET projects
- These projects are helping us meet our legislated renewable energy targets of 40% by 2025, 65% by 2030 and 95% by 2035. They also help continue to place downward pressure on prices.
- All projects from the first auction are now complete - delivering a total 807 megawatts of cheap renewable energy.
- The VRET1 projects are Berrybank Wind Farm, Dundonnell Wind Farm, Cohuna Solar Farm, Mortlake South Wind Farm and Winton Solar Farm.
- These projects delivered approximately $1 billion of investment and supported over 800 jobs during construction.
- Combined, the VRET1 and VRET2 projects will generate a total of 1.4 gigawatts of energy when fully operational.
Community benefits
Mortlake South Wind Farm is delivering its own community benefits scheme. This provides funding to neighbours and local businesses through community grants. They have also set up a scholarship fund for local students seeking to attend university or TAFE, to help them buy laptops and textbooks.
Glenrowan Solar Farm has also established its own benefit sharing fund. Last year, they invested $50,000 in local Landcare projects, local preschools and other community facilities.
Investing in renewables for lower bills
We have the lowest wholesale energy prices in the national market thanks to investment in renewables.
From 1 July, the Victorian Default Offer is being cut by $100 – making it more than $300 cheaper than the equivalent offer in other states.
Victoria is transitioning to 95 per cent renewable energy generation by 2035. The remaining 5 per cent is gas peaking power.
That’s why the Victorian Government has approved Beach Energy’s plans to produce gas from the offshore Enterprise gas field. This is on the condition that Beach Energy makes best endeavours to sell to domestic customers first.
Last year, renewable energy made up 39 per cent of Victoria's energy capacity. This is because of the 78 new large-scale projects that have been commissioned to date – delivering 5.34 gigawatts of energy.
Victoria’s strong pipeline of projects and initiatives, including new streamlined approvals pathways, is keeping the state on track to hit its next renewable energy generation target of 40 per cent by 2025.
Page last updated: 17/06/24