There’s nothing but heartbreak and dismay as another renewable energy project looms over regional Australia.

Danish company European Energy has been given approval to build Australia’s largest solar ‘farm’ a mere 70km from the Great Barrier Reef – the same reef that climate scientists weep dramatically over whenever a government grant surfaces.

We say ‘farm’ because nothing grows beneath the scorched Earth veneer of silicon panels.

Former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s ‘captain’s call’ of $443 million to save the Great Barrier Reef is starting to feel like a nasty, expensive joke. If the argument is ‘carbon emissions are killing the reef’ then the associated emissions from Queensland’s ‘green’ projects are nothing short of catastrophic. The reef would be better off with the old coal-fired power stations.

Locals whose communities are sitting in the path of these projects are upset that the current Labor government’s desire to reach Net Zero at any cost – frequently cheered on by the nearest Liberal – is threatening the environment rather than conserving it.

‘They’re not subject to reef regulations,’ complained one local. ‘It’s just out of control. Complete disregard for the reef and the people it destroys.’

This particular solar ‘farm’ is expected to cover an area of roughly 2,700 ha with 2 million solar panels. If the build runs to schedule, it will connect to the grid in 2026. What’s the carbon footprint of these panels? Who knows. If it’s ever completed, it should produce 2.8 TWh/year unless it under-performs due to dust, damage, and bad weather. All things that never happen in Queensland … right?

Community comments from unhappy residents sound eerily similar to those from coastal communities that ‘love’ wind energy but don’t want any turbines in their ocean views. Farmers in the Gladstone region feel the same way about solar farms. They’re pro-renewable energy but only in the ‘right place’ which, presumably, is not their place.

No matter where you put these projects, they destroy the local area.

There is going to be a lot more of them which you can find in the REZ Roadmap. Spread across three regions, Queensland is carpeting itself in over 100 solar farms and 1,000s kms of transmission lines. No more pristine outback wilderness. The CopperString project, for example, is an 840 km transmission line marked as ‘the largest ever economic development project in North Queensland’. Largest ever mess, too.

Despite ‘powering central Queensland’ the project is not removing remote Queensland’s reliance on diesel as ‘these communities are not connected to the main energy grid, decarbonisation of the main grid will not impact them’. Strange. Maybe the Queensland government should have focused on bringing these remote areas into the 19th Century before sending the rest of the state into the Dark Ages.

For a nation that keeps voting for renewable energy, professing a sort of endless love affair with the technology, property values decrease everywhere they are installed. Virtue signalling does not translate to extra dollars on home valuations. Homeowners in the area of this solar farm are furious that they haven’t been offered any compensation for the expected value decrease of 30 per cent.

‘That’s basically it, mate, suffer your jocks. It’s destroying us, destroying our family, destroying the district…’ said one farmer, facing an uncertain future. ‘It’s a beautiful little valley.’

Will it still be beautiful glinting in the sunlight with an artificial hide of silicon?

‘I’ve got a neighbour, he’s in a proper mess. We’re struggling to look after him. It’s just not right.’

They later added, ‘It’s hard to believe in Australia that you can just do this. We’re collateral damage in this rush to Net Zero.’

Unfortunately, once the public ‘vote green’, they issue a social licence and public mandate to the ruling government to do exactly this… Elections have consequences.

The project website has a statement addressing community concerns. ‘How will the project benefit the community?’ It replies: ‘Opportunities will be given for local contractors to supply goods and services, particularly during the construction … rates and rent will be paid to the Gladstone Regional Council and local landowners respectively during the life of the project.’

That resolves everything.

Meanwhile, AEMO is beating the drum of renewable energy, possibly because the market operator is getting a little jittery about load-shedding and blackouts. Industry regulation can only do so much. It cannot invent power out of thin air.

What does Australia look like without coal-fired power or nuclear energy?

Best guess is a carbon copy of South Africa.

Flat White is written and edited by Alexandra Marshall.