Environment Minister Reece Whitby keen for wind farm expansion and Mounts trails in Albany

WA Environment Minister Reece Whitby has indicated he is keen for Albany’s wind farms to grow as part of ongoing efforts to decarbonise WA’s energy supply. Mr Whitby, who is also the Climate Action Minister, made the comments while in Albany last week for a regional briefing on the State Budget. During the briefing, he told the audience the State had many potential renewable energy advantages and was the “best placed locality on the planet to realise the potential of renewable green energy”. After the session, he told the media the turbines in Albany had been “pioneers ... for the industry in WA” before saying he would like to see the wind farm grow. “We have got to have more wind turbines all around WA and there is a fair bit of the South West and south coast that is windy,” he said. “This budget also has provisions for more investment in wind-farm technology. “We need to make the South West grid bigger, increase its capacity and then have more wind turbines, more solar panels feeding into the system. “That’s all part of it, so yes I would (like to see Albany’s wind farm expand).“ The Albany and Grassmere wind farms have 18 turbines between them, the first 12 of which were commissioned in 2001 before a further six were installed a decade later. Mr Whitby also said he was “very keen” to see movement on a project to develop a network of trails throughout Albany’s Mounts Precinct once it was granted important environmental approvals. “I think it will be fantastic to get people out on those mounts to explore the local environment, but we need to do it properly so there has to be an approvals process,” he said. The City first applied for clearing permits to create a network of biking and hiking trails within the Mt Clarence and Mt Adelaide precincts. The Department of Water and Environmental Regulation, which is in charge of assessing the application, requested and subsequently received further information from the City to go with the application. The development of the trails was originally allocated $3.2 million in the 2022-23 WA Budget, but of that, only $200,000 has been spent. The remaining $3 million has now been forecast to be split evenly over the coming two WA Budgets, 2023-24 and 2024-25. “There will be some clearing involved, but it will be kept to a minimum and needs to be done in the most sensitive way possible,” Mr Whitby said. “I think the people that are going to use the trails would expect no less. “If they are going to go there to admire the environment then you want to be able to respect it and minimise the impact.”