The Victorian government has set itself against the Coalition government over renewable energy by fast-tracking plans to build 50 new wind turbines worth $200m.

The premier, Daniel Andrews, made the announcement on Friday at Keppel Prince Engineering, the same wind tower manufacturer in the state’s south-west where 100 staff were made redundant in 2014 because of uncertainty regarding the federal government’s renewable energy target.

Tony Abbott recently described wind farms as “visually awful” and launched a senate inquiry to investigate their impact.

In June, legislation passed through both houses of federal parliament to wind back the renewable energy target from 41,000 gigawatt hours by 2020 to to 33,000GWh, with the uncertainty in the lead-up damaging investor confidence.

Andrews said: “The renewable energy sector and the thousand of Victorians and Australians whose lives depend on it, were betrayed with very bad policy. They were forgotten and left behind.”



“That’s not good enough. We’ve got a very different set of priorities. Renewable energy is about jobs, it’s as simple as that. I understand that, my government understands it. We will make sure we see more and more Victorians employed in this industry.”

The government would source renewable energy certificates from new projects in Victoria, bringing forward the building of about 100 megawatts’ worth of new wind energy worth $200m, he said.

It was expected that about 1,000 direct and indirect jobs would be created as a result, he said, with most of the new jobs based in regional Victoria.

Andrews also announced a renewable energy target of at least 20% within the next five years, saying his government was one that “understands” the renewable sector has a strong future.



Some environmental campaigners cautioned that the Victorian government was making only limited gains on wind farms.

Victoria’s target is slightly higher than that of the federal government’s, but falls well short of other jurisdictions.

In 2013, the ACT legislated to have 90% of electricity coming from renewable energy sources by 2020. South Australia has set its target at 50% by 2025, and Queensland at 50% by 2030.

Andrews said he was open to increasing Victoria’s target down the track.



Meridian Energy, the most significant contributor to the New Zealand government’s target of 90% renewable generation by 2025, and a recent entrant into the Australian market, said it was disappointing the federal government did not recognise retailers would need to acquire a growing supply of renewable energy to remain competitive.

“The fact that states and territories have felt the need to introduce these measures highlights the failure of the federal government to provide the sort of certainty that the the target was intended to deliver,” Meridian Australia chief executive, Ben Burge, said.

Greg Barber, the Victorian Greens leader, told Guardian Australia that Andrews was setting the bar too low. There was no reason Victoria should not aim for 100% renewable energy, he said.

“It was federal Labor who got together with the Liberal party to reduce the federal Renewable Energy Target, and now Daniel Andrews, who was silent then, is basically raising his head and endorsing a similar target.

“One hundred megawatts worth of wind is a small investment. It’s a wind farm, but it’s a small wind farm. There’s already 2,800 megawatts approved and ready to go in the state, so he’s encouraging a fraction of that.”

A spokeswoman for AGL Energy Limited (AGL) said the Victorian government’s renewable energy stance was a welcome one.

“Reducing emissions will require policy mechanisms that support the gradual substitution of older, less efficient coal-fired power stations with renewable generation, in order to facilitate renewable energy investment,” she said.

“There also needs to be sufficient confidence that shareholders will be able to receive an adequate return from investing in renewable energy.”



A spokesman for a federation of environmental organisations, Friends of the Earth, Leigh Ewbank, said he was optimistic that the Andrews government would increase the state’s target later this year.



“A Victorian target that matches the ambition of the ACT or South Australia would be welcomed by the community,” Ewbank said.