Government pushes ahead with controversial Nullarbor green energy hub

The federal government is pressing ahead with an environmental assessment of a proposed wind and solar mega-project in remote south-eastern Western Australia.

Despite fierce opposition from scientists and the broader public, the federal government has agreed to allow the Western Green Energy Hub to take its next steps to approval.

More than 3000 wind turbines and six million solar panels are proposed to be built across 2.29 million hectares (2,290,000 acres) of pastoral lease and Crown land.

The enormous $100 billion Western Green Energy Hub would cover hundreds of kilometres from Eucla, near the WA/SA border towards Cocklebiddy and land in the Shire of Dundas and City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder.

The government has now required an environment impact statement to be prepared.

The project was listed for public comment on the government's EPBC portal last month where some submissions claimed the project was clearly a danger to the environment rather than the reverse.

More than 15,000 people have signed a petition asking for the project to be scrapped.

The proposal involves clearing up to 27,188ha of native vegetation and up to 77,206ha would be partially cleared.

The government has ordered the project's designers, WGEH Pty Ltd, to adopt a strategy of "avoiding significant impacts and provide detailed studies and new data".

The project's backers have also been told it has received "major project status" from the government.

Multinationals InterContinental Energy (46pc), CWP Global (44pc) and Mirning Green Energy Ltd (10pc), have already sought environmental approvals from the WA Environmental Protection Authority.

On November 25, the EPA confirmed it would undertake a public environmental review of the proposal.

It stated a detailed assessment was required to determine the extent of the proposal's direct and indirect impacts, and whether the EPA environmental factors could be met.

It is proposed to build the hub in stages over 30 years.

In response to the government's decision, WGEH chief executive Ray Macdonald said: "We are fully supportive of the Minister's decision and the further prescriptive assessment work that is now to be undertaken.

"Our project is complex and extensive, and it is important that we have a complete understanding of the species, ecosystems and other values that are protected or particularly sensitive."

Dr Macdonald said new studies would guide its primary avoidance strategy, meaning significant areas can be totally avoided and buffer zones introduced.

As scientists opposing the project have already stated, the Nullarbor Plain has not been studied in any detail.

Dr Macdonald said the investigative work conducted by WGEH would add "significant value" to knowledge of the Nullarbor.

Dr Macdonald said the hub would generate clean energy "without negative environmental effects".

A number of scientists have already expressed grave concerns about the large-scale energy project, saying it threatened to seriously harm the natural and cultural heritage values on the Nullarbor.

They have formed a group called Save The Nullarbor.

A group of scientists from across Australia, the United States and Europe, have urged the Federal government to intervene but not in the way which has been done.

The Nullarbor Plain - straddling the border between South Australia and Western Australia - is known by many for being a vast, remote and dry savannah.

Worried scientists say beneath the surface is a hidden network of limestone caves and a vast aquifer, with water-filled tunnels carrying ancient groundwater to the Great Australian Bight.

The proponents plan to progressively rehabilitate habitat areas "which are temporarily cleared during construction, resulting in approximately 16,464ha (60.6 per cent of the total permanent and temporary clearing) being rehabilitated as soon as practicable post-construction".