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Government powers up renewable skills with $23m training centre

A vacant block of riverside land at Pinkenba may soon play host to a range of mini wind turbines and solar farms as the Palaszczuk Government makes good on a promise to establish a renewable energy education facility in Brisbane.

May 31, 2021, updated May 31, 2021

The Government is contributing $17 million of the total $23 million in building the new school, which will provide training for 750 students a year.

Electro Group Training, a company specialising in elecrotechnology training, is pressing ahead with planning the facility despite objections from Brisbane City Council.

The company says Queensland was the second highest employing state for the renewable energy sector, with nearly 27,000 jobs.

The Government is banking on forecasts that employment will double in the sector over the next 10 years. It has also channelled millions of dollars into encouraging a local hydrogen industry.

However, the council says having an educational establishment on land zoned heavy industrial would prevent the surrounding area growing to realise its full potential.

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“This is of a major concern by Council as the Pinkenba area is a key industrial area for the city and any uses established within this area should not impact the ability for continual use and expansion of the industrial land and activities,” the council said in advice to the developers.

This appears to have prompted an application for a ministerial infrastructure designation which would bypass the council’s usual development application processes.

Electro Group has insisted that the facility is “well justified” and has urged the responsible minister, Deputy Premier and Infrastructure Minister Steven Miles to approve the development.

 

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