Evolving market conditions

Blog by Earthtrade Director Alan Key

Project uncertainty has increased significantly over the last few years with regulatory and policy changes and inconsistent policy interpretation by regulators.

Recent changes by all levels of government have increased investors nervousness with the latest example being the reversal of the development approval for the Moonlight Range Project located 40km west of Rockhampton.

earthtrade is intimately involved across the entire development sector helping companies negotiate the commercial and regulatory hurdles in the process toward project development.

The renewables industry is relatively new, and it is growing into the developer role meeting the requirements for increasing power generation.

Some obligations like ecological and environmental obligations are well understood by the sector.

The commercial hurdles can often be less so.

The industry does understand, and takes seriously, its obligations under the new legislative requirements for renewables developers to consult with the public as part of their social license to operate.

However, the new legislation has been retrospectively applied to Moonlight Range which was approved months before the consulting requirements were passed.

This retrospective application of the legislation creates uncertainty, and investors and the finance sector hate uncertainty.

Money goes where it is loved, and investors can easily take their money elsewhere and take notice when risks increase exponentially. Investment risk, from all three levels of government, during the lengthy development approval process is now causing investors to be less inclined to risk their investment monies.