What better replacement for dirty Hazelwood than a windfarm? | Simon Holmes à Court

A plan to generate enough wind power for 200,000 homes hints at a coal valley's clean energy future

At exactly 5pm on 29 March 2017, Unit 1 of the Hazelwood station reported the last energy generation after 53 years of faithful operation. Hazelwood isn't the first coal power station to close in recent years - in fact it is one of 13 that closed over a five year period - but, as one of the largest and dirtiest power stations in the country it has become totemic, for both the environment movement and Australia's coal fetishists.

Now, two years on, fears of mass workforce dislocation - such as the Latrobe Valley suffered when the region's power stations were privatised in the 1990s - have largely failed to materialise. More than 1,000 jobs have been created in the region and unemployment has dropped from 8% to 5.7%, in no small part due to the efforts of the Latrobe Valley Authority, set up by the state government to help ensure a "just transition" for the workers and local community.