Objections to wind and solar facilities
The rising tide of protest against the loss of forests and farmland is strangely not reflected in a large number of people putting their hands up to lodge official submissions objecting to the proposals when they are listed for review prior to a decision on their approval.
Bob King puts in hours every Saturday to go through all the proposals that are on the table across Australia. He visits the relevant website in each jurisdiction to extract the details and send out a weekly email to a small list of people, calling for objections.
The most recent circular is below. It is a remarkable piece of work and you can see what it takes a full day to produce it.
We want to make that list of possible objectors larger.
We don’t need hundreds of objections to each project, 50 is the threshold number to trigger another stage of review before the project is approved.
It is not difficult to lodge objections after you have visited the portal in your home state to establish an identity on the site with basic information about yourself. After that you just need to indicate which proposal you are addressing and indicate your objections which are mostly standard things, expressed in different ways so they are not obviously coming from one person?
There are only a handful of new submissions turning up each week so there might be only one a week for your jurisdiction, although of course at any given time there will probably be several in play due to the period between the time they are advertised and the time when submissions close.
If you would like to help out, please send your email address to Bob King
SUBJECT: OBJECTING TEAM
The latest list
QUICK SUMMARY OF WHAT IS OPEN FOR SUBMISSIONS:-
LOCATED or ADVISED THIS WEEK
16/10/23?Oven Mountain PHES, Armidale
16/10/23 Silver City compressed air
10/10/23 VIC/SA Capacity Scheme $10Bln
25/10/23 Oxley Solar, Armidale – IPC
11/10/23 Sea Dragon Offshore, VIC. HUGE
PREVIOUSLY
Now?????? NSW reviews its Wind Guidelines
15/9/23? Liverpool Range Wind approved without consultation
25/9/23 St. Patrick Plains Wind Farm
25/9/23 Green Hydrogen, Townsville
28/9/23 Bellambi Solar & BESS, Gulgong
29/9/23 Senate Residential Electrification
1/10/23 Community engagement review
3/10/23 ACCU carbon farming
10/10/23 Humelink $3.3Bln extended period
16/10/23 Illawarra Offshore Wind Zone
20/10/23 Senate Duty of Care to next generation from climate
30/11/23 South Australia, Climate Conversations
HOW TO VIEW AND MAKE SUBMISSIONS TO THESE:-
NOW NSW Wind Guideline Review
….. current review of the NSW Wind Energy Guidelines…., which includes the NSW Wind Energy Noise Assessment Bulletin…by Matthew Riley
Director, Energy and Resources Policy, NSW department of Planning and Environment
15/9/23 Liverpool Range Wind Farm, MODIFICATIONS, Increased height, reduce turbine from 267 to 220, modified again to 185 turbines, and reduced tip height to 215m
Modifications approved without public consultation.
25/9/23 St. Patrick Plains Wind Farm, Tas Central Highlands, 47 Turbines, 300MW
25/9/23 EGH2 Green Hydrogen, Townsville, 17.6MW electrolyser to produce 333kg/hr
28/9/23 Bellambi Solar Gulgong, 200MW and BESS, 200MW/2hr,
29/9/23 Senate Residential Electrification
1/10/23 5pm BOWEN’S Community Engagement Review
details, survey and submission at https://consult.dcceew.gov.au/aeic-review-of-community-engagement-practices or post to Community Engagement Review Taskforce GPO Box 3090 Canberra ACT 2601
3/10/23 Australian Carbon Credit Units, ACCU, carbon farming review
Overview https://www.dcceew.gov.au/climate-change/emissions-reduction/independent-review-accus
Details Independent Review of Australian Carbon Credit Units: Key Findings and Recommendations
Email submissions to[email protected], or at ‘have your say’
10/10/23 VIC/SA Capacity Scheme $10Bln, including workbook examples of payment mechanisms https://consult.dcceew.gov.au/cisa-sa-vic-tender-draft-term-sheet
10/10/23 extended Humelink. $3.3BLN, 680km of 500kV lines, substations Wagga to Tumut & Snowy then to both the Vic Border and to Bannaby near Marulan. 425pages from Transgrid.
11/10/23 Seadragon Offshore Wind, ninety mile beach VIC, 150 turbines, 1.5GW, HUGE, connects to Latrobe Valley, This assessment is for Victorian waters, being those up to 3n. Miles.
also details at https://www.energy.vic.gov.au/renewable-energy/offshore-wind-energy
16/10/23 Illawarra Offshore Wind Zone, 30Km x 45km, Wombarra to Gerringong,
16/10/23 Oven Mountain PHES, 900MW,
16/10/23 Silver City Compressed Air, 900MW, https://www.planningportal.nsw.gov.au/major-projects/projects/silver-city-energy-storage-system
20/10/23 Senate Climate Change Amendment Bill 2023 (Duty of Care and Intergenerational Climate Equity) for scope one, two or three emissions. Senate https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Environment_and_Communications/DutyofCareBill
25/10/23 5pm, Oxley Solar, Armidale, 215MW, BESS 50MW/1hr Independent Planning Commission
https://www.ipcn.nsw.gov.au/ https://www.ipcn.nsw.gov.au/cases/2023/09/oxley-solar
30/11/23 South Australia, Climate Conversation
PETITIONS
open https://www.change.org/p/nsw-environment-minister-matt-kean-protect-the-river-lett-platypus?
open Port Stephens https://www.change.org/p/stop-wind-farm-off-coast-of-port-stephens?source_location=topic_page
open Port Stephens https://www.change.org/p/stop-wind-farm-off-coast-of-port-stephens?source_location=topic_page
Open till 5/10/23 Stop Illawarra Offshore windfarm https://www.aph.gov.au/e-petitions/petition/EN5402
open till 12/10/23 – Illawarra offshore https://www.aph.gov.au/e-petitions/petition/EN5444
Open – till 12/10/23 – No Offshore Turbines https://www.aph.gov.au/e-petitions/petition/EN5442
Open – till 5/10/23 Offshore Zone Port MacDonnell S.A. https://www.aph.gov.au/e-petitions/petition/EN5394
OCCASIONAL NOTES
ONE
The only operating commercial Carbon Capture plant in the world in Norway was turned off this week as being too expensive to run. GenCost July 2023 envisages CCS utilisation in all gas and coal pathways!
TWO
Chris Bowen cancelled Kyoto protocol Australian carbon credits, worth $700M.
THREE
“We’ll never have to work another day in our lives” said by a Goulburn farmer anticipating transmission line payments after a group had coordinated in designing its pathway through their properties.
FOUR – methane revisited
“Methane is an irrelevant green house gas”, 21/9/22, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqWv26PXqz0
and 24/1/23 “Do agricultural emissions of green house gases Affect Climate” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBl16fV8kms
FIVE
At https://www.planningportal.nsw.gov.au/major-projects/
Request for sears
Euston Wind Farm, Willandra Lakes near Mildura, 96Turbines of 7.2MW, 38,567ha, 275m high, BESS 500MW/4hr
Maules Creek Solar, Narrabri, 100MW, +BESS
Deniliquin East BESS, 100MW
NSW Secretary’s Environmental Requirements (SEARS), now issued for
Jeremiah Wind, Gundagai, 65Turbines, 300M high, + BESS
SIX
EPBC Decision – Gundary Solar, West Wyalong – not a controlled action
SEVEN
No economic or environmental benefits from EV’s
EIGHT
15/9/23 Undergrounding of NSW transmission line to be sent again to NSW Parliament enquiry, chaired by Cate Faehrmann MLC. ref. [email protected]
NINE
Straight talking from Property Rights Australia
TEN
Peta Credlin reveals nuclear is 45 times cheaper than Bowen’s renewables
ELEVEN
Chris Ulmann on renewables 38:22 to 47:47 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsNiw3CVVC4
TWELVE
Will Happer on Sky News, 10min, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQyvUJ1k9_M
THIRTEEN
Woolsthorpe Wind Farm , 15/9/23, Willatook to reduce the number of turbines from 20 to 13 and increase their height from 168 to 230 metres. Such convoluted language, presumably approved.
FOURTEEN
$1Bln additional expenditure now needed in Victoria to rectify ‘voltage system strength’
Thank you for this information. We were not aware , for example, of the Gulgong proposal. And importantly, we are astonished at the number of proposals afoot.
The comment of one Goulborn farmer re the profitability of surrendering their property is instructive. The farmer needs to talk to some Crookwell farmers who are faced with these inoperative old turbines which, at the end of their lives, cannot be removed from the property & affect resale value .
Vicki,
I drive through the Windmills every time I go to Crookwell via Goulburn. Vile things. Scary also as they are so colossal, if they were to explode, as they are known to, there would be a lot of people hurt, not just livestock. They are close to the road and for the gullible, there are viewing platforms where you can picnic. groan.