Proponents of a large-scale solar farm planned for agricultural land north of Camperdown are moving to hose down community concern about the project.
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Infinergy Energy project manager Richard Seymour said he hoped public information sessions this week had helped put minds at ease about the $150-million project.
“We had some really good conversations with a variety of different people from the community,” he said.
While opponents have blasted the sheer scale of the 700,000 solar panel development, to be built over about 605 hectares on the McArthur family’s Meningoort property, Mr Seymour said there were a number of factors that made the area well-suited to the project.
“It’s not the sunniest area in Australia, but that’s just part of the equation. We’ve got good irradiation, we’ve got a transmission line that goes right across the site, we’ve got an unconstrained site, and we’ve had a lot of environmental studies carried out to determine that. We can fit a large-scale solar farm in there and we don’t need new powerlines to do so,” he said.
Mr Seymour said about two years had been spent undertaking feasibility work and studies before the planning application was put forward.
Even if it wins Corangamite Shire approval, the development would still need to satisfy bodies such as the CFA and VicRoads before it could go ahead, Mr Seymour said.
“We’re in discussions with the CFA, the CFA will impose design restrictions on the solar farm, we will have to design a fire management plan that the CFA agrees to,” he said.
“They will have conditional right of sign-off so we will not be able to construct the solar farm until the CFA are absolutely happy about protocols and procedures and the design of that solar farm.”
Mr Seymour said an assessment showed there would be “no significant impacts” on roads leading to the site.
“It did highlight that we do need to upgrade the road from the Darlington Road into Blind Creek Road, so we will be putting in a safe intersection there to ensure that traffic can flow through there safely,” he said.
“We’ll also develop a traffic management plan in conjunction with VicRoads and they will have right of sign-off… to make sure that we’re operating on roads in a safe way.”
A hydrology study had also been completed, Mr Seymour said, and the company was working to ensure it had no impact on drainage.
“Solar farms do not change the hydrology of the site. It’s going to be the same flow going into those drains and we’ll undertake to ensure that’s the case.”
Mr Seymour said the development would not be lit at night and described glint and glare as a “non-issue” that would have no impact outside one kilometre of the site.
“The word glare is really misleading, solar panels are designed to absorb light, so they have low reflective qualities,” he said.
“Within a kilometre we’re talking about the reflection of something that doesn’t reflect very much. It’s not a safety issue. It’s something that we have to assess in Australia… but it really is a non-issue.”
Mr Seymour said it was also not unusual that the final design for the project had yet to be signed-off.
“That’s really typical. What you do is you show that you can build a solar farm in that area, which we’ve demonstrated in the planning report. Then when you go to market you put those things to tender so you can get the most cost-effective solar farm developed,” he said.
“Whilst we talk about that final design, it will look the same as what we’re proposing. We’re talking about changes say within the solar panels themselves.”
Economic, employment benefits to flow, company says
There is already interest in potential jobs stemming from a planned solar farm at Bookaar, the company behind the project says.
The $150-million project would create about 150 jobs during construction and up to 12 full-time jobs once complete, project manager Richard Seymour said.
“One of the things about (the information sessions) that we found really heartening was that we had people come to ask about those jobs. We had people from a traffic management company, people from an employment company coming to talk to us about potential jobs,” he said.
“That’s part of the really positive side of what we’re doing, we’re bringing these jobs not only in the construction period, but then there will be ongoing jobs to support the management of the solar farm.
“It’s 12 to 18 months, the construction period, so that’s a significant amount of time for all those people. They will need places to stay, places to eat and then there’s the ongoing jobs as well.”
Work on the project will start in July 2019, if the application for a planning permit lodged with Corangamite Shire is approved.
Objections to the project close on September 3. The planning application will go to Corangamite Shire’s September 25 meeting.
