ACT agrees to move 7MW solar farm plan to new site – 60km away

A 7MW solar farm set to be built west of Canberra, will be moved more than 60km away to a new site on the ACT-NSW border, after plans to build it opposite the rural village of Uriarra met fierce opposition from local residents.

The ACT government said on Tuesday it would license land in the southern District of Tuggeranong as an alternative location for its OneSun Capital solar project – a winner in the second round of the Territory’s ground-breaking solar auctions.

The decision to relocate the “Uriarra” solar farm – a compromise that was first floated by the ACT government earlier this month – was a mutual one with the project’s developers, Elementus Energy, after 18 months of backlash from the small community.

As reported in the Canberra Times, it was to be built on the property of local land owners, Tony and Helen Griffin, who have now lost the lease deal with Elementus, “but will not regret the end of months of division over the siting of the project.”

As we reported here last August, the ACT government was “swamped” by objections to the Uriarra proposal, mostly from locals who argued the project would damage the character and appeal of the adjacent village, block views, and depress house prices.

But instead of pushing it back 500 metres, as was suggested by some Uriarra residents, including Labor MP Gai Brodtmann, the government and Elementus have opted for a site around 68km away (as the car drives), in Williamsdale – on the ACT-NSW border.

“We are mindful of the concerns raised by stakeholders about the current site for the project at Coree and we understand Elementus’ consideration of Williamsdale as an alternative location may achieve a better outcome,” said ACT environment minister Simon Corbell in a statement on Tuesday.

Certainly, it’s an outcome that has been welcomed in Uriarra.

“It’s fantastic news, it’s wonderful, it’s exactly what we asked for two years ago,” local resident Judy Middlebrook told the Canberra Times.

Others are calling it a win-win – as most of the residents appear to support solar and want the farm built, just not on the site chosen.

“We were thinking the DA [development application] was going to be rejected, we didn’t expect it do go that far away,” another resident told Canberra Times.

“The fact that it’s still going ahead for us is a massive bonus … I don’t care how it happened but it happened and at the end of the day we did it.”

Meanwhile, in Williamsdale, Corbell says there are only a small number of residents within a 2.5km radius of the newly proposed site.

“They have been informed of the renewed investigations. All those residents were involved in previous planning processes for a solar farm and raised no objections,” he said.

Corbell said the new site had also previously had planning and environmental work undertaken on for use as a solar farm – by Actew AGL – but stressed that Elementus would now have to go back and secure all of the necessary approvals for the project to go ahead, as part of the conditions of the tender.

Any licence and lease of the land to Elementus would be at market rate.

Elementus managing director, Ashleigh Antflick, said the company hoped to be able to begin construction on the new site – pending they are granted the necessary approvals – in the second half of the year.