Big battery sent to independent regulator by far-flung, anonymous objectors

A battery project in New South Wales has attracted a swathe of objections – and no letters of support – from mostly long distance, anonymous objectors whose submissions range from considered to unhinged. 

Developer X-Elio is proposing a 300 megawatt (MW), 1200 megawatt hour (MWh) battery at Willavale Park, a rural location off the Hume highway in New South Wales (NSW) that’s about 15km from Goulburn.  

Reporting on how long distance objectors are taking the NSW planning process hostage is a a regular beat for Renew Economy (see here, here, here and here for a small portion of our more reporting on the issue) – projects that attract more than 50 protests from anywhere in the world must go to the Independent Planning Commission (IPC).

The 73 submissions on the Willavale Park battery – one comment and 72 objections – are a microcosm of the levels of mis- and disinformation being seen throughout the renewable energy industry.

Only three individuals were brave enough to put their name to their submission. 

Nine of the submissions are word-for-word the same. 

Of the 72 objections, 47 came from NSW, 20 were from people or organisations in Victoria and five were from Queensland. 

Renew Economy analysed where the 72 objections came from. The red marker is the Willavale Park battery, the blue are the locations of the people or groups writing the submissions. Image: Renew Economy

Just two were from people living within 25km of the project and one of these offered one of the few polite and considered perspectives of the 72 objections. 

Church elder Alistair Carwardine, writing on behalf of the Parkesbourne and Merrilla Uniting Church congregation, is worried about poor community engagement and what he fears is a subpar bushfire management plan.

“Communication was virtually non-existent, with limited flyers distributed and, as best we can tell, only one forum offered for Q+A,” he wrote. 

“It’s hard to understand why communication is so inadequate given the small number of households in the affected area. No correspondence was received by the Church.

“Many in the community are members of the RFS (Parkesbourne Brigade), who will be called on to deal with fires that may originate from the BESS, to potentially manage LIB fires that require specialist training and equipment. The only note by the Project to this end is a vague commitment to provide a plan, when it suits the project.”

After Carwardine and another local, the next nearest submission writer was just over 180km away in Harefield, near Wagga Wagga. 

Anonymous from Harefield writes: “This BESS plan is intrinsically Toxic, experimental and unsafe technology.

“Lithium-ion batteries are chemically unstable, release poisonous gases and persistent pollutants, and create long-term contamination risks when they fail.”

Of the remaining comments, submitters to the NSW planning process appear to have moved on from RENEWABULL to RUINABULL, as the favoured epithet for renewable energy. 

Just nine objections directly referred to the project in some way

Twenty-five submissions raised general fears about fires in lithium ion batteries causing thermal runaway, and the possibility of PFAS and, intriguingly, the toxicity in fires of polyurethane-based materials.

One person believed that the noise from the battery will “have negative impacts on the nearby livestock and wildlife… also during breeding and birthing cycles.”

Seven were extremely concerned about the risk of backdoors in Chinese-made products. 

“WE DO NOT CONSENT TO THIS LIFE THREATENING, HIGHLY TOXIC, CCP RELIANT RUBBISH!” noted a long, rambling submission from Save Our Surroundings Riverina, that did not at any point reference the Willavale Park battery.

The Redbank Plains chapter of Save Our Surroundings, some 850-odd kilometres from Willavale refused to consent “to this evil, poisonous and treacherous plan that’s designed to rip off Australian people, contaminate our land/water /biodiversity/the public and enable our greatest enemy to control and harm us.”

One submitter brought up the “EVIL powers of the WEF”, saying that big batteries are the result of “bending over” to said powers. 

Anonymous from Leeton, NSW, captured the fear that big batteries are somehow economically wasteful. 

“Destructive BESS plans like this pathetically incapable, purveyor of poison wrongly relies on heavy taxpayer subsidies – financially unsustainable without them – shifting risk from the fake green carpetbaggers to the public and locking in long-term fiscal exposure and economic suicide for Australia,” they said. 

And of course, no public submission process is complete without someone asking whether won’t someone think of nuclear. 

“As the RenewaBULL Rort is a complete failure with rotten carpetbaggers sending Australia to ruin – this toxic BESS plan has no place in an ESSENTIAL, INDEPENDENT, SECURE, RELIABLE, AFFORDABLE, AUSTRALIAN POWER SYSTEM BASED ON AUSTRALIAN COAL & an AUSTRALIAN NUCLEAR POWER INDUSTRY,” exclaimed one of the 11 anonymous commenters from Moulemein in NSW, about 500km from Willavale. 

With one thought-out objection and eight others that were, at best, one liners, NSW’s public planning processes are being held hostage to social media conspiracy theories about the World Economic Forum and generic hysteria about renewable energy being “all a lie!” and “fake green moral posturing masking unethical sourcing and poisonous consequences”.

What the submitters do not say in their objections, is what they actually hope to achieve by screaming into the bureaucratic void.

If you would like to join more than 29,000 others and get the latest clean energy news delivered straight to your inbox, for free, please click here to subscribe to our free daily newsletter.