Big solar and battery project gets planning approval, on condition it paves road to minimise dust

The Sundown solar and battery project in the New England region of New South Wales has landed a green light from the state’s final planning umpire, on condition it paves the road to prevent potential dust problems at a neighbour’s property. 

The 350 megawatt solar and 150 MW, four hour battery project at Spring Mountain, inside the New England renewable energy zone (REZ), needed further approval after receiving 133, mostly very long distance, objections during the main planning process. 

The Independent Planning Commission (IPC) took just two months to make a final decision.

It cancelled a public hearing after receiving just one registration to speak: a council representative who the IPC was already talking to. None of the 133 objectors bothered to show up. A further 19 submissions were received by the IPC, with roughly equal numbers of support and opposition, including from a neighbour concerned about dust.

The approval means developer Recurrent Energy, a subsidiary of Canadian Solar, now has to land a grid connection and close off the federal EPBC process, after the project was deemed a controlled action in 2022. 

The main condition it will need to fulfil under the IPC terms is paving parts of the Spring Mountain road, a dirt thoroughfare that a direct neighbour of the project raised several issues about. 

“Spring Mountain road dissects Warrawee, splitting the property into two parcels on either side of the road,” the landowner along the road wrote. 

“Our cattle have right of way across the road, and our staff, contractors and vehicles rely on Spring Mountain Road and its bridge crossing of Swan Brook as our only access in and out of the property.”

The IPC focused on the need to protect farm employees’ health from dust and traffic, and the ability to move cattle safely between properties. 

As a result, Recurrent will need to seal the road where it runs next to a house, a rainwater tank, cattle yards and other residential and farm-related buildings. 

It will also need to make sure the Swan Brook bridge crossing is open and accessible for the duration of work, and put in cattle-proof fencing along some stretches of road.

The project sits astride an existing 330 kilovolt (kV) power line and is at the top of the New England REZ, an area with two working wind farms, several approved wind and solar projects, and others in development.

The IPC found that while concerns ran high about the impact of heavy trucks on the road into the project and agreed that locals would feel those effects, “these impacts are not so significant that they justify refusal of the Project,” it said, when matched with mitigating conditions.

Sundown is one of three Australian solar projects on Recurrent Energy’s books, and the largest, according to project tracker Renewmap.

It also has five standalone battery projects underway, and two co-located with the Sundown solar project and the operating Carwarp solar farm.

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