Huge solar farm and big battery project targeted by Barnaby Joyce gets independent planning approval

A large solar and battery project in the New England region of NSW has received approval from the state’s Independent Planning Commission, despite numerous objections that included concerns about food security.

The IPC on Monday said it had approved the 330 megawatt (MW) Middlebrook solar project around 22kms south of the regional city of Tamworth, which will be accompanied by a 2.5 hour battery sized at 320 MW and 780 MWh.

The project had been approved by the government planning authority, but was referred to the IPC automatically after it received more than 50 public objections.

The project, owned by TotalEnergies, a subsidiary of global oil giant Total and formerly known in Australia as Total Eden, received 116 objections, around quarter of which came from the local area (within 5 kms), and about 40 per cent from more than 100 kms away.

The local member, the former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce, had campaigned against the project, urging in a Facebook post for people to lodge objections. “You don’t have to live in the areas,” he said. Joyce has been particularly noisy in his campaign against renewable and transmission projects.

The main objections were about local traffic, and land use, with a number of objectors expressing concern about food security.” I am here to fight for your food,” one objector told the IPC in one of its hearings. “This is … a human rights fight and we are talking about food for all Australians.”

The project is located next to the main highway and on the same piece of land as the 320kV transmission line that runs through the region.

The IPC says it granted approval because of its location close to existing electricity transmission networks, and the “topography, solar resources, avoidance of major environmental constraints, access to the State and regional road network and potential for continued use of the land for grazing.”

Totalenergies had already agreed to site the battery components in a single area, rather than distributed around the site, and the conditions include that it have vegetation screening.

Other conditions including the sealing of an additional portion of Middlebrook Road, and dust mitigation measures. The company says it is in talks with the landowners on possible grazing activities once construction is complete, noting that sheep grazing on solar farms often leads to improved outcomes for sheep, and for better quality meat and wool.