“Not the right fit:” Community fractured as local council votes to oppose big battery project

The Alpine Shire Council in north-east Victoria is officially opposing Mint Renewables’ Dederang battery project, after a turbulent meeting last month highlighted the depth of division it has created in the community. 

At the end of February the council voted not to endorse the 200 MW / 400 MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) to the state planning minister, during a meeting in front of more than 200 locals.

Six new councillors, all elected in late November, voted against the council planners’ recommendation to support the project, while the returning mayor voted for it.

The opponents said the developer hadn’t provided enough information on a variety of issues ranging from bushfire risk management to economic benefits. They also voiced concerns about the industrialisation of rural areas, noise, a lack of decommissioning plans and social licence, and fears it could ruin property values and increase insurance costs.

The opponents said reports that supported the Dederang planning application, such as the 62-page risk report which was mainly focused on fire risk, were “ambiguous and fail to provide the level of detail necessary to satisfy concerns” raised by the community.

They also claimed the proposal didn’t demonstrate any economic benefits for the local community: The planning application suggested it might create some 150 direct construction jobs, but it didn’t outline a community benefits scheme. Mint Renewables includes that on its website which promises a community fund worth $70,000 a year.

In an official statement after the meeting, mayor Sarah Nicholas said the council considered community feedback when making the decision, particularly around location and fire risk.

Nicholas said while the council supports renewable energy, the Dederang location wasn’t “the right fit”.

“The potential risks and effects on the local community were key factors in Council’s decision,” she said.

“The next step is for the Minister to review the application and consider submissions from all stakeholders, including Council and the local community.

“It’s important that the voices of our community are heard and that safety remains a priority in any future decision-making.” 

A spokesperson for Mint Renewables acknowledged that rural communities are doing the heavy lifting in the energy transition, but they were disappointed by the opposition from the council. 

“The concerns raised are consistent with those that we have heard through engagement with the community and will continue to work to address as part of the planning permit application process and as we continue to develop the project,” the spokesperson said.

Damage is done

During the meeting Nicholas spoke of threats made to locals who supported the project, and one councillor who ultimately voted against the BESS revealed he’d received aggressive emails in the three months since he was elected as he sought to quickly get across the issue.

“The ‘against’ are well organised and those for the project fear retribution if they speak up,” said councillor Gareth Graham during the meeting. 

“I have received numerous emails from the against side, but only two lonely voices speaking in favour. In recent days since this agenda was released, disappointingly I have received several personal attack emails.”

Mayor Sarah Nicholas said she’d had a lot of conversations with people who supported the project who didn’t feel comfortable attending the February meeting.

“There’s quite a lot of damage in the community, we all know that, there’s been threats, it’s not a comfortable place to be, to say that you actually think it’s a good way to go forward,” she said.

The division in Dederang is on the radar of local independent federal MP Helen Haines, who says she’s worried about the politicisation of the issue and its impact on the community.

“Many regional communities feel like the renewable energy rollout is happening to them and not with them,” she said in comments emailed to Renew Economy.

“In some instances, like the Dederang BESS, it’s really clear this is not a project in which the community feels in control of their future, or empowered to make sure the renewable energy transition works for them. It’s sad that this project has become so divisive in the community.

“While the project planning and approval process for renewable energy projects rests with the Victorian government, it is vital that projects fully engage and consult with local communities, uphold safety standards, protect the local environment and ensure long-term community benefit.”

Fears of bushfires, industrialisation

If approved, the Dederang BESS would sit next to the eponymous substation in the Kiewa Valley, one of the picturesque alpine valleys that snuggle up against Australian Alps in north-eastern Victoria.

Also jostling for a position near the substation is a 500MW/1000MWh proposal from Trinasolar, which lodged its plans late last year.  

Despite some support within the Dederang community, Mint Renewables has struggled to win trust for its BESS proposal since it went public with the concept in October 2023.

The developer immediately ran into organised interference from the Friends of the Kiewa and Alpine Valleys. The group formed in opposition to the BESS and now has around 1000 members include people.

Councillor Graham was suspicious of the company’s lack of track record given it started in 2022, and thought during a briefing Mint staff “were ill prepared and lacked credibility”, albeit on a question about the type of battery chemistry the company might use in Dederang, a commercial decision not usually settled until later in the development process.

In its planning application, Mint Renewables says some of the 10 householders who lived closest to the project initially agreed to meet to talk about it but later declined, and further efforts to talk to owners of the closest house about their view and landscape screening options also went nowhere. 

But in those statements are the signs how high suspicions were running from the very beginning.

Sharon McEvoy, whose home is within 500m of the site, says not taking individual meetings was a deliberate move by the group she founded.

“I’d already heard from my son [that] they don’t want to meet with the community, only individually, and they tell people different things,” she told Renew Economy.

“We decided let’s only meet as a group.”

McEvoy is worried about noise travelling up the hillside to her house, the prospect of one BESS being a precedent for more, and what might happen if a bushfire rips up the valley and encounters a flammable lithium-ion battery.

But she also agreed that while the BESS opposition had turned a sizeable chunk of the locals into “more of a community than we’ve ever been,” the rift between those who disagree is not able to be healed.

Planning rules support BESS

But McEvoy, and the other members of Friends of the Kiewa and Alpine Valleys, are up against planning rules which run counter to their claims and wishes. 

The BESS site isn’t covered by extra bushfire rules and is at “the very fringe” of the significant Kiewa Valley landscape zone, and an independent report found the 4 hectares of land it would take up is not high quality agricultural land, the council planning report shows.

The council planners did recommend landscaping, non-relective materials on the outsides of the BESS, and a new access road.

Nicholas reminder the crowd during the February meeting that the final decision was not up to the Alpine Shire council, and urged them to work together to use the planning regulations and processes already in place, to make sure the risks feared by the community were mitigated.