One Nation’s only Victorian MP has backed a petition to oppose a new, landowner-led solar and battery project in the state’s heartland.
Glenrowan West sheep farmers Rosie and Jonathan Koop want to put a 250 megawatt (MW) solar project and a battery on their Nioka property, with plans to run stock on site as well.
The spot is tucked in behind a series of other solar farms and projects in various stages of operation or development, which hug the 220 kilovolt (kV) transmission line running through the state’s north-west.
It’s also inside the proposed Central North renewable energy zone (REZ), which remains in VicGrid’s “proposed but not declared” basket as a potential two-part REZ divided into a western section between Bendigo and Tatura, and eastern section between Shepparton and Glenrowan.
The Koop’s plan is to diversify the farm’s income while retaining the current stocking rates and keeping control over the project, so they have final say over hot-button issues like consultation with neighbours and fire management planning.
According to the project website, “Rosie and Jonathan have raised their four children at Nioka and been part of the local community [for the past 15 years] through farming, sport, school and volunteer work.
“Throughout the project’s lifecycle, the Nioka Solar team is committed to consistent, proactive and meaningful engagement with neighbouring landowners, the local community and key stakeholders.”
Renew Economy has reached out to the Koops for comment.
But One Nation MP Rikkie-Lee Tyrrell, who told ABC last month that Victoria is “well on the way to full on communism,” has sponsored a petition to state parliament to stop the solar and battery project in its tracks.
In a petition to the state legislative council, Tyrrell repeats a range of talking points regularly used to oppose renewable energy projects including fire risks posed by the battery and possibility of water contamination from runoff in the event of “explosions.”
The petition also claims the REZ “was expanded to include this area without any community consultation.”
“The project would ruin prime agricultural land, threaten critically endangered wildlife, greatly impacting the mental health of residents who fear for the land they love and the way they live,” the petition says.
Tyrrell is calling for the government to reject the Nioka project, remove the eastern section of the proposed REZ, and stop all large-scale energy projects in designated bushfire zones in farming zones.
The request is in line with One Nation’s policy to ban renewable energy and transmission projects from being developed on agricultural land, as well as any projects that would have a negative impact on native plants and animals, or create an increased bushfire risk.
But the petition is targeting a project proposed for an area that has deeply embraced solar and battery projects.
The Nioka project backs on to the 132 MW Glenrowan West solar farm, which has been operating since 2020, which is sandwiched between the 102 MW Glenrowan solar farm on the right and the 85 MW Winton solar farm on its left, according to project tracker Renewmap.
On the other side of the Hume freeway is the 46 MW operating Mokoan solar farm, 100 MW under-construction Winton North solar project and, bizarrely, the 200 MW gas power station Winton Energy Reserve which is fully approved.
There are eight batteries in various states of development and operation in the 10km stretch of highway.
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