Planning meeting over solar and battery project cancelled after none of 133 objectors bothers to show up

The final planning arbiter in New South Wales has been forced to cancel a proposed public meeting over a large solar and battery project, after none of the 133 mostly long distance objectors who forced the review bothered to show up.

The Independent Planning Commission said in statement that it cancelled the early July meeting, after receiving just one registration to appear.

The 350 megawatt solar and 150 MW, four hour battery at Spring Mountain, inside the New England renewable energy zone (REZ), was forced into the IPC process after receiving 133 objections, according to the submissions report. 

The threshold for the IPC to review a planning department approval is 50, and they can be from anywhere in the world and are often – although not always – mostly from people living more than 100 kms away.

“The Commission received one registration to speak at the public meeting, from an elected member of the local Council who is already separately meeting with the Panel regarding the application,” the IPC said on its website. 

“Written submissions on the Sundown Solar Farm will continue to be accepted until 11:59pm AEST on Wednesday 8 July 2026.”

So far the IPC has received just four submissions and only one from objectors, a farmer named Erica Smith who says she is a close neighbour.

Smith, who made two named submissions during the planning process proper, is opposed to the project.

She is worried about the land no longer being used for cattle grazing, and questioned whether the owners of the sheep flock that project developer Recurrent Energy wants to run under the panels will be good stewards of the animals.

She also raises questions already answered in landmark NSW guidelines last year such as whether solar panels cause heat stress in sheep or “chemical exposure from the glass, polymers and composite resins from the panels”.

“Are there any regulations in regards to selling animals that are being grazed on solar farms? There are talks of the possibility of having to declare to NVD [national vendor declaration] livestock that have been grazed on land supporting wind turbines,” Smith said in her IPC submission. 

In June last year NSW agriculture minister Helen Dalton said the state doesn’t require farmers to declare their livestock have grazed near wind turbines or solar farms.

Rounding out the concerns are fire, road traffic and worries about decommissioning following a radio interview last year where NSW premier Chriss Minns said landowners will be responsible for a cleanup if the project owner goes into liquidation. 

While many of Smith’s fears are covered in the reams of pages Recurrent Energy submitted to the NSW planning portal, she is the only one of the 133 objectors to so far make the effort of submitting anything to the IPC. 

Recurrent’s analysis of the total submissions showed that of the 133 community objections, 58 per cent were from people living more than 100km away, and eight of those were interstate. 

The neighbouring town of Inverell was the source for 34 submissions, most of which opposed the project. The most common concern was the impact on traffic, followed by the consequences for agriculture.

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, you can click here to subscribe to our free daily newsletter.