Solar battery hybrid project forced to IPC due to weight of opponents, half of whom live more than 100km away

The Gulgong community in the central west of NSW will have another chance to voice their opinion on yet another contested project in newest renewable energy zone, this time the a large solar battery hybrid project.

The Tallawang solar hybrid project proposes to combine a 500 megawatt (MW) solar farm with a DC-coupled 500 MW/100 MWh battery energy storage system (BESS), enabling it to store the solar on site and send it to the grid in the evening peaks.

This month, NSW planners approved the project, but the weight of public objections – 54 out of the 56 sent in 2022 during the planning consultations – mean it’s going for another round of scrutiny with the Independent Planning Commission (IPC).

More than 50 objections from anywhere in Australia is all that’s needed under NSW law to push a renewable energy project into the final planning arbiter’s purview. 

The RES-developed project is deep in the state’s first renewable energy zone, the Central West Orana (CWO) REZ and right next to three other proposed large solar farms and four batteries in various stages of development, with three other solar farms and two more batteries just a few more paddocks away. 

It will use bifacial panels, meaning electricity can be generated on both sides, and will include sheep grazing on-site.

The project, now owned by Potentia Energy, was one of the group of developments revealed just after the federal election to have won CWO access rights in May this year.

The IPC will be asking the Gulgong community for their views again on August 18, this time focusing on the planning department’s assessment which approved the project with conditions.

The Warrumbungle shire council was one of the opponents, a position it has maintained for all of the projects in its area as it argues that the cumulative impacts of tens of wind, battery and solar projects have not, and still are not, being fully modelled.

Even though the Tallawang project is not inside the council’s area, it raised concerns of who would pay for local road maintenance, workforce accommodation, and waste disposal.

But in terms of the cumulative impact of the other six BESS projects and four solar farms all at different levels of development, the state planners did not think the staggered construction cycles would have too much of an effect on the local community.

“The Department has also considered the potential cumulative impacts with other developments in the region and considers that there would be no significant cumulative traffic, visual or noise impacts due to distance, different haulage routes and capacity of the road network following the proposed intersection upgrade,” it said in the final assessment.

“The inclusion of a temporary workers accommodation (TWA) facility would also serve to mitigate potential cumulative impacts on traffic and local housing in the area.”

Nine of the submissions came from people who live within 5km of the project, 18 from people or groups 5km to 100km away, 24 who live more than 100km away and three which didn’t specify where they were. 

As usual, local submissions typically focused on how the solar farm would affect the local community whereas those further away “raised broader concerns including ability of renewables to provide reliable power, loss of agricultural land and current NSW and national policies on managing these impacts”, the response to submission said. 

In this case, RES later said it would build on-site accommodation for 400 staff needed at the height of construction.