Peter Walsh and Cr Paul Jarman visited residents of properties that neighbour the proposed Cooba Solar Project.
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Jemma Jones
As renewable energy becomes increasingly vital to cutting carbon emissions, regional residents are grappling with the complex question of where to appropriately locate these essential generators.
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Debate is raging in the south of Campaspe Shire, as a small but determined Colbinabbin community group faces off against global renewable company Venn Energy to stop a proposed solar farm being built on what locals describe as “prime agricultural land”.
The Colbinabbin Renewable Action Group is taking action against the proposal for the Cooba Solar Project which, on November 7, entered its public advertisement period.
The Colbinabbin group held community information and objection letter sessions on Saturday, November 30 to organise opposition to the solar farm.
CRAG representative John Davies owns one of 12 wineries within a 10km radius of the proposed location for the solar farm.
He said putting on these sessions was the only way to have community members understand the 865-page proposal from Venn Energy.
“We want to inform the community about what their application is actually saying first of all, and then we want to put our point of view as to where they have got it wrong,” Mr Davies said.
Venn Energy says the solar facility itself will take up 606 hectares of the 1000-hectare site.
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He explained that the group disagreed with several points in the document, particularly the description of the property’s soil quality.
While the proposal describes most of the soil as ‘moderate’, CRAG members argue it should be classified as ‘good to very good’.
The group says the soil is “highly arable” — a rarity in the Australian agricultural landscape and something that needs to be protected.
In Venn Energy’s agricultural assessment report it states: “The installation of a solar farm on this site would have no long-term detrimental effect on the productive capacity of the soil, nor would it have a significant impact on the overall productivity of the region ... or impact on the ability of neighbouring businesses to operate.”
Another concern has been the visual impact of the solar panels for the eastern slope of the Mt Camel range, the site of the proposed location.
Original plans of the solar farm revealed that the panels would be 8m tall spanning 665 hectares; however, after community and expert consultation, Venn Energy decided to reduce the maximum proposed solar panel height to 5.5m.
In a community update email, Venn Energy wrote that the design change, while it caused a “slight delay” in sending the permit application, would result in a decrease in visual impacts to neighbouring properties and the surrounding community.
However, Mr Davies believes that even at the amended height, the panels will still stick out like a sore thumb.
He said he aimed to rally the community to send 50 to 100 letters to the Victorian Planning Minister demanding either relocation of the project or its complete abandonment.
Mr Davies said CRAG was prepared for any outcome of the permit application.
“We’re going to keep fighting ... even if we lose, we’re going to continue to put the pressure on them and anyone else to let them be aware that we just don’t want this project in its current location,” he said.
CRAG hosted the session on Saturday, November 30 from 10am to noon at the Colbo Hall, and asked community members to say no to the Cooba solar facility.
During the notice period, Venn Energy hosted two webinars for community members to find out more about the project.
They were held on Monday, December 2 from 6pm to 7.30pm and Tuesday, December 3 from 4pm to 5.30pm.
