Birriwa Solar Farm

See attached submission

I object to the size and location of the proposed Birriwa Solar Project and the entirety of the CWO REZ.
Coming from a rural merchandise background and now working in the rural property market the loss of 1330ha of agricultural land to a toxic industrial site will have many detrimental affects on not only the surrounding land but also the surrounding communities.
The loss of this land will have a direct impact on local rural merchandise businesses, with them seeing a huge deficit in their sales with a reduction in transactions of both cropping and animal health products. Due to such large areas being taken up with the CWO REZ, this also has the potential to cause job losses at local rural merchandise stores, local broadacre spray contractors, local sowing and harvesting contractors and many more.
As we found out during the covid pandemic, the ability to produce our own food and not rely on importing products from overseas proves correct the absolute nonsense of turning prime agricultural land into industrial landscape. The area of Dunedoo and the Central West is some of the most productive agricultural country in the state.

Solar power should not be connected to the grid.
Subsidies and mandates for RE have inflated the cost of power.
RE projects have major detrimental impact on the environment from mining to disposal at the end of life.

I strongly oppose this Birriwa Solar Farm project as Visually appalling.
It will destroy peoples ability to be able to farm on some of the most valuable productive agricultural land in Australia.
Businesses will be lost & families unabled to be employed.
Huge fire risk due to absent tenants
Loss of flora fauna & wildlife.
We have not been advised of cost of such a project with lines & transmission still not determined

Submission to Object to Birriwa Solar Farm

My family’s property is situated in close proximity to the proposed Birriwa Solar Farm. Although I do not reside there, my family spend a lot of their school holidays visiting grandparents and cousins. During this time the children get to experience the enchanting parts of my childhood – riding their ponies to the neighbours on their own, having bush picnics etc. Living in the city does not allow this freedom. If this project was to go ahead, the social impact will affect the families and they would no longer be safe to have this freedom and independence.

I am concerned about the visual impact this project and other proposed projects in the area will have on my family property. Living in the city, I cherish the time I can spend on the property with no visual infrastructure hindering my time up there. If these projects go ahead, I will be able to see solar panels, wind turbines, the energy hub every direction I look and this will be very disappointing to the visual appeal of my visits to home.

The storage batteries and solar panels have many toxic materials in their makeup including lithium & cobalt in the batteries. The solar panels are a toxic mix of gallium, arsenide, tellurium, silver, crystalline silicon, lead, cadmium and heavy earth materials. There are also significant unknown health risks related to solar panels. A study completed in the USA found solar panels dumped into landfill leached toxic materials into the environment in as little as thirty days.

My visits to my family property are a quiet retreat from my very fast lifestyle I have in the city. If this project is approved I will be going from one rat race to the next, and it will no longer have the appeal of a quiet country escape that it has now.

Objection to Birriwa Solar Farm

I am a 40 year old single mother who is 5th generation, I have lived on my family property that is in extremely close proximity to the proposed Birriwa Solar Farm my whole life.

This area is one of the most productive areas in NSW for growing cereal crops and producing prime cattle and sheep. These commodities are very important for the sustainability of food production both domestically and internationally.
Removing 1, 330 Ha of this Prime Agricultural land will be detrimental to the farming economy in this community. It will have consequences for the local stock and station agents whom all of the properties affected use to trade their stock which are currently run on this proposed land. Other businesses within our community will also be directly affected by this project.

I am concerned about the runoff from the solar panels and how the roads and creeks will handle such large amounts of water quickly when it rains. The proposed project will have a huge impact on the natural environment.
It will also use extreme amounts of water solely to control the dust on the solar panels. Industrial-scale PV solar projects in the 230-550 megawatt range can require up to 1.5 billion litres of water during construction for dust control and another 26 million litres annually per panel washing during operation. Where is this water expected to come from? During dry times is when this water will be required to clean the dust off the panels. It was less than 4 years ago that we were in the middle of an extreme drought and the neighbouring farms to the proposed area struggled for stock water, so the impact of this solar farm will be detrimental to all the neighbouring farms that are not agreeable to this project.

There is going to be an enormous visual impact to the area. The vista is going to go from vast open spaces to renewable energy sources being seen in every direction. The complete landscape will be changed. Which then leads to the question of who is responsible for the removal of all these eyesores when they are no longer productive? The project isn’t even approved yet and we are onto the 3rd ownership of the companies trying to convince us to accept this project.

I am also concerned about the unknown health risks of living in close proximity to such a large-scale renewable energy project. Although the Birriwa Solar farm is only a small proposition of what is to come in such close proximity to my home, I am concerned the whole project may have unknown health risks that will arise in the future. The panels contain toxic contaminates, which is why the state of Victoria lists solar panels as e-waste, as does the EU. Once decommissioning of this solar farm commences the pollution to the environment will be significant. Due to this the land value of my property will decrease dramatically. Not to mention the noise pollution that will come with the use of the batteries used to store the energy produced.

Throughout my life we have moved stock around the roads on horses spending days out as a family having picnics, meeting up with the neighbours. The Children of our close-knit community travel independently on their push-bikes or ponies from one property to the next safely with no strangers driving the roads. I did this as a child and, I now have a young son whom I want to be able to grow up with this experience also. These life experiences are unique to this area and it is a huge part of the lifestyle that has encouraged me to remain here and raise my family.

If the Solar farm goes ahead there will be between 350-700 vehicles driving these roads daily – not an area where children can be growing and learning independently in a safe space. This extreme increase in traffic will hinder walking stock from property to property via the quite roads we have had my whole life. Not to mention the impact this will have on native flora and fauna in the area, such as the Koala’s. There has been Koala excretion found on Barney’s reef road as per the impact statement.

The increase in traffic and people around the area on a daily basis will have a phenomenal impact on my current residential lifestyle. My whole life we have been able to leave fuel, vehicles and machinery unlocked on the property as well as our houses at night as we are off the beaten track and have never had any trouble with crime related activities. If this proposed project goes forward, everything will have to be locked up and I as a single mother will no longer feel safe in my own home as there will be hundreds to thousands of unknown men travelling in very close proximity to my secluded home. There is no clear information where all these people will be living. Will the workforce be working 24hrs a day, is there a curfew for them to be all moving around the area, Will they be drug/alcohol tested? What work health and safety practices will be undertaken by these construction workforce companies to ensure the safety of the residents of the community that have lived in the area their whole life and plan to remain here?

The Birriwa Solar farm along with the other 33+ proposed projects from CWO REZ will have a cumulative effect on residents in this area. Living on the north-east side of this proposed development my family will be directly affected by the Birriwa Solar farm, ACEN's wind project and the Merotherie sub-station. What has been an oasis of traditional farm-land for 6 generations, it is about to become dramatically changed in the coming 5 years at what cost to the residents of the area, the environment and the future of this pristine Australian agricultural land?