Birriwa Solar Farm

I am a long term renter of a farm house in the local area of the proposed Birriwa Solar farm. My family and I intend to make our home in this area permanently and this project will take away the land available to purchase and build on. There is already a shortage of available properties to purchase in the area and the Birriwa Solar Farm will negatively impact this further.

The size of the project, especially when combined with other proposed projects for the area, is much too large for one small community to have to host. It is causing significant distress to many local landowners and dividing what is usually a harmonious community.
A large number of the landholders that are indicated on the project footprint are absentee landholders who will not be impacted by the view as they do not live there. The huge negative impact of the view will be forced upon those who do reside in the area and do not support the project.
The land in the footprint is of a huge agricultural benefit and will no longer be available to farm. My husband and I lease a farm nearby and are actively looking for other properties nearby to lease/farm - the proposal would take a lot of property off the market for this potentially.
A significant concern for me is the workforce. Between the Birriwa Solar Farm and other proposed developments nearby there will be a huge number of workers needed. The proposal fails to adequately advise where these workers are to be housed. All proposed solar farms, wind farms and transmission lines should have this issue sorted transparently before approval should be given. There is no capacity in any local towns to house these workers which indicates that the possibility of a temporary workers camp is a real possibility. There needs to be a clear indication of where this will be, and whether all proposed projects will work together to house them or if there will be many camps in different locations. A temporary workers camp in this locality is not something I would support. Myself and many other families who reside here have children who regularly use our roads and laneways to ride pushbikes or horses. We regularly move stock on these roads too. A workers camp would mean a huge increase of road users. One of the main reasons we choose to live here is the quite location, with no traffic or crowds. Will these workers be undertaking drug and alcohol testing? Will there be a curfew so that they are not on our quite country roads late at night?
The proposal suggests that the project will benefit our local community by providing jobs. If members of our local community do decide to work with these projects it will take away much needed services in our already underserviced area. For example, a shearing team might lose their shearers to this project, our station hands, fencers and other farm workers might be enticed to work with the project - this will be a negative for us, not a positive.
Consideration should also be given to where the transmission hub is to be located that the solar and wind farms will link into. This has not been clearly determined and should be approved prior to the building of any other projects. This transmission line hub will be hugely divisive in this small community and housing it closer to landowners that have already agreed to host other projects would be more appropriate. All projects that will link together should be viewed together for this purpose, and those landholders who do not support or buy into the project should be the least impacted visually.
Another concern for me is the health issues. Have appropriate studies been done to determine the effects of living in close proximity to solar, wind and transmission lines been done. It is not only one project we will be surrounded by, but many adjoining each other. Risks associated with this need to be clearly identified.
There are dwellings on the map which are very close to the solar panels that are not associated with the project. There seems to be some consideration given to this and vegetation 'screening' advised. These landholders should be significantly compensated for the imposition of their view, the workforce that will be surrounding them and potential issues that may arise from neighbouring paddocks hosting solar panels. The run off of water from these panels could be significant and impact neighbouring crops, fences, dwellings etc.

Project Name Birriwa Solar Farm
Application no SSD-29508870
Location Castlereagh Highway,Birriwa
Applicant ACEN Australia
Council Area Mid-Western Regional,
Warrumbungle Shire



No Political donations .

Dear Sir/Madam,

I strongly object to the Birriwa Solar Farm on the grounds that these type of developments are not cleaner nor do they produce reliable cheap power. The amount of energy,time and cost far out ways any saving they are alleged to do for the environment. There is no way they even pay for themselves without government hand outs.
Australia contributes just 1.2% of the 3% of human induced CO2 emissions (per IPCC) I.e. we supposedly contribute 0.036% of the combined natural and so called “human induced” emissions. So please tell me how cutting ours is going to make any difference. I put it to you we are already carbon neutral or even carbon negative with our large expands of forests and grass lands.

Just look at Europe they have been at the RE game for over twenty years and they can't get it to work so how the hell are we. We totally rely on China for all materials to build these white elephants. What happens when they will not supply us with spare parts?

I again say I totally object to any type of large scale RE power generation.

Regards

I object to the proposed Birriwa Sola Farm SSD-29508870. If rooftop solar were fully exploited the necessity, expense and deleterious impacts of solar farms and associated transmission infrastructure would be avoided.

The Birriwa Solar farm is one of some 20 proposed in a 100km radius of my home town of Dunedoo. What l object to is the industrialisation of these renewable energy farms - their shear size makes them a scar on our natural landscape and takes way the biodiversity that our farmlands offer. Having seen the one at Wellington in NSW, it just looks like one big black hole going for kms. The Birriwa Solar farm is one of a number that if all get the green light will see from Gulgong to Dunedoo/Coolah covered with solar panels or wind generaters. Our area is considered prime agricultural land. We can do better then mining big holes to export our coal overseas and we can do better then having huge solar farms covering the country side that helps feed our nation. Downsize the project, ensure there are wide frequent bush corridors and areas specially set aside on these farms for environment flora and fauna ( not some offset in a completely different area which is just a tick requirement) and get a better balance happening so that our energy supply does work in with the environment, farmers production and valuing our unique landscape

Power should be generated where it is going to be used so that there is less loss in getting it from where it is generated to where it will be used.
Solar farms should not be built on prime agricultural land effecting the ability of farmers to feed the population.

I object to the Birriwa Solar Farm. The regional road network cannot handle the traffic currently using it and we all know that the government is not going to allocate any extra funding for them.
I don't see why we should have to suffer the pollution generated and eyesore from this so that city dwellers can satisfy their 'green' needs.
There will be a wedge driven between country communities because of projects like this!

I am not against renewable energy but I object to this project as it is on prime agricultural land and is in the eye sight of a lot of residents who will not benefit financially from it. Along with a project like the Birriwa Solar Farm you need massive, ugly power lines to transfer the power to be used a long distance away which makes it very inefficient as only a small amount of the generated power makes it to the intended destination. Power should be generated where it is to be used eg. the city should be and can be generating their own power by rooftop solar and wind towers etc.!! These projects are causing a lot of family/friendship issues. The regional road, water and medical infrastructure cannot handle the current population let alone the influx of people from developments like these. Maybe a good first step would be a campaign to educate the population to conserve power eg. turning air conditioners and lights off when buildings aren't in use.

I am a landholder east of Dunedoo on the Golden Highway. I object to the proposed Birriwa Solar Farm for a few main reasons. Firstly, power should be generated where it's being used. Why does our landscape need to be polluted by solar panels and power lines when we don't get to use any of the produced power? Not to mention the huge loss of generated power by the time it reaches its destination; what a waste!!
Secondly, the solar farms are terrible to look at and can be seen from a very long way away. They are certainly not the view I want to see every day so I feel for those who are closely impacted by their view!
And lastly, how would fire fighting be carried out once the solar farm and power lines are installed? The Sir Ivan Fire wasn't that many years ago and was fought with the assistance of planes and helicopters. I can't imagine the RFS will send aerial assistance with large power lines in the area.
I'm not sure who came up with the whole Renewable Energy Zone but I assume it was someone sitting in an office somewhere who has never set foot in the Central West! Interrupting prime agricultural land will have a long lasting and devastating effect on Australia's ability to feed itself. Not to mention the stress it places on small communities who rely on the whole population to stay viable; this is the sort of stuff that tears families and communities apart.

I'm in favour of renewable, natural energy- although why aren't the solar panels recyclable? and made smaller?
The energy is needed along the coastal areas of NSW, therefore, these solar installations (they are not farms as they don't produce food) should be located closer to the areas where it will be used. Coastal areas have sunshine too!
There are plenty of large roofing areas on the industrial buildings in the larger cities that could house lots of solar panels that would generate lots of electricity to be used within the vicinity. This would avoid the large scale, expensive and unsightly power grid lines disrupting farming land and the farming community.
Why can't the areas on the buffer zones around the coal mining sites be used? Or why when the coal mines in the Hunter Valley cease operation that the land be rezoned for renewable energy?
The Birriwa district is classified as prime agricultural land- producing high quality meat products, wool and crops which provide food and income for many Australians and export income.
What do you intend on having for breakfast in the near future? Crunched up non-recyclable solar panel in a bowl of imported milk powder?

Our current energy generation system is largely based on the east coast where there are large coal deposits and where the bulk of the energy generated is used. To now reverse this system and use renewables to generate power out in the country and feed it back to the coast just adds huge expense to the whole idea of cheap power because of the need to build a new power distribution system to get this power back to the coast.
There are large areas of housing, commercial and industrial developments along the eastern seaboard without any solar on their roofs which could be used for solar instillations.
There are many old coal mines and soon to be shut coal mines in the Hunter Valley with large areas of land that would be utilised to establish solar instillations.
Projects like the Birriwa solar project are causing deep divisions within local communities, between the few who may benefit from compensation for hosting the development to those that suffer from the devaluation of their farms that are close to the project and those that have a high voltage power line put through their property to service the project.
Projects like the Birriwa Solar development should not be built on good agricultural land, the only reason I think this is occurring is because Company's like ACEN are basically being very lazy and come into areas where they can get large areas of cheap land and where there are fewer people living that they have to deal with. They have little consideration for the long term affect these developments have on what where tightly knit communities.
I also object to Wind and Solar projects being called Wind Farms and Solar Farms. They are the total opposite to what a farm is and only use the word "Farm" to try and soften their true image from what they really are, big ugly industrial developments.

I don't believe solar or wind turbines are viable.
There destroy the natural beauty of landscapes lower land values an waste prime farm lands.

I OBJECT to the Birriwa Solar Farm for the following reasons.

• I am a Single mother of 2 young Children and do not feel safe living in very close proximity to the probability of up to 2200 workers living in both the workers camp for the Birriwa Solar and the Merotherie Main Camp. Both these camps will be within 10km of where my family have lived for 7 generations and this makes me feel uneasy. My property is not associated with either project, but I feel my family will be very badly impacted by these projects.
• Where is the water going to come from that is going to be required for this proposed project? 125 000L/day = 6 truck loads a day, in and out on the roads that surround my property. This along with all the other proposed traffic will greatly affect the way I run my property with stock movements on a very regular basis. For over 100 years my family have used the local roads to move stock from one part of the property to another. For generations my family have used these roads to feed stock which helps with the bushfire threat, this will be impossible to do with all the proposed traffic on these roads.
• This area is prime agricultural land, which should continue to be used to grow livestock and crops to feed the growing population of the country instead of spending millions of dollars developing solar and wind farms and transmission lines to export all the energy produced back to the cities that are all ready over populated. We choose to live here for the lifestyle and tranquillity – this will all be taken away if these projects go ahead.

There are lots of other reasons why I object to this project, but considering I objected in Nov 2022 to this and it took 11 months to get the opportunity to read the EIS and then the community were given 3 weeks to read the document and submit further discussion on why or why not this project should go ahead. We as a small community are getting thrown information from so many different companies about different projects all within a 50km radius and the information is mindboggling. The government should be ashamed of how they are bombarding so many small communities just to meet a deadline that is impossible to beat.

1. I strongly OPPOSE Solar plans by ACEN near Birriwa

2. Workers Camp: Not wanted, too close to other camps, cumulative impact on the area with many other projects already.

due to lack of scientific information i believe the project is not sound in its principles.and will causes more environmental damage.than it will fix .