Comet Park Battery Energy Storage System

Please find attached my submission in relation to the proposed Comet Park Battery Energy Storage System.

As an elected Councillor for Leeton Shire, this submission is made in my personal capacity and does not represent the views of Leeton Shire Council.

Please see attached objection

The claimed emissions benefits of this highly hazardous BESS are unsubstantiated and false.

Where’s the independent expert, peer reviewed evidence proving this - with the complete lifecycle analysis that includes manufacturing in China, transport from China, unregulated importation of poisonous PFAS in BESS, short term replacement, unplanned for/impossible disposal/recycling of toxic components and associated infrastructure impacts.

Emissions reductions must be demonstrated rather than assumed as all of the other aspects of the National Electricity Law objective - safety, reliability, quality and security are defied by this filthy, incapable BESS.

Where will this foreign company be when this BESS needs to be decommissioned? No recycling, slave labour used in the mining of battery materials, fire and thermal runaway risk soil plus water plus air contamination, and no benefit to the local community or electricity users.

Can the developer and the NSW Government provide written assurances that all resources that go into these batteries do not use child or slave labour?

Can the developer and the NSW Government provide written assurance that during fire or thermal runaway there is no threat to the health of nearby residents and wildlife?

Can the developer and the NSW Government provide written assurances that all the materials used in this BESS can be fully recycled without leeching toxic byproducts into soil and waterways?

Can the developer and the NSW Government provide written assurances that this BESS will provide 24/7 cheap and reliable electricity to consumers?

Using taxpayer funds to build this complex, unreliable, expensive, environmentally destructive system is not in the public interest.

This BESS is only in the interest of the developer, a foreign owned company.

Using taxpayers funds to incentivise a foreign company to build toxic waste in regional Australia is unforgiveable.

This BESS will have a short life span, the land will never be the same again and the risks to the community are too great. Thermal runaway, fire, noise, strain on volunteer RFS, no direct financial relief from the huge costs of power bills for the local community, potential for water and soil contamination during fire, lack of long term disposal of the hazardous materials in this BESS and total transformation of the rural landscape.

I object to the total lack of genuine, transparent consultation regarding this totally unacceptable, dangerous and deadly BESS plan.

Where’s the Risk Research from the sneaky, underhanded, authoritarian Government and the Independent factual analysis from trusted experts without vested interests - regarding the realistic risks, emergency procedures and long-term, irreversible impacts?

What about the Cyber Security Nightmare the Government is creating by treacherously implementing China’s Energy Dream?

Consultation requires more than informing residents after obnoxious plans like this have already been decided AGAINST OUR WILL - WITH NO SOCIAL LICENCE.

This BESS will be a blight on the landscape at best and at worst a lasting toxic mess.

Using taxpayer funds to facilitate this is a disgrace.

The only beneficiary is the foreign owned developer. The losers are the local community, the environment (both local and where the BESS components are mined) and the electricity consumer including the taxpayer.

This is a fire hazard, risks the community and the environment if there is thermal runaway, this BESS will be noisy given the cooling fans, and will produce a low frequency noise from the climate control infrastructure that must run 24/7 to keep the batteries in a set temperature range. Undoubtedly there will also be diesel generators running on site, as the BESS climate must be controlled and we are setting up our whole electricity network based on the sun shining (but not too hot) and the wind blowing (but not too strong). AT WHAT COST?????

Not recyclable, short life span (maybe 10 years), no decommissioning bond or certainty land will never be the same again, visually assaulting in a rural landscape, noisy given the cooling fans, will emit low frequency noise from all the equipment required to keep the millions of batteries in strict temperature range, the noise and the low frequency noise will undoubtedly be disturbing for both people, stock and wildlife. PLUS this BESS (shipping containers and millions of batteries) will be a fire risk (thermal runaway) and if there is a fire it will belch toxic smoke over the entire community until it burns itself out. Who will be the fire fighters? The ill equipped volunteer RFS?

This horrible plan to poison the public, our soil, water, biodiversity and ecosystems is non-sensical and so dangerous that it seems the planners are really trying their hardest to destroy rural Australia and eliminate the public!

There’s no certainty at all about the safety, security, reliability, affordability and quality of this despicable BESS plan that’s reliant on our most hostile enemy!

Who are the vested interests who are all profiting from these ghastly swindle factories which are the antithesis of caring for country and protecting nature?

This RUIN-A-BULL RORT is NOT FOR THE GREATER GOOD as there’s no genuine benefits whatsoever!

Future generations will curse the day this moronic NSW Government and previous UNI-Party tortured its own citizens so cruelly!

I object that this poisonous ☠️ proposal has not demonstrated compatibility with the four principles of Ecologically Sustainable Development at all:-> precautionary principle, intergenerational equity, biodiversity conservation and proper valuation of environmental costs.

Clearly, the unresolved risks and uncertainties mean this incapable, seriously hazardous and life-threatening BESS BOMB DISASTER must never proceed as there are no satisfactory safeguards to protect the public from poisonous hydrogen fluoride gas and forever chemical Bis-FASI PFAS.

There is NO EVIDENCE OF ANY INDEPENDENT EXPERT RISK RESEARCH EVER BEING DONE BY THE DODGY DPHI or COMPLICIT, NON-INDEPENDENT IPCN.

I ABSOLUTELY OBJECT to this absurd, incredibly dangerous, inhumane and catastrophic SWINDLE FACTORY!
GIVE US OUR CHEAP, RELIABLE, SECURE, AUSTRALIAN COAL POWER YA CROOKED GOVERNMENT and STOP WRECKING AUSTRALIA!

The whole UNCLEAN, UNREGULATED RUIN-A-BULL RIP-OFF has no credibility whatsoever as it’s DESIGNED to FEED THE FAKE GREEN VESTED INTERESTS and GLOBAL VIPERS WHILST DEPRIVING US ALL OF OUR FAR SUPERIOR COAL & NUCLEAR POWER RESOURCES - SO THE UNI-PARTY TRAITORS CAN SELL AUSTRALIA OUT TO CHINA!

DUMP THIS FILTHY, TOXIC BESS and the whole RenewaBULL Disaster ASAP as well as THE ANTI-AUSTRALIAN, CCP BENEFITING PARIS AGREEMENT!
VOTE ONE NATION LIKE FARRER!!👏

NO WAY, this is a despicable, poisonous scam!

Disatrous, toxic scam!