TNB’s Spark Renewables is already ensuring that Permanent Soil and Water Contamination is caused by their unethical, toxic, PFOS coated Solar panels which will cause contamination that’s impossible to remove once they’ve leached—destroying land use potential for generations.

This is Hostile Energy Dependence.
Building national infrastructure reliant on Uyghur slave labour and materials from a hostile foreign regime undermines ethical, sovereign & secure energy.

Impact on Local Fauna
The project site harbors various threatened species that face increased vulnerability due to
habitat disruption. Species such as the Eastern Grey Kangaroo (Macropus giganteus) and
Yellow-bellied Glider (Petaurus australis) will experience habitat fragmentation, directly
impacting their movement, breeding, and survival. The Regent Honeyeater (Anthochaera
phrygia), already facing population declines, is particularly susceptible to further habitat loss.
Case studies show that solar projects of this scale, like the Bald Hills Wind Farm, have
historically disrupted local ecosystems by altering habitat continuity, increasing predation
risks, and reducing available resources (Crowther et al., 2022). These impacts can drive
species into less suitable environments, increase interspecies competition, and reduce
biodiversity, directly contradicting protections under the EPBC Act.
Habitat Fragmentation and Species Displacement
The installation of large solar arrays disrupts landscape connectivity essential for species such
as the Yellow-bellied Glider, which relies on contiguous tree cover for movement and
foraging. Habitat fragmentation is known to limit genetic diversity and isolate populations,
ultimately reducing species resilience. Research from the Lotus Creek Wind Farm indicates that similar displacement effects results in reduced reproductive success and increased
mortality rates among local wildlife, underscoring the risks posed by infrastructure barriers
(Smith & Jones, 2020).

Raw material processing - Environment Destruction, Toxic Waste “The manufacture of solar panels requires significant natural resources including quartz, coal, silver, copper and highly toxic rare earth elements. Mining those resources is damaging to the environment and destroys habitats.” (Why Do We Burn Coal and Trees to Make Solar Panels - Thomas Troszak, 14 November 2019)
It is ridiculous that Australia is currently not effectively using its abundant uranium resources to provide an affordable, available, sustainable and reliable energy generation network for its citizens and businesses. The development of Small Modular Reactors which are now a reality in the United States, will be available within this decade to repurpose Australia’s coal fired power stations.
The Minister (or his appointee) should advocate that the Federal Government remove the prohibition on nuclear energy. Australia is the only G20 country where nuclear energy is banned by Federal law. Nuclear energy will meet Australia’s energy needs. Equally vital, it will meet our national security needs as it does not rely on supply chains that are becoming more tenuous. In my opinion, PV solar farms, such as the one the subject of State Significant Development SSD-51219280, as I noted before, will become stranded assets. If development approval is granted, the Applicant must be required to provide a realistic Rehabilitation Bond, to be held in trust for the site to be returned to ‘pre-solar' farm’ purposes.

TNB's Wattle Creek Solar parades as "green" but conceals a filthy core of PFOS coatings, Bis-FASI chemicals, and toxic heavy metal leaching that poisons land, water, and future generations.

Why are any so-called renewable energy projects like Wattle Creek Solar approved when it is well known that there is no compulsory decommissioning legislation for any of these projects? Seemingly the reason the original Crookwell wind turbine development still stands as the agreement between the original proponent Pacific Power is null and void with the Upper Lachlan Shire Council the then approving authority as the project was on sold by Pacific Power years ago thus the decommissioning agreement has fallen through?
This lack of compulsory decommissioning legislation will soon "come back to bite" both host landholders and approving authorities.

NREN opposes the Wattle Creek Solar project.

Please find attached.

We object to this planned industrial solar project.

There will be major inconveniences to residents during the lengthy construction process. The increased traffic will negatively impact residents and local road users, increasing travel times to locals and travellers. The construction noise is also a major concern to residents near to the site – construction traffic will dramatically increase, particularly on the local roads.

Solar panels are NOT environmentally friendly – made with a toxic mix of gallium arsenide, tellurium, silver, crystalline silicon, lead, cadmium, and heavy earth materials. Solar panels deteriorate, resulting in lost efficiency, total failure or even fire. They get damaged by hail, wind and fire and potentially leach their toxic chemicals into the soil and water courses. Major damage does happen – such as with the Beryl Solar plant in 2020 with impacts from heavy rain, a lightning strike, inverter damage and other failures. The contamination risks to the land and through the water courses will not be tolerated by the local community.

PV solar systems are also prone to fires from panel and electrical equipment failures causing risk to nearby farms, native bush and the community, as accessing the fires on/near a solar site is difficult and limited for safety reasons. Gunnedah Rural Fire Service has confirmed that firefighters can only fight fires in a solar plant from the perimeter due to dangerous high voltages and the possibility of toxic gases. In August 2022 a small grass fire near Beryl solar plant required a dozen emergency vehicles and three water-bombing helicopters to protect the solar plant and nearby farm. A small fire of this size could potentially be put out by easily and quickly by minimal fire crew, yet this small fire took four hours and multiple crew to bring the situation under control.

Huge solar plants are not visually appealing and will impact near and not-so-near neighbours. As well as potentially impacting the value of neighbouring properties, the natural beauty will be impacted. Placing solar panels over scenic farmland will likely deter tourists visiting as the once productive farming land will be a reflective sea of solar panels.

Apart from removing land from productive farming for up to 35 years there is the likely long-term damage to the soil. The long term impact to the soil (from compaction and potentially leaching of toxic chemicals into the soil) could ruin its ability to be productive farmland in the future.