Farmers and residents opposed to proposed new solar farms in the Goulburn Valley faced a ‘David and Goliath’ battle in a planning tribunal in Shepparton last week.
The objectors have been trawling through hundreds of pages of expert reports and scientific detail, before facing rows of lawyers representing the solar farm companies.
Farmer Bernie McGill told the panel hearing the four solar farm applications, that objectors were overwhelmed by the process, had no lawyers to represent them and had no funding to draw on.
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| Decision time . . . Northern Victoria will soon have solar farms but the debate is over exactly where they should be located. |
He said they had also felt let down by Greater Shepparton City Council, which gave them only a brief hearing after they had insisted on being heard.
The objectors, mostly neighbours of the planned developments, have been putting the argument that prime agricultural land in an intensively farmed region should not be used for solar power generation.
The companies, including two multi-nationals, want to spend millions of dollars in building environmentally friendly solar power generators on northern Victorian land.
Most of the objectors say they are not opposed to the developments, but want them operating on less valuable land.
A neighbour of the proposed Lemnos solar farm, Mr McGill raised issues of flooding, drainage, landscaping, land use after decommissioning, soil conservation and the loss of prime agricultural land.
He also said the objectors felt overwhelmed in the face of a room full of lawyers and hundreds of pages of expert reports they had to read.
Farmer Lynette Cobbledick complained about the loss of 480 ha of highly productive agricultural land and the prospect that the solar farms would render the land unsuitable for future agricultural use.
She said the loss of the Lemnos property would create a shortage of suitable horticultural land in the East Shepparton area.
Tallygaroopna farmer Natalie Akers argued solar developments on a $2 billion irrigation backbone risked water infrastructure.
She pointed to an ‘‘abundance’’ of unirrigated land as more preferable areas for solar farms to be developed and speculated people might not invest on land near these developments.
‘‘Let’s work with the solar companies to find them more appropriate locations,’’ she said.
Ms Akers said it did not make sense to install large-scale solar developments within irrigation areas which had been modernised.
She said there had been no discussion about how ad hoc development of solar farms might impact agricultural production, and no assessment on whether this devalued neighbouring properties.
The panel will continue it hearings on May 28. A planning panel hearing was held in Shepparton last week to decide the fates of four solar farm proposals that are proving problematic to determine for Greater Shepparton City Council.
The merits and concerns associated with proposals for solar farm developments in Lemnos, Tatura East, Congupna and Tallygaroopna are being heard by an independent planning panel convened by the Victorian Planning Minister Richard Wynne in May.
On its first day, the panel heard from representatives for Mr Wynne and Greater Shepparton City Council.
The proceedings follow Mr Wynne’s office calling in the four proposals after the council had requested their outcome be determined by the minister’s office; an outcome the council had welcomed as ‘’sensible’’.
The applications constitute hundreds of millions of dollars in development costs and the projects are estimated to produce hundreds of megawatts of power.
But there are concerns about the best use of prime agricultural land and fears largescale solar farms could have an impact on nearby farming practices.
Following recommendations being handed down by the panel, the minister can approve, reject, or green-light the permits with conditions attached.
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