Sweating on solar

WHETHER OR NOT FOUR LARGE-SCALE SOLAR FACILITIES GO AHEAD CONCERNS

While more solar developments for the region are welcome, a set of long-awaited guidelines to help guide locations should be released first, State Member for Shepparton Suzanna Sheed says.

This week, the Victorian Government revealed new solar and wind farms will pump more than 900 megawatts of energy into Victoria’s grid following the state government’s reverse auction.

Premier Daniel Andrews and Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio on Tuesday announced six successful projects, including the Cohuna solar farm, north-west of Echuca, that will produce 34.2 MW, while Winton solar farm near Benalla will produce 98.8 MW.

Building will start early 2019 and they are expected to be completed in 2020.

But some within the Greater Shepparton region are sweating on the outcomes of four largescale solar facilities, decisions currently with the planning minister’s office, which had been set to be released some time this month.

This process is also set to create a set of guidelines to assist the planning of future such developments.

Ms Sheed says it is concerning that ‘‘more projects are being announced when we don’t yet have the guidelines’’.

‘‘And that’s really what we all want to see happen,’’ she said.

‘‘You get out the draft guidelines, let us comment, let us start looking at what the ideal positions are for these types of projects and let’s not stop them from (going) where they’re desirable.’’

The government ran a reverse auctions scheme which saw project developers compete to be the lowest-cost provider.

Ms Sheed said renewable energy was a welcome chapter in the local energy story, given the Shepparton area’s suitability for it, adding she doesn’t ‘‘detect any opposition to solar in our community’’. The only issue remains location.

‘‘We really have a big concern over solar farms being located on modernised, irrigated agricultural land.’’

Regarding the four pending solar decisions, Ms Sheed stressed the region was ‘‘very keen to get an answer on those as soon as possible’’.

‘‘It’s seven months since it’s been referred to the minister.

‘‘There’s neighbours to these projects who are really concerned about what solar might do to their farming enterprises.’’

‘‘And let’s get some guidelines in place to protect our valuable agricultural land in this region.’’

This story by Thomas Moir is from The Shepparton  News - “Sweating on solar.”