On Wednesday evening (3 July) we attended the above forum hosted by the NSW Farmers.

The Executive Director for Planning and Assessments from the NSW Dept of Planning David Kitto and Nicole Brewer were present and Mr Kitto made a presentation and took many questions from the floor. 

It was a fairly robust meeting with over 120 people present, all of whom were opposed to various large-scale solar developments that have been either built or in the planning stages near their properties. 

When we identified who we were and our issue was Springdale, Mr Kitto made it clear that he was well aware of this development and that there was a significant number of objectors. We asked a number of questions about Springdale i.e that it was 309 days since submissions closed and there has been no contact from Renew Estate, and why the developers have no time constraints to lodge the response to submissions?  We also complained about the serious lack of consultation by the developer.  Not surprisingly the lack of consultation by developers was raised time and time again in questions.  It should be noted that one group raising concerns was with another Renew development, Bomen, which is just north of Wagga.  Again, not surprisingly, was Renew’s lack of consultation with affected residents.  It should be noted, that that development has been constructed and has already been sold by Renew to another renewable energy company.

We also got to speak directly to Mr Kitto and Ms Brewer after the meeting.  Suffice to say, they are now well aware of our numerous concerns, and we told them in no uncertain terms what we thought about the poor quality of the EIS and the many errors contained in it.

Many of the questions from the floor are relevant to our group and once the NSW Farmers have finalised the summary of the meetings we anticipate being able to forward this to you. There was also Forum’s in Dubbo and Armidale, so we expect the summary will include all three.

One issue that was raised from the floor was about decommissioning and removal of infrastructure.  We aren’t sure that ‘host’ landholders would be fully informed about who is responsible for removal of the solar farm infrastructure. Mr Kitto said that the government had thought about asking for surety of some kind from the developer to ensure there is money to pay for removal, but as the government is not a party to the development they have no part of the contract.  It is a private matter between the landowner and the developer.

All responsibility for decommissioning & rehabilitating the land when the development has come to its end (whether it be 5, 15, 30, 60 or 100 years) rests with the owner of the facility at that time. Should the owner decide not to remove the items OR goes into liquidation and cannot undertake the task (which many speculate will happen due to the substantial costs of decommissioning & rehabilitation for no financial return), the NSW Government will not get involved because it has no part to play.

To make it worse, the ‘host’ landholder would not be legally able to remove any of the infrastructure either even though its on his/her land, as it is not legally theirs and may become the subject of court action between the owners and their financiers, which could even be overseas banks.  So the infrastructure could lay dormant on the land for many years and render the land unsellable and unusable until the matter is resolved.  I wonder if anyone ever explained that to the Springdale landholder before he signed up?

All in all its was a good opportunity to get our faces and issues in front of the head of planning in NSW. When we receive a meeting summary we will send out and place on the website.