A solar farm and four-hour big battery project has been cleared for construction in Victoria’s East Gippsland region after having its approval fast-tracked through the state government’s Development Facilitation Program (DFP).
The 85 megawatt (MW) Ballantine solar farm and the 70 MW, 280 megawatt-hour (MWh) battery are being developed by UK-based Elgin Energy on farmland located around 3.8 km south-west of Bairnsdale, in Victoria’s south-east.
State minister planning Sonya Kilkenny on Wednesday said the project had been approved through the Allan Labor government’s fast-track program following consultation with neighbouring properties and relevant government agencies, including the Country Fire Authority.
The property that will host the project is owned by one landholder and is currently used for agricultural activities, including cattle grazing, according to planning documents.
Elgin energy, which has done the vast majority of its project development in England and Ireland, is working up a handful of projects in Australia, including a 250 MW and up to 1000 MWh battery as part of its Barwon Solar Farm, also in Victoria and also approved through the DFP.
Elgin’s Barwon solar farm and Elaine solar farm and battery (125 MW PV and 250 MWh BESS), also in Victoria, were last year both named as winners of federal government support through the Capacity Investment Scheme.
Renew Economy has sought comment on the approval of the Ballantine project from Elgin Energy in Australia.
Kilkenny says the Allan Labor government’s DFP has helped deliver 18 new energy generation and storage projects since it was expanded to include renewables projects last year, unlocking nearly $5 billion of investment and creating around 1,900 new jobs.
Kilkenny says the 18 projects, once completed, will generate enough power for around 574,000 households annually, with battery storage capable of meeting evening peak demand for almost a million households.
“This approval reflects the ongoing success of the Development Facilitation Program – cutting red tape that will help cut down power bills faster,” the minister said on Tuesday.
The Victorian government announced in March last year that the Development Facilitation Program would be applied (from April) to solar, wind and storage projects to help the state meet its decarbonisation and renewable energy targets.
The move – which promises a yes or a no from the department of planning within about four months – immediately sparked concerns that the fast-track process would remove planning checks and balances, “steam roll farmers and local communities” and lead to projects being developed the wrong locations.
In particular, concerns were raised about the ruling out of third-party appeals to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT), which is where the state’s renewable energy projects were winding up if their approvals were contested by community or green groups.
At the time, in response to these concerns, Kilkenny said the fast-track program was about “identifying where we can speed up the process where we maintain community consultation and ultimately deliver good decisions faster.
“So getting the good applications through, getting those approvals on good applications made more quickly to deliver on the terrific renewable energy targets and the transition that Victoria needs.”
The government pointed to statistics showing that since 2015, one in five approved renewable energy projects had gone to VCAT and that the overwhelming majority of those projects had the initial approval upheld – but not before being delayed, sometimes by years.
The Victorian government has also confirmed to Renew Economy that renewable energy projects that are subject to an Environmental Effects Statement – that is, projects that are big enough, or close enough to sensitive areas, to trigger an EES referral – can not use the DFP pathway.
According to an Engagement Outcomes report published by the Victorian department of planning, a range of views were expressed about the proposed Ballantine solar farm and battery during the engagement process.
The report says people living closer to the site were in general not supportive of the proposal, citing concerns about its potential impacts on 12 adjacent and near neighbours, and around 20 surrounding neighbours within a 2 km radius.
Concerns included potential fire risks, contamination of livestock and potential health impacts, including contamination from water run-off and electromagnetic field exposure. Visual impacts, and the mitigation of these, were also raised by a small number of near neighbours.
