beryl solar farm - independent planning commission · • first solar do not believe there are any...

BERYL SOLAR FARM

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FIRST SOLAR AT A GLANCE

Large global presence

World’s largest solar EPC and O&M provider

Partner of choice for leading utilities and global power buyers

Over 17GW installed worldwide and a 3GW+ contracted pipeline

Founded in 1999 and publicly traded on Nasdaq (FSLR)

Module production capacity of over 3GW pa.

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Proven technology performance in Australia

Involved in ~70% of operational utility-scale solar projects

Largest O&M provider

Actively involved in Australian market since mid-2008

Committed to the development of Australia’s solar industry

Energy yield advantage compared to crystalline silicon

FIRST SOLAR AUSTRALIA AT A GLANCE

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Greenough River Solar Farm – 12MWDC

Weipa Solar Farm – 1.5MWDC

Sun Metals Solar Farm – 140MWDC

Kidston Phase One Solar Project – 63MWDC

Gatton Solar Farm – 3.9MWDC

Whitsunday Solar Farm – 242MWDC

Adelaide Showgrounds – 1MWDC

Coober Pedy – 1.3MWDC

Involved in ~70% of large-scale solar projects installed in Australia to-date

FIRST SOLAR HAS A STRONG PRESENCE IN AUSTRALIA

Nyngan Solar Farm – 120MWDC

Broken Hill Solar Farm – 64MWDC

Manildra Solar Farm – 55MWDC

The projects included in this map represent projects over ~ 1MW that utilise First Solar technology and does not represent First Solar’s installed base in Australia

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Chinchilla Solar Farm – 125MWDC

Bulli Creek Solar Farm – 1500MWDC

Moira Solar Farm – 100MWDC

Current development projects

FIRST SOLAR HAS A STRONG PRESENCE IN AUSTRALIA

Beryl Solar Farm – 105MWDC

Wellington Solar Farm – 207MWDC

Gunnedah Solar Farm – 100MWDC

BERYL SOLAR FARM PROPOSAL

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PROPOSED BERYL SOLAR FARM – DEVELOPMENT TIMELINE

Environmental

Impact Assessment

submitted

24.03.17

Submission received

02.06.17

Application for the

Secretary’s Environmental

Assessment Requirements

submitted

23.12.16

NOV 16 DEC 16 JAN 17 FEB 17 MAR 17 APR 17 MAY 17 JUN 17 JUL 17 AUG 17 SEP 17 OCT 17 NOV 17

DA exhibition period

26.04.17 – 25.05.17

Assessment report

released

24.10.17

Secretary’s

Environmental

Assessment

Requirements

received

25.01.17

Environmental

Impact

Assessment

accepted by DPE

13.04.17

Submission

report

submitted

06.07.17

Submission report

submitted

accepted by DPE

19.07.17

DA exhibition period

18.08.17 – 25.08.17

Development

commenced

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DEVELOPMENT APPLICATION

• The proposed Beryl Solar Farm is located approximately five kilometers west of Gulgong on 300 hectares

of freehold, predominately clear land, for which we have an option to purchase

• Existing land use is grazing and cropping

• Collocated with existing 132/66kV Transgrid substation with an unconstrained capacity of 95MWac

• Proposed capacity of 95MWac, however due to AEMO rule changes size reduced to 87MW

• Centrally located in NSW, close to load center and utilises existing grid infrastructure

• Feeds to the existing Wellington 330kV substation located north west of Sydney

• Due to network location Marginal Loss Factor is stable at around 0.95

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PROPOSED BERYL SOLAR FARM – SITE LOCATION

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BERYL SOLAR FARM – LOCATION IN NSW TRANSMISSION NETWORK

• NSW has limited high irradiance grid connection points available

• Northern Region MLF’s are impacted heavily by the Queensland interconnector

• Western connection sites have already been utilised –Nyngan, Broken Hill, Parkes, Moree

• Full utilisation of existing transmission capacity provides the most beneficial outcome for the project and best return on network investment to date

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PROJECT BENEFITS

• Reduction in greenhouse gas emissions required to meet our energy demands• Assisting the transition towards cleaner electricity generation• Direct contribution to help in meeting the Renewable Energy Target (RET)• Attract and grow expertise in renewable energy in NSW• Produce enough electricity to power 28,000 average NSW homes • Reduce 83,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per year — the equivalent of taking about

49,000 cars off the road• Significant economic benefits to the region, through the creation of direct and indirect jobs• Establishment of a community fund to help support the local Gulgong community • Upgrades to the existing Beryl Road and Castlereagh Highway intersection• Embedded electricity generation, to supply into the Australian grid closer to the consumption centres• Utilisation of existing grid infrastructure

83,000 49,000 28,000Tons of carbon dioxide displaced annually

Cars removed Homes powered

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PROPOSED BERYL SOLAR FARM – ORIGINAL PROJECT LAYOUT - 100MW

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PROPOSED BERYL SOLAR FARM –PROJECT LAYOUT (EEC AVOIDED) - 95MW

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PROPOSED BERYL SOLAR FARM –PROJECT LAYOUT (AEMO CONSTRAINT) - 87MW

Includes additional offsets from boundaries as required by DPE. Yellow dashed line indicates 30m offset

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PROPOSED BERYL SOLAR FARM –PROJECT LAYOUT (R5 CONSTRAINT) - 73MW

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COMMUNITY CONSULTATION

ACTIVITY N D J 2017 F M A M J J A S O

ACTIVITIES AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

Direct engagement with nearby neighbours through

face to face meetings7/11

21/03

22/03

09/05

23/0505/06 13/07 12/10

Direct mail of notification of proposal* 08/12

Direct mail of project update, notification of SEARS,

Open day and feedback form*10/02

Community Open Day held by First Solar at the CWA

Hall 23/02

Direct mail of project update, DA submitted and

details on how to provide comments*27/03

Direct mail of project update, submission period

closed*13/07

Direct mail of project update, submission report

published*03/08

Direct mail of project update and referral to PAC* 27/10

PROJECT ADVERTISING

Mudgee Guardian advert outlining proposal, receipt

of SEARs and open day details

14/02

21/02

Gulgong Gossip advert setting out contact details

and website01/03

Flyer provided to local business for inclusion on

notice boards and post office10/02

COMMUNICATION

Website:

http://www.berylsolarfarm.com.au

Dedicated email for feedback:

[email protected]

*Mail outs to all residents within 2km of the proposal site, local businesses, special interest groups and the Gulgong Chamber of Commerce

http://www.berylsolarfarm.com.au/

mailto:[email protected]

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SUBMISSION OVERVIEW

Category Number of responses received

Submissions 30

Individual members of the public who raised objections 27

Requests for further information or clarifications 1

Government agency submissions

1. Fire and Rescue NSW

2. Nature Conservation Council of NSW

3. Mid-Western Regional Council

4. NSW Division of Resources and Geoscience

5. NSW Department of Primary Industries

6. NSW Environment Protection Authority

7. NSW Office of Environment and Heritage

8. NSW Transport, Roads and Maritime Services

9. NSW Transport

9

Total 40

Issues raised; number of times raisedSocio‐economic and community impacts; 30 Land use and air quality impacts; 6

Noise; 25 Water use and water quality; 5

Visual amenity; 21 Biodiversity; 3

Proposal and legislative requirements; 18 Health and Safety; 4

Traffic; 12 Solar farms; 2

Heritage; 8

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SUBMISSIONS RECEIVED – LOCAL COMMUNITY

Submissions

A 2

B 1

C 1

D 5; 6 submitted, 1

duplicate

E 2

F 2

G 1 – 59 / DP755434

H 1

I 1

J 1

Total – 18 (10 residences)

A

B

CD

EFH

I

G

J

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VISUAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT

• The EIS included a comprehensive visual impact assessment that is based on 22 viewpoints, including 8 residences

• Department considered that the Visual Assessment Report included in the EIS to be comprehensive and no issues have

been raised

• Visual impacts would be limited to residences within 1 km of the project, due to a combination of distance and screening

from topography and existing vegetation

• Department concluded that the Project would have a relatively minor visual impact and agreed with our suggested

landscaping strategy

• Only residences located to the north and north-west of the project site would be visually impacted by the project

• The impacts on the majority of these residences would be limited as they are located at a similar elevation to the

development, the development is relatively low-lying in nature and there is some existing vegetation

• First Solar has proposed onsite visual screening and have committed to providing supplementary visual impact mitigation

measures (such as landscaping and vegetation screening) for Lot 59 DP 755434

In the case of the Taralga Landscape Guardians Inc v Minister for Planning and RES Southern Cross Pty Ltd [2007] NSWLEC

59, in the context of a visual assessment of a windfarm the Chief Judge of the Land and Environment Court of NSW ruled:

… in a context where there is no compelling reason why there should not be some turbines in this landscape and where

there is a significant public interest, in general terms, in adoption of alternative, more environmentally friendly, energy

generation sources.

Although there will be change to the village's outlook, I am satisfied that the broader public interest must outweigh this

impact. [Emphasis is ours]

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R5 LAND AND SUITABILITY FOR DEVELOPMENT

• Due to the mixed zoning across the development site the use of the R5 land for large scale solar at Beryl is permissible

under section 89E(3) of the EP&A Act

• The majority of the site (approximately 80%) is zoned RU1 and solar farms are permissible in that zone under both the LEP

and the Infrastructure SEPP

• A portion of the project site (approximately 20%) is zoned R5, both the LEP and the Infrastructure SEPP prohibit large-scale

solar within R5 land unless it is assessed as part of a broader project

• The area of R5 land is ideally suited to the deployment of solar, it is flat, clear of trees and remnant grass land does not

qualify as EEC requiring offset

• The area of R5 land is subject to inundation to a depth of 600mm for the 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 year ARI events.

• Additional hydraulic modelling was provided to confirm that the solar farm infrastructure could be built over the area of

inundation with no impact to surrounding land during a flood event

• Due to the inundation a large portion of the R5 land is not suitable for development as R5

• Following the decommissioning of the solar farm the R5 portion of the site (excluding offset area) would be available for

development

Supplementary Town Planning Report

First Solar has engaged a town planner to prepare a supplementary town planning report and will provide this to the PAC as

soon as it is complete

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ASSESSMENT REPORT AND DRAFT CONDITIONS

• First Solar are pleased with the assessment report and draft conditions proposed with the exception of the R5 land use

restrictions being proposed in the recommended conditions:

• Constraint Map

• EEC offset restriction noted in Schedule 3, Condition 13

• Assessment report concludes the potential impacts, with the exception of the town planning issue, have been well

addressed in the EIS and supporting documentation and are assessed as manageable

• Draft Conditions incorporate the commitments made by First Solar in the EIS and we stand behind these commitments

• The Department has recommended that the proposed solar infrastructure be removed from the R5 land, to further reduce

visual impacts on residences to the north and north-west of the site, however we believe this is only relevant to residence

G. The distance between the residence and the solar farm will increase from approximately 550m to 800m

• We would like to clarify that to date the Council have not objected to the development of the Solar Farm on the R5 land

• First Solar do not believe there are any compelling reasons why there should not be solar arrays on the land, given the:

• solar farm is primarily on the adjacent RU1 zoned land

• visual impacts have been assessed to be “limited” and “minor”

• benefits of the project and the broader public interest in solar energy

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LOST ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFIT OF SIZE REDUCTION – 87 - 74MW

All figures based on average 2017 NSW NEM pricing

• Lost Energy Year 1 – 33,000 MWH

• Equivalent to 3700 average NSW homes

• Lost carbon dioxide emission displacement of 24,900

metric tons each year

• Equivalent to taking 6725 cars of the road

QUESTIONS

beryl solar farm - independent planning commission · • first solar do not believe there are any...

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