Bendemeer Solar Farm

I support the project as I consider it vital to support the development of renewable energy projects in order to help with Australia's transition away from traditional energy sources. Further, it will support the employment of over 300 people, noting that as mines in the nearby hunter valley region are shut down, it is vital to replace these jobs. It also drives investment in the area, which supports the continued growth of the region.

I am in full support of the Bendemeer Solar Farm Project. It is a fantastic opportunity for the New England region and makes excellent use of the New England Renewable Energy Zone.
A major positive part of this project is the implementation of a local employment plan, as well as a community benefit fund, which will be of great benefit to the local community. Additionally, by maintaining the use of the land for agricultural purposes, this is an excellent method of maximizing land productivity and will ensure that agricultural activity in the region is not significantly hindered.
Overall, the Project will increase the local population, boost and diversify the local economy, contribute to reducing GHG emissions and provide significant positive environmental, social and economic impacts to the New England Region.

The Bendemeer Solar Farm Project is a great opportunity for the New England Region.
It allows for:
- economic diversity and growth
- works towards the movement of renewable energy as the nation aims to continue reducing carbon emissions
- increase jobs for local community,
Overall, this project has many positive outcomes for the community due to additional commitments such as establishing a Community Benefit Fund.

Submission objecting to the Bendemeer Solar Farm being granted permission to proceed to construction.
It is vitally essential that an electrical generating project, generating electricity to supply to the Grid must have a full supply of fuel in order that it is able to supply electricity for every second, of every minute, of every hour, of every hour, of every day, of the year, when it makes a bid to do so.
The Bendemeer Solar Farm has an insurmountable lack of (weather) fuel, which renders it to be impossible to ever be considered as a practical and economic supplier of electricity to the Grid.
To explain. The Bendemeer Solar Farm, solar panels will be powered by a weather fuel, Sunshine. At 12am, every day, the Bendemeer Solar fuel tank is empty and will remain empty for the next seven to eight hours, until the Sun rises at 7am or 8am. If the weather is fine there may be six hours of viable fuel (10am to 4pm) and a further three hours (8.30am to 10am and 4pm to 5.30pm) of less viable fuel available. For a total of nine hours of fuel availability. But even this is very uncertain, because of the possible presence of fog, overcast cloud cover and rain, the fuel tank can suddenly become empty at any time. The amount of fuel available may be reduced to four hours or even on many Winter days, zero, with no electricity being produced. Beginning between 5pm and 6pm, the Bendemeer Solar Farm solar fuel tank becomes empty once again and remains empty for the next fourteen or fifteen hours. This means the fuel tank that supply the solar panels is empty for a minimum of fifteen hours of everyday and could even be empty for the whole day, with no electricity being produced.
For the reasons stated above, that leaves the Bendemeer Solar Farm with no control over a daily, significant shortage of fuel supply, that is held captive to the vagaries of the weather. This disqualifies the Bendemeer Solar Farm from ever being able to produce a reliable and economic supply of electricity to the Grid.
I believe it would be highly irresponsible to grant permission to go to construction to the Bendemeer Solar Farm as rather than being able to make a positive contribution to the Grid, its inclusion would be totally negative and uneconomic.
Further points of objection.
1. In addition to my main objection, The Bendemeer Solar Farm will take up large areas of agricultural land. The loss of agricultural production will be substantial, both in volume and finance from sales per-annum and the loss could continue for one hundred years or more, if the land is not restored. This has a wide effect on the surrounding towns and cities of Tamworth and Armidale. Set against the electricity production of the Bendemeer Solar Farm, the lost economic agricultural production, may be more than the economic electricity production of the Bendemeer Solar Farm while it is in production. Once the productive life of the Bendemeer Solar Farm has ceased in fifteen- or twenty-years’ time, then the lost financial benefit from lost agricultural production will continue to have a very significant effect on the surrounding towns and cities of Tamworth and Armidale for a very long time.
2. As all solar panels are declared hazardous e-waste in Victoria, the European Union and parts of the US., decommissioning will be a huge problem. With the Bendemeer Solar Farm solar panels containing heavy metals (such as cadmium telluride), glass, metal, sealants, copper, concrete steel reinforced blocks, steel stands, electrical cables, etc. They cannot be demolished by bulldozing and removed by excavators. But instead, they have to be removed carefully by hand which makes the cost prohibitive. And results in a huge amount of toxic waste to be disposed of, with in most cases landfill being the only option. Unless Athena Energy Australia (Holdings) Pty Ltd puts up a restoration bond, there will be nothing stopping the Company from walking away and leaving the local Council and community with a very expensive noxious, Junkheap, that will desecrate the whole area.
3. Consisting of so much electrification, the Bendemeer Solar Farm will create an extreme fire hazard to surrounding areas, particularly on a Total Fire Ban Day with the temperature at 43dC and a NW wind blowing at 50km/hr. Being so tightly packed together it would almost be impossible to contain a fire started within the Bendemeer Solar Farm perimeter. Particularly as fire fighters proclaimed Solar Farms as ‘No Go’ areas. The surrounding land owners, towns and Cities of Walcha and Armidale should be very concerned about their welfare and safety.
4. If the Bendemeer Solar Farm should be approved to be built, then it should be mandated that the Bendemeer Solar Farm have a Public Liability policy to cover fire and other possible damage to surrounding areas of at least $1billion to $5billion.
For the above reasons I strongly believe the Bendemeer Solar Farm should definitely not be granted a planning permit or in any way allowed to proceed to construction.

Will really support the energy transition we need and support the local community with jobs

I've personally observed the development process of the Bendemeer Solar Farm for 5 years now. The proponents have worked with the local landholders in the area, and the local community over that time to carefully design and modify their project plans to accommodate concerns as best as they can.
The Bendemeer Solar Farm is located adjacent to ideal existing transmission lines (for connection) ; and on sheep grazing county. The project will be a truly agrivoltaic installation where the land is dually used for clean energy production and livestock rearing, with the landholder planning on continuing with sheep grazing operations post construction.
The relationship that the project proponents have developed with their host landholder ensures the landholder and his employees from the community maintain a continued bond to the landscape where vegetation management at the site is additionally economically beneficial to the agriculture industry and thus the broader local community.
Given the long, careful planning and community consultation by the project applicants;
the project's private location;
the project's proximity to ideal transmission lines for connection;
and in an era where NSW and Australia have committed to net zero policies - this clean energy generator must be approved in a very timely fashion.
Thanks for your consideration.

I object to the Bendemeer Solar Farm …

My primary objection for this project, is that fundamentally I believe the New England area is well known and perfectly positioned as a prime agricultural region – and that it must be used for this purpose and this purpose alone – large scale solar (and Wind) do not have a place in New England – nor Bendemeer – it is just too excessively disruptive to the environment and the communities that live and thrive here. To put it quite simply, this area should never have been included in a REZ.

Specific objections to this project ..
1. The Solar farm is way too close to the Bendemeer Village. A project like this would not even been contemplated in a slightly larger community – do these residents not deserve the same amount of scrutiny and consideration ?
2. I am particularly concerned about the risk of toxic chemicals from the panels leaching into the McDonald River. I am very aware this is becoming an issue in Tamworth with a large solar project there – it would be an outrage if this was to happen in Bendemeer given that it is the villages only water source.
3. I don’t believe that this is the best spot for a solar farm. The area flagged is quite obviously hilly undulating terrain – certainly not a large flat area of land typically used for large scale solar.
4. The immediate environment will suffer greatly by land clearing, both from habit loss and the bigger problem of soil erosion in this mountainous topography.
5. Living is Walcha, I am only too aware of the divisive effect these projects are having on the local community. It has happened here – and it has happened in Bendemeer too … it is unfair that large foreign owned companies roll into town cause huge disruption and then roll out leaving a wake of destruction and no thought for the future of small towns like this. Enough is enough.
6. I am very concerned about the transmission lines that will follow this project. Little effort has been put in considering the placement of these lines. In an early meeting with EnergyCo, the southern area of the NEREZ was claimed by Mike Young as “such a large area – you probably won’t even notice them” – WTF! Again, how is it fair that rural NSW suffers for Sydney ravenous need for more power?

I believe that the benefits projects like this can generate – do not weigh up against the huge amount of damage that this project will cause. Currently there is no way that Australia can meet the unrealistic climate change target it is proposing without looking at the elephant in the room – Nuclear. If a sensible discussion was had, small communities like here in Bendemeer wouldn’t be facing a generational nightmare like this.

The Bendemeer Solar Farm Project is an exciting opportunity for the New England region and I welcome additional development and infrastructure projects in the region. The project will have many benefits including:
- boosting the local population through influx of workers;
- diversifying and bolstering the economy;
- countering the potential threats of climate change by reducing the need for coal fired powerplants and therefore reducing greenhouse gas emissions; and
- it will have flow-on social, economic and environmental benefits from the Project, and others like it.

Furthermore, the commitment to develop and implement a Local Employment Plan and establish a Community Benefit Fund administered by a Community Benefit Fund Committee as part of the Voluntary Planning Agreement for the Project should also be recognised for its benefit to the local and regional community.

I support this Project as it is a step towards a cleaner future. The success of this Project, not only commercially, but the positive social and environmental aspects brought on by the project, will set a great example for future renewable projects to follow.

We are one of the few countries in the world that have the capacity to rely heavily on renewables, so we should be taking steps to increase our capacity to make this a reality. Although renewable energy isn't a perfect solution to the climate crisis, it is a step in the right direction, and the best tool we have to keep our way of life from drastically changing.

i run a local security business and would love to be apart of the project i have guards available for day and night shifts

I've attended a number of BREH public information events and spoken to various persons staffing them. In every instance I received an interested informative and factual response to all my questions and was made to feel valued, and I've read their literature outlining the project, and I've also perused the published EIS. I've also managed to speak to opponents of the project and heard their concerns leading to their opposition including reading some of their published material. Aside from some understandable points of view relating to neighbouring visuals, their main issues appear to simply be emotive and unreasonable with many of their fears able to be dismissed if they were to read the EIS.
In the early consulting stages, the BREH group claimed a desire to engage with the Bendemeer community and have now backed that up by becoming the major financial sponsor of the Bendemeer Art Show, a major local event of over 35 years, as well as other local events (Grey Fergie Muster, Bendemeer Rodeo) that have struggled for support in recent times. To me, this demonstrates a level of community engagement that will be a shot in the arm for the local community, and will give Bendemeer a future and a part in helping to resolve the absolutely necessary change from fossil fuel dependency to renewable energy generation.

I support this the Bendemeer Solar Farm Project. It is an opportunity for the New England region, being located in the New England Renewable Energy Zone (REZ), to:

diversify its economy;
support and increase the local population;
counter the potential threats of climate change by moving away from non-renewable energy production, thereby reducing carbon/greenhouse gas emissions; and
see flow-on social, economic and environmental benefits from the Project, and others like it.

The fact that the proponent is allowing for the ongoing use of the Project area for agricultural productivity is a positive outcome to ensure the agricultural integrity of the region is maintained and reduce the removal of land from the agricultural industry.

Furthermore, the commitment to develop and implement a Local Employment Plan and establish a Community Benefit Fund administered by a Community Benefit Fund Committee as part of the Voluntary Planning Agreement for the Project should also be recognised for its benefit to the local and regional community.

Yes I support renewable energy

I am a big supporter of this project and others in the New England region Renewable Energy Zone (REZ). It will assist with the NSW emission reduction target by 2025, and the target of net zero by 2050.
The project is a significant opportunity for the New England region to diversify its economy; support and increase the local population; and see flow-on social, economic and environmental benefits from the Project, and others like it.
The fact that the proponent is allowing for the ongoing use of the Project area for agricultural productivity is a positive outcome to ensure the agricultural integrity of the region is maintained and reduce the removal of land from the agricultural industry.
Furthermore, the commitment to develop and implement a Local Employment Plan and establish a Community Benefit Fund administered by a Community Benefit Fund Committee as part of the Voluntary Planning Agreement for the Project should also be recognised for its benefit to the local and regional community.

I am a local Aboriginal elder born & raised in Bendemeer, my son did the aboriginal heritage study on the property the Solar farm will be built on, he was looking for campsites and also burial areas. The grass was very long and it was hard to find the campsites, my people are buried alongside rivers and they could be buried alongside the McDonald River on the solar farm site, we think the study was not done properly and needs to have a much more intensive study done as there could be sites on the land that my people used as burial sites and campsites. My son also felt he was rushed during the inspection therefore a more through investigation needs to be performed . The current New England Highway was a walk track and the McDonald River is a song line and the solar farm site may be interfering with our spiritual belief. The Solar farm site the property named Riverside was a hunting ground for my people and I am sure there would be artefacts on the property somewhere, potential archaeological deposits would be on the land. There is also a Rock Shelter on one of the properties the proposed Wind Towers as going and this needs to preserved . My peoples heritage is all around Bendemeer and we need to do much more investigation before anything else happens. I am agianst the solar also because it is ruining our small town and making neighbours hate each other , out town is a small peaceful town where people come for peace and quiet. The solar farm is also too close to the town and built on our precious McDonlad River my peoples life source and our town water supply

I support the initiative for the construction of the proposed solar farm. Due to environmental and fossil fuel reductions we as a country are trying to improve i believe that solar is a cleaner power option for the future. Unlike a lot of other power generation options solar is quiet and non intrusive

This will have an impact on my friend’s beautiful land that they work so hard to own and so many more residents in the same position I strongly object to this project.

To whom it may concern,
I object to the proposed solar farm at Bendemeer, with the following concerns:
1. Visual aesthetics. As an operator of a neighbouring property, we are concerned that the natural landscape will be degraded with this project and in turn have a negative impact on local property values. Suggest screening planting along the length of the Highway Boundary to minimise aesthetic harm. While it is noted that the visual impact from the residence at R1216 is low, the impact from further up the paddock where day to day work is carried out it would be very high. If another residence or building were to be built further our the hill, it would be severely visually impacted.
2. Traffic. Access to our property will be affected during the build phase and in particular emergency services may not be able to reach their destination
3 Noise. It is noted 6.5 of the EIS that there will be noise considerations during both the construction and the operation of the solar project. I consider any noise that affects the residents at R1216 either at the residence or on the property unacceptable as it may affect the residents and their staff during their work or recreation activities.
4. Location of the sub station and battery storage is very close the R1216. The risk of fire, noise or other negative externalities would suggest moving the substation to a different part of the hosts property and would help mitigate any concerns. The existing high voltage lines extend from the SW to the NE of the property, with the proposed sub station near the NE boundary (which is very close to residence R1216.) Moving the substation further to the SW would be a preferable alternative. There are also heath concerns about having so much energy so close to a residence.

Thank you

I strongly support renewable energy sources. I think we should have more of them and I think solar and wind are the way forward to wean our country off fossil fuels. I have traveled via the New England highway many times and often thought that we could be utilising the vast country side for renewable projects. As long as they are done with respect for the land and minimal impact then there is no reason why we can't be using this vast resource, that is our land, for renewable energy projects.