Bendemeer Solar Farm

I support the Bendemeer Solar Farm because it will provide a source of renewable energy to NSW.
The project has the potential to provide local jobs during construction and particularly during operation. In a small village such as Bendemeer, 10 or 15 permanent local jobs makes a big positive impact on household budgets, the numbers of children at the school, the social fabric of the village and the small businesses in the village such as the pub, coffee shop, caravan park and petrol retailer. During the construction phase the surrounding regional towns will benefit through the provision of workers, services and materials.
The agricultural land at Bendemeer is medium quality grazing land and a solar farm will have minimal impact on the agricultural output of the specific project area or the region as a whole. A solar farm increases the economic output of the district with minimal visual impact on the community. I think the site is well chosen because it makes use of the existing 330 KV powerline that runs across the site, the land is largely already cleared, and it is accessed from an existing highway. The construction will have minimal impact on the village as the the highway bypasses the village so trucks and vehicle movements will not travel through the village.
The community fund will benefit the whole community and will provide financial resources to subsidise new or augment existing services.
I believe the benefits to community of Bendemeer heavily outweigh the costs of this new development.
The proponents need to work to reduce any visual impact by planting tree screenings before construction begins.

I am supportive of this project for a number of reasons:
1. We need to fast track renewable energy projects for NSW. With aging coal fires power stations ceasing we need renewable energy and we need it now.
2. Renewable energy projects like solar are clean and green, and help reduce carbon and climate change impacts.
3. This project will provide a significant investment into the Tamworth and New England region. As someone who grew up in Woolbrook adjacent to Bendemeer, the project will be great for the local community. Jobs, investment, skills development are all needed in this region.
4. The project has taken into accout biodiversity impacts and created a native vegeatation corridor through the project area.
5. The land will be grazed allowing for mixed agricultural land use - a win-win.

I wholeheartedly support the Bendemeer Solar Farm for the following reasons:
- ESG via those involved
- community funds for Bendemeer
- solar is going to literally be a lifesaver, providing energy to cool from the extreme heat which is predicted
- an end to community and environmental pollution.
I encourage NSW planning to approve this project for the environmental, community and financial wins.

What a great project proposal!
It is fantastic to see such an important Solar Farm in our regional area.

Great job opportunities will be made available for the people of the community and the whole region that surpass all present expectations.

Supplying Clean Green Energy is obviously the way to go forward if we ever hope to decrease our Carbon emissions.

I see the Solar Farm as a win for the Region and a win for our Nation.

I say "Power my world with Sunshine".

I support the Bendemeer solar farm project as I believe we need to invest in more renewable energy solutions and support the economic benefits this would bring to the area.

I am totally against this proposal for the following reasons
1)It will totally ruin the beauty of the village of Bendemeer
2) Bushfire Hazard
3) Too close to a rural town - should be near capital cities wherte the most power is used not on rual land
4) Health risks to residents
5) devaluation of all properties near the proposed solar/wind farms
6) Noise
7) Will put the residents of Bendemeer at risk whe the solar panels and turbines reach their use by date and have to be disposed of as they will be TOXIC waste
8) This not a great legacy to leave our children
9)looking at Britain and Germany they are proven not to provide enough power anyway so why put them there at all
10) This will totally ruin the village of Bendemeer with absolutely NO gain for the village

As a young person, I believe that Renewable Energy is the future of our energy supply, and is a critical aspect of decarbonising, or at least reducing the environmental impact of being on this planet. This project provides the opportunity to reduce our greater ecological impact on the environment, and do something to propel our efforts to decarbonise our energy supply systems, and move away from fossil fuels.
Bendemeer Solar Farm is also going to provide a community benefits fund which provides the community an annual pool of money that allows them to further develop and improve their community over the life of the project, as well as providing a number of employment opportunities to local community during the operational phase. During the construction phase, the project will also create employment opportunities that will either benefit the locals being hired, or will bring workers into the region, which means that they will be providing further opportunities for the local community to generate income.
The project has also undergone thorough studies which indicate that they will be improving the state of the land that the Solar Farm will be going on, particularly with the weed management. On the soil type, the land itself is quite dry and dusty and while good for pasture, it is not as suited to other forms of agriculture such as cropping. Given the nature of a solar farm, the land will still be suitable for the grazing of livestock such as sheep and so the land becomes multipurpose, where we can still maintain our existing industry, while also decarbonising our energy sources.
Renewable Energy is also the cheapest way of providing electricity to the grid operationally, particularly when compared to coal-fired generators, and provides an opportunity to reduce the cost of electricity once these projects are operational, and permitted to export electricity to customers.

This is tribal land and a major sacred site to me as my Countries dreaming place !
Do you have permission from appropriate aboriginal land council ?
How will said solar / wind farm benefit local community of bendemeer ??? As thier property values will drop by up to 40% !
Has there been any real study done on how it will affect wildlife and endangered species which are already under pressure ? eg rare duck billed platypus as these windmills leak oil !
It's also a well known fact these windmills kill birds and will encroach on our wedge tail eagles hunting areas...
Has there been any serious risk assessment done on the physical and psychological effects from the electromagnetic fields and noise given off from this solar wind farm
I really think these unsightly structures would be better suited in canberra !

The project will involve the construction, operation and decommissioning of much needed renewable energy for the national grid. With the construct of PV solar and BESS capacity plus associated infrastructure this project will provide income diversity for Bendemeer during construction and beyond. The project has been revised and refined over time in response to regulatory guidelines, landowner feedback and community consultation. As a local business owner and community leader I have spoken to various residents in this catchment and the overwhelming response is that the community engagement and availability for questions has been high.

From an economic aspect this development will provide landowers with compensation that will act as a passive income stream. This is particularly useful in agricultural businesses that are being impacted by two independent economic issues.
The first of these is weather. Change in weather patterns are causing more volatile revenue stream with drought and flood management at the core of all decision making now. Having a revenue stream that is not aligned to drought or flood conditions can provide the landowners with additional income to assist when produce sales are low and also use these funds to better develop land management options such as fencing, crop rotation, dams, laneways etc.

The second issue is succession planning. For most family owned farms (similar to those in the Bendemeer catchment) the ability to further subdivide land as part of a family succession plan is becoming increasingly not feasible. The smaller holdings per family become uneconomical to operate and often the choice is to sell rather than split the land into smaller holdings. With the addition of passive income however the ability to compensate family members who are no longer attached to the land becomes a reality. This development will enable this type of planning to be considered.

For the wider community, during construction the additional 260 trades that will be use to build the site will have a positive impact on the local business operations that are currently reliant on local residents and passing traffic coming to Bendemeer off the New England Highway and Oxley Highway. The project will see essentials upgrades to local infrastructure that would otherwise not be considered as a priority due to the low number of residents in the town of Bendemeer. These upgrades will provide a long term benefit to Bendemeer and surrounding catchments including the Tamworth and Armidale LGAs.

Vesi Water Pty Ltd is a clean technology company focused on using renewable energy to generate pure drinking water from airborne humidity. Projects like Bendemeer align with our values and ambitions of achieving net zero. Vesi and its investors believe the Bendemeer solar will benefit the township through its community contribution fund and diversify the local Bendemeer/Tamworth economy through job creation and landowner payments.

I support this project

Keberen Pty Ltd trading as Efficacy Advisors support clean technology and renewable projects with Engineers and Advisors. We are based out of Tamworth and employee a significant number of engineers locally. We are the only specialised renewable energy engineering advisory firm with an office in Tamworth. Projects like this will enable our business to grow and increase our employment in the local area. This will provide significant economic benefit to the local area and diversify local employment. It also increases the local engineering resource pool which assists Tamworth to implement more infrastructure projects. These types are projects are essential for its growth ambitions.

This is an important initiative for the region and I wish to express my support. Vital to support renewables - new power generation projects are essential to replace our aging power generation infrastructure. 10 years of delay now require rapid escalation.
Urgent need to decarbonise the economy to meet greenhouse targets. Offers terrific opportunities for regional economies, once in a generation. As a nearby resident, and a community that is hoping to initiate it's own renewable project, I offer my full support as an example and inspiration to other regional communities and opportunities for the young people growing up in those communities.

How this project has been given the green light is beyond comprehension.
If any business - a hardware store, a paint factory, a supermarket- had requested to use the same land for their factory they would have been denied. Bendemeer is notorious for bushfires and if a solar farm was to burn to the ground on top of the range we would run the risk of polluting not only the associated farmland but many rivers that feed into the community supporting tourism and the agriculture businesses of many families.
How does one foreign national business get a higher priority than tax payers within Bendemeer and Tamworth?
The number of possible contingency events that system planners and operators need to consider is enormous. When it ultimately goes wrong and causes harm to the Bendemeer community and creates an environmental disaster whose door do we knock on? An office in Singapore or Hong Kong?
It simply must not go ahead in prime agricultural land within cooee of Bendemeer village. Other options must be considered and stop this sacrifice of picturesque farmland for foreign owned business

I strongly object to this project. I spend a lot of time in Bendemeer and it's a beautiful, peaceful village and I feel very sorry for the residents that will be impacted by this project, including the Bendemeer Hotel.

I am 100% in support of the project. This a great opportunity for the regional area to benefit on many levels. Not only will this project assist in the ongoing battle to reduce emissions. but will provide a vast range of flow on effects. A project of this nature will directly support regional businesses, increase job opportunities, provide infrastructure, and assist in a future of green energy. As this region continues to grow it needs the support of major government projects. This will add to future proof our energy network as well as protect local businesses form around the area, such as Tamworth and Armidale.

I write to express my very strong objection to the Bendemeer Solar Farm, which is being proposed by the Singapore-based Athena Energy Holdings.

I understand that through this project alone, some 430,000 panels are to be imposed onto the Bendemeer landscape, with substantial amounts of additional land used for a battery. All this is to be in under 2kms from the town centre. Add to that the entirely unwanted additional transmission and distribution infrastructure that would be required to carry this useless electricity into the grid.

This whole project is nothing short of an expensive, useless, and pointless CON.

Intermittent wind and solar deliver only sky-high power prices and a completely messed up power grid. Every single country in the world who has headed down this path has ended in high power prices and operational misery. No amount of pathetic, inefficient, intermittent and expensive renewables (wind and solar) can do coal’s job of supplying NSW with the power it needs. Even though billions upon billions have been spent over the past 20 years or so, subsidising completely useless industries (wind and solar), they still produce only 2-3% of global energy needs, and they have to be backed up daily by another source of energy.

Why would anyone in their right mind add to these problems by proposing this project at Bendemeer?

Athena Energy Holdings joins the some 80% plus renewable energy companies operating in Australia that are foreign owned. Add to that the subsidy-based business model that is wind and solar, via grants from taxpayer-funded bodies such as Australian Renewable Energy Agency, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and the Large Scale Generation Certificates- LGCs…. and it all adds up to one big fat joke on the long-suffering Australian taxpayer. I also regularly travel up and down the New England Highway, and I certainly don't want endless trucks and transports associated with this pointless project clogging up the roads.

Solar panels require mining and minerals to produce, and the panels are extremely toxic to the environment. They are bad enough when they are “operating”, leaching toxins into the soil and waterways around them every day…and then they are even worse when they are thrown into landfill at the end of their very short lives. They also require large amounts of land for installation for these massive industrial parks. And the batteries…. quite apart from all of the other issues with them such as cost, rare-earth mineral use and a negative rating on a cost-benefit analysis, they are a massive bushfire risk to all around them. Stop wrecking our land with these useless monstrosities and their infrastructure!

Solar panels do not produce reliable, baseload energy. They produce (subsidised) electricity for approx. 20% of the time (on rooftops) and approx 30% of the time (in an industrial farm environment). They experience a daily sun-drought (it’s called the night), and they also easily destroyed by hail, or a blanket or snow or ice. In addition, the solar panels are practically useless in really hot weather, as their output falls as the temperature rises. A particularly stupid idea for Bendemeer, given the range of temperatures. They feed power intermittently into the grid, and de-stabilise the whole system. Batteries are basically a ‘pie in the sky’ concept. They only really stabilise anything for a few minutes, and their energy is not dispatchable. As mentioned above, every solar panel (and wind tower) that feeds into the grid in Australia is backed up by COAL-FIRED POWER every single day.

Solar panels do not produce cheap energy. Our power bills have only gone UP and UP since we have shoved subsidised wind and solar into the grid. And now we’re in the (even more) ridiculous situation of having to subsidise consumers and businesses to help them pay for their power bills because of the high power prices that we have created ourselves, with stupid policies and subsidies. It’s a cycle of total idiocy. And the increase in power bills haven’t even really started properly yet! Wait until the ‘guaranteed return on investments’ kick in for the (mostly foreign) owners of Transgrid, if any of these proposed new transmission lines go ahead… it’ll be everyday households and businesses who pay for those costs!

Exactly WHAT will these monstrosities do for Bendemeer? It seems both unfair and ridiculous that the visual impacts of this project have been rated as “low to moderate.” From Singapore, perhaps, but NOT for the Bendemeer locals. Additionally, the “community fund” is basically just a bribe. Exactly how stupid does the government, EnergyCo and Athena Energy Holdings think we all are? It’s nothing short of patronising.

I strongly object to the proposed Bendemeer Solar Farm.

Emma Jeffrey

In support of this project, work it will bring as well as environmental benefits

The proposed Bendemeer solar and wind project is an absolute disgrace to the residents of this small country town. Land owners around the proposed site will suffer financially due to the decline in real estate values. The town’s residents chose to live in Bendemeer to enjoy the peace and quiet of country living. The construction of the solar and wind farm will bring much traffic and many people to the town due to its location of 1.2km from the town centre. The high level humming sound of the solar panels and increased heat from them is a public nuisance to nearby residents. Some of the land owners are to be paid a significant amount annually to put up with the solar and wind farm, but that is not fair to other neighbours who receive no compensation for this ghastly project. The native animals in the area will be severely impacted by the solar and wind farm. There are flying foxes present which are protected, koalas on site as sighted, baby platypus, baby bells turtles and many other wildlife being displaced. The location is near the main drinking supply of water for Bendemeer and risks contamination. The project is also to be located on a property where the owner resides in Sydney - it is not in his backyard and he is not effected at all. How is that fair to local residents who have to suffer and are stuck looking at the visually ugly solar panels, whilst the owner benefits financially not even living in the town? Companies are constructing solar and wind farms throughout the North West and New England region with no care or regard to local residents and they are only doing it for the financial returns. How is that fair? Build them in their own backyards. I support the residents of Bendemeer in opposing the construction of the solar and wind farm.

I am opposed to the proposed bendemeer wind farm. This will be an eyesore to our scenery that I will be able to see from my back verandah - not a site I wish to see. Also the noise the turbines generate will be heard across the village at a higher decibel range than is acceptable.
It is also a concern that there are endangered species of wildlife that live in this area and no concern has been taken for them, let alone the aboriginal artefacts and importance of this land that will be degraded for no benefit to the local community.
I also disagree with this proposal due to the direct effect this will have on land value with it being estimated a 35% reduction in property value.
How the government can do this to already struggling communities is disgraceful and shows they are only interested in the financial benefit of who can grease whose palm.