Orana Battery Energy Storage System

I Object to this incapable, toxic contaminating ORANA BESS at Wellington as it is a Public Health & Safety Risk - against the best interests of Australia & our energy security.

I raise major concerns with;
- Toxic contamination of land and water especially if there is a fire or hail storm. With toxic sediment run-off also destroying agricultural viability of adjoining properties.
- Inability to recycle batteries
- loss of farmland
- not “green”
- decommissioning- the fate of surrounding landowners should not be left to host landowners being savy enough legally to ensure contracts appropriately cover decommissioning.
- decontamination at end of battery life., bank guarantees are required for this.
- destruction of rural communities left to fight for years against 100% profit driven foreign-owned multinational corporations, that are in their very 100% profit driven nature- psychopathic in their treatment of Australian citizens and rural landowners; https://youtu.be/KMNZXV7jOG0.
- Incapable ability to provide reliable, affordable, secure Electricity in conjunction with weather dependent Solar/Wind,
- Chinese manufacturing, reliant on slave labour Cobalt, etc.
- destruction of rural landscape converting it from rural to industrial on a large scale.
- radiation? Will this create health hazards for surrounding landowners? What compensation is in place for when surrounding landowners and their children get cancer? Probably nothing., just another battle they will be too sick to fight.

I am sure the developer with provide motherhood statement responses to all issues raised. Trying to get approval at minimum cost to them whilst causing maximum damage to the community and environment. Like a true psychopath.


I absolutely OBJECT to this ORANA
BESS Plan proposed by Akaysha Energy to be 2 kms NE of Wellington, adjacent to TransGrid’s 330 kV zone substation - occupying an area of 10 hectares on the following grounds:-

*NOT IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST*
There is nothing beneficial whatsoever about Akaysha’s Orana BESS plan that would have a positive impact on the people of Wellington/NSW/Australia, the environment, the climate, the soil, water, biodiversity & the air.
This plan is an unmitigated, toxic disaster with seriously harmful & irreversible contaminating impacts.
There is NO Social Licence for this contaminating, electronic junk that will curse the area & future generations of human beings forever with its toxic impacts.
It is a shamefully unethical plan - reliant on Slave Labour produced Cobalt - which is in defiance of the NSW Parliament Modern Slavery Act 2021, the Duty of Dubbo Council NOT to Host Slave Labour based energy generation/storage & the New Modern Slavery Condition (Oxley Bridge Rd Solar Planning Panel Determination Reference.)

*PUBLIC HEALTH & SAFETY RISK*
Akaysha’s Orana BESS presents an extremely toxic - carcinogenic & teratogenic Fire/Smoke Hazard to the people of Wellington & the surrounding area, to the precious pets/stock & all living creatures, the limited, irreplaceable food growing land & vital water sources that sustain our lives.
To date the NSW DPIE/DPE has totally failed in its Duty of Care to the people of NSW to to do its Due Diligence in scientifically determining the toxic Fire/Smoke risks & toxic contamination impacts from
BIG BLOCKS of FILTHY LITHIUM BATTERIES or indeed follow the Principles of Ecological Sustainable Development - including the Precautionary Principle, Social Licence, Intergenerational Equity, Environmental & Economic Benefit - which are all being continuously, intentionally defied.

*MORAL HAZARD* will be inflicted on the people of Wellington & all Dubbo Council
Ratepayers as the typically dodgy assessment/approval process - pretending that Fake Green junk - such as this toxic lithium Orana BESS is clean, green, healthy, sustainable, virtuous & capable - when it is the ANTITHESIS of this! This is yet another typical RenewaBULL Energy situation where the NSW DPIE/DPE have disgracefully used ‘Garbage In Garbage Out’ Modelling to dodgily approve rubbish plans for years - which are obviously RISKY EVENTS with no scientific rigour, no ethics, no integrity, no logic or common sense, no social licence & no justice for rural communities - knowing that it is protected against the risk, and the other party - the Wellington community & all Dubbo Ratepayers - will incur the cost.

*ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION*
It is unconscionable that the limited, irreplaceable, arable land of the Wellington area - so beneficial for reliable, healthy food production - has already been extensively seriously/irreversibly harmed so detrimentally - wilfully subjected by the NSW DPIE/DPE to already present contaminating, environmentally vandalising, industrialised Solar/Wind Electricity Generating Works & BESS plans - for nothing but an extremely damaging, ideological, imaginary power fantasy that only benefits greedy, offshore shysters & the controlling global elite - such as BLACKROCK - who is backing this ghastly Orana BESS plan for their own monetary gain & controlling agenda - against Australia’s best interests (BlackRock Reference.)

*ECONOMIC SUICIDE*
There are NO economic benefits!
NSW & Federal Governments essentially & urgently need to alleviate the suffering & hardship so cruelly being forced on the people of NSW/Australia by their self-inflicted skyrocketing electricity/Cost of Living Crisis - to such an extreme extent with harsh impacts of austerity - that vulnerable people will potentially die this winter, businesses will colllapse & manufacturing/industry move off-shore - due to this intentional deprivation of basic essential services - including the lack of reliable, affordable electricity.
It is reprehensible that we are being denied our own plentiful, reliable, efficient, affordable, far superior & secure Australian Coal, Gas & Nuclear Power sources
by the intentionally idiotic, irresponsible, unethical, scandalous Fake Green RenewBULL Solar/Wind Grift & Ponzi Scheme/Scam that the Government is beholden to.
Why should we be paying an eye-wateringly costly Fake Green motzer for a basic essential service to enable TransGrid’s Fake Green propaganda, dodgy tactics, bullying, imaginary consultation & unjust rip-off of the Australian people for their own greedy multinational shareholders - including Spark Infrastructure’s KKR & their dodgy CCP QDLP links - along with Orana BESS backer BLACKROCK - to Shanghai - when mass multiplication of Transmission Line infrastructure - at astronomical cost to us - the consumers - HAS NO CONSUMER BENEFIT WHATSOEVER & IS TOTALLY UNNECESSARY WITH FAR SUPERIOR AUSTRALIAN POWER based on our own natural resources that we are SO blessed to have - which are indeed the envy of the world!?

WE’VE HAD A GUTFUL OF THIS TORTURE & have united Australia wide in ongoing resistance to the LIES, DECEIT & OUTRAGEOUS COSTS of these ruinous plans - such as Akaysha’s Orana BESS - that we are wrongly being forced to subsidise in funding ECOCIDE!!

The CORE OF THE TOTALITARIAN STATE IS
‘THE LIE’ & THE HEART OF FAKE GREEN INDUSTRIALISED SOLAR PANELS, WIND TURBINES & BESS IS THE LIE!!
ALL BEING CARELESSLY, IRRESPONSIBLY & I BELIEVE NEGLIGENTLY BASED ON INTENTIONAL DECEIT!

*ENERGY INSECURITY*
Nobody in their right mind would rely on the weather to run the country! But here we have the Minister for BLACKOUTS, BANKRUPTCY & BULL brainlessly believing imaginary power will deliver nirvana!
Whilst this renewaBULL zealot clearly has no sense & his hot air + intense delusions alone could well power the nation - the glaring reality is a practical nightmare of mandated subsidised, weather dependent Solar/Wind junk that WILL NEVER PROVIDE BASE LOAD POWER - no matter how much propaganda those carpetbaggers with vested interests & twisted virtues spin!(RenewaBULL Con Reference.)

*UNRELIABLE & UNAFFORDABLE*
Akaysha make very erroneous claims including “cost effective,” “ensuring that energy remains reliable & affordable.”
“As conventional power plants retire over the next decade, batteries will play an increasingly important role in managing security of supply and addressing the intermittency of renewables..”
This is complete rubbish!
With cloudy weather, Dunkelflautes-the Dark Doldrums-Wind Droughts that can last for days or weeks & this incapable ORANA BESS - claimed to have a capacity of between 400-1600MW and provide up to 8 hours or 1600 MWh of energy storage - THERE IS NO RELIABILITY OR SECURITY AT ALL!
How will Akaysha’s ORANA BESS “respond rapidly” as claimed & in any way be “cost effective….ensuring that energy remains reliable and affordable when it is dependent on the weather?
This is completely false!

*FOOD SECURITY*
Australia is increasingly losing our rich soil heritage - with Food Security increasingly at risk due to the entombment of our limited, irreplaceable arable land in contaminating Solar Panels - leaching numerous heavy metals - including lead, Wind Turbine monstrosities shedding toxic Bisphenol A (lethal to young children & as toxic as blue asbestos) & filthy, toxic lithium BESS that only lasts for approx 10 years before creating a massive pile of toxic waste burden!
Regrettably & unconscionably, Wellington area will never be returned to its inherent capability - its natural resource land status - returning to healthy agricultural production - as the intentionally ignored environmental harm caused will ensure its demise.
Those who have intentionally pedalled their delusional RenewaBULL/Ag co-existence mantra for their own vested interests & to appease their screwed up religious fervour in destroying it will inevitably be held to account!(Georgia Court Case Reference.)

*NATIONAL SECURITY*
Akaysha’s ORANA BESS is a National
Security Disaster!
Chinese manufacturing raises extremely alarming CRITICAL ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE RISKS - with nothing being done to protect Australia’s Electricity Grid from cyber attacks & CCP energy control ENABLING BEIJING TO TURN OUR LIGHTS OFF!

REFERENCES
*This whole RenewaBULL Con can be exposed with a couple of basic technical questions:

1. How do you propose to provide reliable fill-in power generation when the average capacity factor of wind and solar systems CANNOT exceed approximately 30%?

2. If your answer is storage (any and all forms) how do you propose to re-charge spent storage facilities on a cloudy windless morning? (which could last for days or weeks) 

3. What is the REAL cost of solar and wind systems  - which MUST include ALL peripheral establishment and operational costs, that is :" manufacturing, transport, ALL subsidies, fill-in generation by whatever means, construction, land reclamation, disposal and treatment of toxic fail units, recycling of battery materials, grid batteries (that are useless for storage), Transmission Lines - the list goes on BUT MUST include ALL costs for a realistic estimate. 

*Sediment Run-Off Contaminating Land/Water - Court Case -
“Created, Operated, and Maintained a Nuisance” 

Solar farm runoff pollutes property, couple awarded $135 million - CFACT
https://www.cfact.org/2023/06/06/solar-farm-runoff-pollutes-property-couple-awarded-135-million/

By Bonner Cohen, Ph. D. (https://www.cfact.org/author/bonner5/)  |June 6th, 2023|91 Comments (https://www.cfact.org/2023/06/06/solar-farm-runoff-pollutes-property-couple-awarded-135-million/#disqus_thread)

This project appears to only benefit the developer. It does however reinforce to all residents of regional NSW that if you don’t live in an industrial waste land yet, you could do soon.
We live in regional areas because we value the environment, our outlook and our serenity. This project proves that heritage home or not - once the energy developers move into your area nothing is off limits. In your area is might just look like one solar farm, or one wind farm, then things get really revved up and next you know you are surrounded by BESS, multiple transmission lines, multiple wind farms, multiple solar farms, and multiple “energy hubs” (translates to enormous substations).
In regional NSW our homes are not confined to the walls of our houses. We view our land as our home, we go home when it gets dark, the remainder of the time we live and work outside. It is a city view that our home has walls.
In our homes we hear the sounds of nature. It is a city view that base sound levels include traffic, infrasound and humming from electrical substations.
All the while developers will state this is for the good of the environment and will benefit the hosting community.
Meanwhile,
• EMF – will the developer be found when the class action starts for those whose health has been impacted by EMF? Or will they have onsold the project multiple times. Please outline the WHS requirements for employees who make site visits to the BESS. Please explain if there is any difference between the EMF safety procedures for employees and the safety procedures for the unfortunate individuals who live beside this development.
• Local employment – few believe that there will be any employment opportunities for those currently living in Wellington. Please detail exactly what jobs will be available and exactly what skills are required for the job. What checks does DPE make to ensure that developers actually fulfil the numerous employment promises made?
• Thermal runaway – what is the NSW fire brigade protocol for handling high energy battery fires in Wellington?
• Noise – our experience to date indicates that all energy developers understate the noise impact by at least 10 dB.
• What comes next – more modules, more noise, more thermal runaway risk, more EMF?
• Toxic waste at end of life for the BESS – is there a bond payable by the developer at the start of the project that ensures there will be funds available at the end of the project’s life to restore the environment? Where will the waste be buried?

Has the developer paid any sort of bond to the NSW State Government to ensure that the site is restored at the BESS end of life? Does DPE ensure that the promises of local employment are actually delivered? What local jobs will be made available? What skills will be required? What NSW Government audit process is in place to ensure that the developer's promises are ever delivered.

What WHS procedures are in place at the site to protect employees from EMF? Are the people neighbouring the BESS protected from EMF? These developments once approved by the NSW Government inevitably submit a number of modifications to expand the project - does DPE take this into account in the initial approval? Undoubtedly the homes around this project will be significantly devalued, if the NSW Government continues to approve such projects who is ultimately responsible for the erosion of property values - the Developer or the NSW State Government.

Please ensure -
that there is a deposit or bond or guarantee for end of project clean up and remediation
adequate fire fighting equipment internally
careful plans for runoff and stormwater
an initial base level test for any contaminants
As the project is a recipient of Government subsidies and mandates -
that the operator provide audited annual accounts openly available
annual report of physical outputs
I ask the Australian Government regulator ensure -
No child labour
No slave labour

13 July 2023
Orana Battery Energy Storage System

I wish to lodge an objection to this project on the following grounds:

It needs to be clearly understood that a battery is NOT a generator. A battery will always have to be recharged by an external, separate, generator. If this BESS is of 1800 MWh rating, capable of delivering 400 MW, as stated in the proponent's EIS, it is capable of delivering 400 MW for a maximum of 1800/400 = 4.5 hours. It is then a flat battery and needs to be recharged by an external, separate, generator. Therefore the environmental and other impacts of a battery system should never be considered as separate from those of the required enabling generator.

The reality is that, to propose to replace fully dispatchable, conventional generation in New South Wales will require a combination of many thousands of wind farms, solar farms and battery storage systems such as that described by the Orana proposal. Both the AEMO and NSW Planning have completely underestimated the actual battery requirement needed to enable intermittent so-called “renewables”. As to the sheer scale of that requirement, see, for example, Francis Menton at:
https://www.thegwpf.org/content/uploads/2022/11/Menton-Energy-Storage-Conundrum.pdf

Each of these batteries, then, is but a miniscule addition to the actual battery requirement should governments continue with this totally mad, totally futile scheme to attempt to reduce CO2 emissions, but each battery has a significant land-use footprint, as the EIS for this proposal shows.

Planting a battery such as that proposed in association with the required transmission substation and transmission line system in a rural landscape totally changes that land use from rural to industrial. Again the emphasis of my objection is that even though one such battery on its own contributes little to the overall electricity demand requirement, it requires a significant land-use footprint, requiring, in this example, destruction of native woodland. Multiply this land-use footprint by the many thousands of such BESS units that will be required to have any meaningful impact on addressing electricity demand, and it becomes immediately obvious that such a land-use requirement is hideously large and therefore totally unacceptable.

A BESS battery does not somehow “pop into existence”. It has to be manufactured. A battery can NEVER be considered to be “green”. Merely because a battery is required as a band-aid to deal with the intermittency and variability of wind and solar energy does NOT make it “green”. Conversely, the fact that these forms of generation require grid-scale batteries, and huge numbers of them, merely adds to the already very considerable resource and energy impacts resulting from the manufacture and deployment of these forms of generation.
Unsurprisingly, there is no attempt by the proponent of this BESS to estimate the resource and fossil-fuel-supplied energy (hence a significant source of CO2 emissions) required to manufacture, transport, and deploy the BESS. Even for just this single 1600 MWh battery, these requirements are huge. Because a battery can NEVER generate energy, its use can NEVER offset the fossil-fuelled energy requirements that went into its creation.

A final sobering thought: the land-use footprint of this single BESS unit, one of many thousands of such units identified as required by such as the AEMO and NSW Planning, could be far, far better utilised by a single Small Modular Nuclear Reactor (SMR). A single 400 MW SMR, occupying a similar land-use footprint, would replace the BESS, as well as all of the wind and/or solar farm requirement that is required to charge the BESS. As the SMR is a complete package as a plug-in replacement for a coal-fired power station, it can, unlike a BESS and the wind or solar farm paraphernalia required to drive it, be placed immediately adjacent to the dispatchable power station it is to replace, so not destroying pristine landscapes. And, unlike the BESS, a SMR is a real generator, if of 400 MW rating, able to generate 400 MW, 24/7, 365 days of the year, all the while generating virtually nil CO2. For a much more detailed explanation of the value of Small Modular Reactors in the Australian context, see the paper by Mr Tony Irwin: "A Just Transition to Low-Emissions Technology - Repowering Coal-Fired Power Stations in Australia with SMRs", available at:
http://www.smrnuclear.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/2022_June_A-Just-Transition-to-Low-emissions-Technology-Repowering-Coal-fired-Power-Stations-in-Australia-with-SMRs.pdf

Looked at from this perspective, these BESS units are entirely superfluous.
Yours sincerely

The trade off is not worth it. Batteries cost a fortune, they don't supply energy to enough people for long enough and eventually they die and have to be buried. They are not cost effective. Another problem is they are made from toxic metals which makes them toxic in landfill. These poisons eventually seep through to the water table and the aquifers that agriculture in Australia relies on.

My objections to the Orana BESS proposal include:
1) The loss of even more biodiversity due to the cumulative destruction of evermore habitat in the Central West NSW
2) The continued cumulative reduction of food producing land for renewables projects
3) The massive waste of resources in creating the BESS, frequently replacing the batteries and the thousands of tonnes of toxic waste at the end of life of the batteries and other components
4) Cumulative impact on our roads, travel times, animal strikes, etc. from Newcastle Port to the numerous renewables sites of plants under construction or proposed.
5) The increased fire risk to our brave RFS volunteers and others resulting from concentration of thousands of km2 of wind, solar and wind projects in our region.
6) The unwillingness of developers to put upfront bonds for end of life decommissioning, waste disposal and land rehabilitation (if even possible). What have they got to hide? Will the cost be greater than the original construction in 20 years time? Will the owners at that time be viable? Will the rate payers and/or taxpayers get stuck with the costs?
7) My annual electricity costs have risen fourfold in four years, which coincides with the increasing amount of renewables in our electricity system generation mix. No country has achieved lower electricity prices for its consumers when a high % of intermittent, unreliable wind and solar plants are relied upon. Why does the Developer insist their BESS will put downward pressure on electricity prices when all the evidence and real world experience proves the opposite?

I object to the Orana BESS proposal because:
+ Lithium-ion batteries use cobalt and copper that is likely to have been mined in the DRC by slave labour, including over 40,000 children.
+ the components, including the batteries and inverters are likely to be sourced from China, which emits the world's greatest amount of human induced green house gases.
+ there are much better alternatives to a BESS, including modern low emissions coal-fired power stations, such as those being built in China, Japan, Europe, and India by the hundreds and the expected near zero emissions, small nuclear reactors to be available by 2028-9.

Our heritage home is in very close proximity to the proposed development. It is identified as Residential Receiver R1.
Our home is the closest of all nearby residences to the proposed project.
Our home has been identified in the environmental impact statement as a dwelling which will be affected visually and audibly.
The site chosen is in direct view from our garden and from the house in several places.

VISUAL IMPACT
Up until about 5 years ago scenery surrounding our property was beautiful. Rolling countryside with natural textures and colours. Looking now towards the North West and then North and then to the North East, it looks like an industrial area! Despite all promises of screening and minimal visual impact, solar panels are now the dominant feature.
Daytime visual impact from the Orana BESS site will be quite apparent and it will take many years of growth before any screening trees will reduce this visual impact. Night-time security lighting will be clearly visible from our property.

AUDIBLE IMPACT
It is understood that cooling systems will be incorporated into the Orana BESS project, to ensure that the inverters and storage batteries are kept within safe temperature limits. It is noted that the noise produced by these coolers will be heard at our house unless it is absorbed or directed away. This noise will be most prominent at night, during times of peak electrical demand when the inverters are working near capacity. The project site is in a valley which is highly susceptible to air movements. Sound waves from the site will be greatly intensified at R1 when the wind is blowing from the East. Does the Noise and Vibration Assessment take this fully into account? The "nature" of the noise has not been clearly defined - is it a "hum", a "rumble", a vibration or a combination of these? Household members at R1 are highly sensitive to on-going noise and the impact of such noise occurring during the night will ultimately lead to sleep deprivation.

COMBINED IMPACTS OF VISUAL AND AUDIBLE FACTORS
There are two 'local' BESS projects "on the drawing board" at this stage and both of them are in very close proximity to our home R1. Each project independently assess the Environmental Impacts of Visibility and Noise but R1 will "see and hear" the effect of the combination as soon as construction begins. Increased Construction Noise will be apparent if the work is undertaken concurrently and higher levels of Operational Noise will be evident for the years that follow. Our assumption is that an increase of 3dB(A) in Noise would be probable if two BESS projects are operating simultaneously at similar distances from a Residential Receptor.

RADIO INTERFERENCE
The Electro Magnetic Radiation produced by inverters is well documented. This EMR extends into the HF, VHF and UHF radio spectrum. The impact of this is to produce a radio interference that is significant in the nearby surrounding areas.
As a licensed radio operator (VK2TP) I am already impacted by Radio Frequency (RF) noise produced by the inverters installed as part of the existing Solar Farm installation.
I have needed to construct and use highly directional yagi antennas and arrays in an attempt to null this broadband interference when communicating with other stations. It is not possible to communicate with stations in the direction of inteference. Despite assurances from other project developers, my concerns about interference were dismissed. More inverters in new locations and different directions from R1 will only make this harder unless more effective shielding and filtering of the inverters is planned and implemented. I have discussed this with previous project developers and demonstrated the effects of this interference .
For reference, my radio experiments extend over a range of frequency bands but predominantly 144MHz, 432MHz, and 1296MHz with propagation aided by Tropospheric reflections, Aircraft enhancement, Moon bounce, and Meteor scatter. At the present time, the peak of the broadband interference appears to be between 100MHz to 200MHz.

PROPERTY VALUE
A beautiful property in a rural location was purchased, a bit of a dream! The image has certainly faded with the encroachment of silicon panels, security fences and huge metal structures, masses of security lights, increased traffic, audible noise and RF noise. Has this affected property values? According to a local real estate agent, it has! Time will tell!

NEIGHBOUR AGREEMENTS
Very recently, there has been some preliminary discussion relating to written Neighbour Agreements. This is a much better approach to ensure that the broken promises of the past do not continue. We welcome these discussions in the interests of positive neighbourly relationships.

SUMMARY
I will continue to debate whether I should tick the "I object to the project" box OR tick the "I'm providing comments" box. I am certainly hopeful that the comments will be considered and perhaps the issues of Visibility, Audible noise and Radio Interference may bring a more satisfactory outcome to local residents.

Name of individual submitting on behalf of SOS to be withheld. Submission to be published under the name Save Our Surroundings-Central West NSW

I object to this project. I am extremely concerned about our future generations and the environmental destruction and mess we will be leaving them with.
There is more and more evidence coming from countries who have been using Renewable Energy Resources for many years, that their negative impact on the environment and people’s lives to profit large corporations does not weigh up at all. This is all a huge marketing campaign to profit big businesses leaving devastation in their wake for our people and our country. I absolutely object to the Orana BatteryEnery Storage System!!!!!

Submission that the building of the Orana Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) at Wellington NSW not be approved.
I would submit that for the following reasons the proposed Orana Battery Energy Storage System proposed for Wellington NSW, not be approved.
1. IT IS INCOMPETENT TO EVER CONSIDER SOLAR PANELS AND WIND TURBINES AS BASIC GENERATORS CAN PROVIDE BASE LOAD POWER 24/7 FOR NSW.
For NSW to function as a modern society all citizens, businesses, homes, public utilities hospitals, nursing homes, schools, etc. must be guaranteed a constant, reliable supply of base load electricity, 24hrs/day, 7days/week.
Any possibility of the occurrence of BLACKOUTS of the supply of electricity on a daily, intermittent basis would be catastrophic. And similar to a person having a series of heart attacks.
Rolling blackouts will affect everybody, financial systems will suddenly close down, Banks, Shopping Centres, Cafe', manufacturers, just everything will be unable to trade or operate, particularly with a lack of refrigeration leading to widespread food spoilage in both Supermarkets, cafes and homes, leading to food shortages. High rise buildings, apartments and homes would become uninhabitable. Such simple items such as garage doors would not open. Schools would need to close, traffic chaos would ensure as traffic lights would shut down, boom gates would stay down, street and all lighting would be out, TV, telecommunications and the NBN may shut down, the supply of water would be interrupted and sewerage services will backup. Hospitals, nursing homes and people relying on heating, cooling or life maintaining devices may die. The results caused by a BLACKOUT, affects everybody in a multitude of ways and must be avoided at all costs.
With the move to RELY on solar panels in all forms that has a daily SHORTAGE OF FUEL, (in that the Sun only shines in Winter for nine hours a day, leaving a black hole of fifteen hours each night with no electricity being produced). IT IS INCOMPETENT TO CONSIDER SOLAR GENERATORS COULD EVER PROVIDE BASE LOAD POWER 24/7.
Wind turbines which RELY on the wind for fuel (and because they can only produce electricity, when the wind speed is between 12kms/hr and 90kms/hr) they are reported to produce electricity on average for only 30% of their rated capacity or on average for eight hours per day, Again, leaving random periods of hours, WITHOUT ANY ELECTRICITY BEING PRODUCED, (occasionally in some calm periods, wind turbines produce no electricity for days at a time. IT IS INCOMPETENT TO CONSIDER WIND TURBINES COULD EVER PROVIDE BASE LOAD POWER 24/7.
2. PUTTING BATTERIES INTO THE SYSTEM, ONLY INCREASES THE UNRELIABILITY OF THE GRID AND THE COST OF ELECTRICITY TO CONSUMERS.
3. Batteries alone can never produce electricity. Batteries take in electricity from the Grid and release less than they take out. Therefor batteries are INEFFICIENT IN STORING ELECTRICITY.
4. Batteries can only take in electricity when there is a surplus in the Grid. On a cold, calm night there would be NO ELECTRICITY AVAILABLE from Solar panels or Wind Turbines for the batteries to store.
5. A LITHIUM-ION BATTERY ONLY HAS A SHORT LIFE. WILL ORANA BESS BATTERIES HAVE TO BE REPLACED IN THREE YEARS? A Lithium-Ion battery's average life span is 2 to 3 years or 300 to 500 charge cycles, whichever comes first. A charging cycle is a duration of utilization when the battery is fully charged, completely drained, and wholly recharged. https://au.renogy.com/blog/everything-you-need-to-know-about-lithium-battery-charging-cycles/
6. LITHIUM BATTERIES ARE AN EXTREME FIRE RISK There were at least 25,000 incidents of fire or overheating in lithium-ion batteries over a recent five-year period, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Within large-scale lithium-ion battery energy storage systems, there have been 40 known fires in recent years, according to research from Newcastle University. Reality: These fires have unique attributes and are very difficult to extinguish. In fact, you may need to let the fire burn out. That’s due to additional cells rupturing due to fire and heat, releasing flammable vapor. While water or foam may appear to put out fires out quickly, lithium-ion fires can reignite as breached cells are met with oxygen. https://www.tuvsud.com/en-us/resource-centre/stories/lithium-ion-battery-fires-myth-vs-reality
7. The Orana Bess Site plans must include the establishment of SPECIAL LITHIUM FIRE FIGHTING EQUIPMENT?
8. The Orana Bess site plans must include an EVACUTATION PLAN FOR WELLINGTON NSW?
9. The Orana Bess operators must have a PUBLIC LIABILITY POLICY of at least $500 million to cover damages to life and property in Wellington and surrounding areas, if a fire or an incident of noxious chemical pollution escapes from the Orana BESS site and burns or contaminates Wellington and surrounding areas?
To conclude the Orana BESS complex must not be approved. This is because it is part of the Federal Government, Renewable Energy Power Program that is made up of Solar and Wind factories, Lithium battery storage and 28,000 kilometres of high voltage transmission lines.
This program is PERMANENTLY POLLUTING the serenity, peacefulness, agricultural productivity, fire safety and general well being of New South Wales country towns and countryside causing it to be permanently lost forever.
I BELIEVE THAT IT IS THE GREATEST ACT OF ENVIRONMENTAL VANDALISM EVER IN THE HISTORY OF AUSTRALIA.

Please see the attached submission made by Hall & Wilcox on behalf of Shirley Angophora Pty Ltd.

Renewable energy solar panels and batteries are not efficient sources of creating power. they are a huge issues with disposable parts they cannot be recycled.
to create the panels and batteries are a massive drain on the mineral and recourse to produce components create large amounts of emissions.
The solar panels and batteries are enormous fire risk to the environment and residents. if a firs were to destroy the plant , the area will become a toxic waste land. Endangering tens of thousands of lives in the first stages and the after affects will dislodge up to one hundred thousand residents in the town and outlaying areas.
the out fall of the air bourn burnt compounds will fall onto the ground getting into the stream and rivers and eventually into the Sydney drinking water reservoir. leading to contamination of the drinking water with an irreversible catastrophic outcome, for all citizens living in the region.
The solar factory is a huge visual eye sore for the community now and for generations to come.
This proposal will also impact the mental heath of all citizens in the area.
the permanently removal of prime land used and proposed to be used for these projects will greatly affect the amount of food that can be produced well into the future. these projects inhibit our already much limited agricultural land.
The ecology of the land will be permanently changed without regard for flora or fauna.
First Nations People and Australian citizens will no longer have places of beauty to be at one with nature.
the health hazards from the electro magnetic radiation emitted from this proposal will have far reaching medical issues to come in relations to adult cancers and heart conditions as well as significant rises in leukemia in new born and adolescents children.
These Solar factories are majority foreign owned and managed and have no regard for the residents or the environment just a dollar value which will all be taken overseas, with no benefit to the Australian nation.

I strongly object to this project and any other project of this kind in 100km of residents in small villages and large towns - areas were environmental impact will greatly affect flora and fauna, agricultural and residential land.

I strongly object to this project. Batteries create more environmental problems than they solve, due to their mining and manufacture and limited lifespan. Wind and solar generators consume more raw materials and energy to manufacture yet produce less power than equivalent thermal power plants. They are simply grossly less efficient. Adding batteries to try and fill the gaps in generation only compounds this inefficiency and leads to the consumption of more energy and material. The planet suffers a net loss environmentally, which is counter to the purported reason for doing all this.

I object to the Orana Battery Energy Storage System Project proposed by Akaysha Pty Ltd, slated to be placed within 2km of Wellington (population 9464 in 2018).

The Lithium-Ion battery uses lead, lithium and cobalt, all of which are hazardous materials. Ordinary fire suppression measures cannot extinguish a Lithium chemical reaction fire. A fire that occurred in the 35MW/450MWh BESS during testing on 30 July 2021 in Geelong, Victoria, shows how dangerous it can be for nearby residents. When one of the battery packs caught fire, it burned for three days and resulted in the evacuation of residents because of the toxic fumes generated.

I urge DPE to listen to those most heavily impacted by this project (the residents near/around Wellington) and consider the cumulative impact on the district by the multiple wind, solar and BESS projects already in this district.

This project, by a foreign owned profit-making entity (US based Blackrock aquired Akaysha Pty Ltd in 2022), should be rejected.

I object to this proposal for the following reasons:
* The social and environmental devastation being caused by wind, solar and battery projects is having an enormous affect on our community. The community backlash is an indication that Australia needs to take a precautionary approach to this new industry that threatens the rural way of life and biodiversity.
* Water including underground would be seriously affected by this proposal should it be approved.
* The battery storage energy makes claims that it is green, cheap and clean. In fact nothing could be more further from the truth. They have a short life span, and some fires have been known to be caused by them. Battery storage is intermittent and unreliable. Then the toxic environmental disaster of disposing of the hundreds of millions of solar panels or wind turbines/blades, when their use-by date hits. They are filled with poisonous products and most will likely end up in landfill.

The Battery storage facilities are environmentally destructive, and is known to contaminate above and below the ground. It is a tragedy that many of the components associated with Battery Storage, solar & wind involve components that involve slave labour. This is well known.
* It is well known that the large scale renewable developments are causing massive environmental destruction, pollution to rivers and underground water.
* Food Security is threatened by these toxic developments, when there are other alternatives.
* Energy Security is also of concern, as many developers onsell at a later date to private equity investors.
This proposal is unethical due to the planning process, the lack of consent (remember that consultation is NOT consent)
* Many Australian's are uninformed about the serious consequences of covering up biodiversity / photosynthesis with industrial waste products that will remain insitu, or in landfill forever. There is nothing clean, renewable or cheap about this proposal, because it will require funding from the Tax Payer.
* The farming landscape to heavy industrial use is a completely different change of land use, which consolidates our concerns that this destructive proposal must not go ahead.
This project involves large scale development that the developer identifies as a solar plant, but in fact it is a proposal that will have lasting environmental effects, that is unfair to leave to the next generation. There is no upfront bond for the removal of their industrial waste, and my research shows there is no benefit to Australia, on any level. These are not just solar farms, or solar parks, that this industry would have the public believe. It is in fact a potential toxic future hazard. This is not to mention the potential fire hazards from increased temperatures. Rainfall could be seriously affected by large scale industrial developments that covers the photosynthesis and biodiversity that makes our planet so different to other planets. There also may be increased temperatures of around 5%.
There was no recognition at all of dry land salinity, sterilisation of the soil, the potential toxic risks as Solar panels age & degrade on site, if inferior, broken, fractured by hail, burnt, etc. - instead, claiming in this EIS that this Solar EG Works will Protect Biodiversity, Soil, Water, Ag Production - so that the Solar site will be “Highly Reversible” - Returning to its inherent capability for Agricultural Production.
This places ‘Moral Hazard’ on the objecting Council/Ratepayers who ultimately bear the responsibility for any land/water contamination/pollution caused by Battery Storage, Solar/Wind EG Works (POEO Act.)
Any proposal that may cause grave environmental harm should not be taken lightly. I therefore request that this toxic, short term proposal be rejected.
I would appreciate a reply to my objection. Yours sincerely
Carolyn Emms
M: 0400 853 849 [email protected]

Batteries are not an efficient source of storing power, let alone having enough to power the eastern sea board. Also the issue of disposal of them when they are at the end of service or have a issue with them.