Plan presented
Benalla and its surrounding villages will continue to support clean, renewable energy with Benalla Rural City Council giving planing permission to another solar farm project — in Winton.
John Mills, a consultant working on behalf of Lightsource Development, the company proposing the facility, presented a plan to the Benalla Rural City Council Planning and Development Committee on Wednesday.
He told council that if all goes well they plan to start construction next year.
The facility, which will be built at 116 Lee Rd in Winton, will consist of 42 108 solar panels, which track the sun’s movement throughout the day.
The 15 megawatt solar farm is cited to provide enough electricity for 2300 homes.
The site will also house eight inverters, nine transformers and eight batteries housed in a secure structure.
The planning permission includes the removal of five large native trees, however, it also avoids areas of vegetation and habitat identified within ecological and biodiversity assessment reports.
Prior to voting to give planning permission Cr Don Firth expressed concern regarding a lack of guidance on solar-farm planning proposals from the state government.
Those guidelines are something Benalla Rural City Council have requested in the past.
However, Benalla Rural City Council chief executive officer Tony McIlroy responded saying the council had received some guidelines from the state government — and despite those not being finalised, they were available to council.
This concern highlighted in media release State Member Steph Ryan.
Ms Ryan called out Planning Minister Richard Wynne who she said had refused to provide more specific solar-planning guidelines for local councils despite significant community concern that the was also a recent issued by for Euroa existing framework ambiguous.
She said that the state government’s response to ‘‘dump decisions about solar farms on councils without proper guidelines’’ added unnecessary pressure to local planning teams that were already under resourced.
‘‘The minister has failed to acknowledge the concerns of residents across the Euroa electorate who believe that the current solar-planning legislation is inadequate,’’ Ms Ryan said.
‘‘Rather than address the need for more specific solar planning guidelines, the minister has decided to shift the blame to our local councils.
‘‘It is completely unreasonable to expect local councils to give solar farm applications the thor- is too ough consideration they need when there are no specific guidelines to adhere to.
‘‘I have been contacted by a number of people across the electorate who believe that the current framework has created a lack of transparency between all parties involved.
‘‘Without strict planning guidelines, councils are given no other option but to accept or reject applications.
‘‘Residents feel that councils are being pressured by solar companies to push through their applications in haste.
‘‘It is completely unreasonable for the minister to think that councils can continue to review solar-farm applications without precise planning guidelines.
‘‘I welcome a greater focus on renewable energy projects, but they must be properly and thoroughly assessed.’’
However, regardless of a lack of official state government guidance Benalla Rural City Council are still managing to pass planning permission for solar sites.
With several solar farms planned for the Benalla Rural City Council area these decisions are going a long way to creating a cleaner, greener future for local people.