By Nick
OMG!! This landscape is RUINED. Image of what the proposed solar site will look like. Image from the constructors Fotowatio Renewable Ventures.
In a shock turn of events, it turns out you can’t please all of the people all of the time. The new solar plant to be built near Royalla, just south of Tuggeranong, and technically in New South Wales, has been declared an eyesore and a monstrosity by residents, who claim they have not been consulted on the proposals.
Last week saw the opening of Australia’s first large scale solar plant at Greenough River in Western Australia, size 10MW. Additionally last Wednesday saw the ACT government announce that a 20MW plant was to built in Royalla by Spanish company Fotowatio Renewable Ventures. Hooray, cried almost everyone. At last serial polluter Australia is finally seeing the light (pun most definitely intended) and is doing something about renewable energy – a couple of small steps maybe, but its a start. Unfortunately, those who were excited about the proposals may have momentarily forgot that balance has to be restored in the universe by those folks who like a good moan. And the residents of Royalla are providing this “balance”.
The residents of Royalla of course, have the right of protest. Luckily that same right of free speech allows me to call them annoying and NIMBYist and tell them to stop being so stupid.
This visual eyesore will stand at a whopping 2m tall. The total coverage of the site will be 50 hectares, which makes this arrival of “big solar” pretty small by “big solar” standards. The 83,000 solar panels will provide 20MW of power, enough to supply 4400 homes in Canberra. The cost will be picked up by the whole of Canberra, amounting to about a $13 increase in electricity bills per year.
The facility will be low-rise, generate no noise and no pollution. The impact has been described as “almost non-existent” by Fotowatio Renewable Ventures National Manager Andrea Fontana.
But this is too much. It will cause irrevocable damage to the valley, its flora and fauna. The glare from the solar panels will be unbearable. The view of this almost pristine (well, apart from the highway and all the houses) valley will be ruined.
And tragedy upon tragedy, the electricity will be being generated in New South Wales but used in the ACT! Perhaps the residents in Royalla would like to forgo the use of Canberra’s shops and hospitals since we’re dividing things so strictly across state lines.
The new Greenough River solar plant in Western Australia. Proponents of solar power say big solar farms are directly linked to a rise in big beards. Which OnCirculation can only approve of. Image from climatespectator.com.au
Apparently the last thing these residents want to do is wake up to the view of these panels, thereby ranking this hideous torture above being forced to club baby seals.
Some of this may be true. But this is the state we live in. We created this mess, and unfortunately, things that are going to clear it up are not going to be to everybody’s liking.
They do make one good point. Perhaps things like this should go in industrial areas, on roof-tops and the like. But this is an expensive proposition and you can bet your life that there would be even more moaning from people about the cost of subsidising such electricity generation if the plant were to cost double or treble the amount.
Simply put, Australia has vast amounts of open space, the most commercially viable places for solar plants being close to major cities on major transport routes, just like Royalla. Places that are often littered with small communities. Someone will object, someone will always object. But in terms of cost, impact on the local and global environment, this has to be a no-brainer.
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ABC Coverage:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-09-05/act-solar-farm-named/4244494
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Unfortunately all Cat on solar panel images are stock photos that require payment to use. So here is a book on kittens, world peace and solar power.
“The 83,000 solar panels will provide 20MW of power, enough to supply 4400 homes in Canberra.”
There are 4400 homes in Canberra that use no electricity at night whatsoever, then?
if Australia was truly seeing the light and being serious about ditching fossil fuels, it would be a nuclear power station going on that land. From the same land area, it would produce 100 times the power level, and do so 24/7. In terms of cost, impact on the local and global environment, it’s a no-brainer. But someone will object, someone will always object.
The idea that solar is useless just because it doesn’t work during the day is a bit of a false argument. Power consumption does drop dramatically at night. Many countries use batteries (often water storage) of one kind or another to store excess energy at night to release at peak times – often in the evenings (admittedly when it is also dark). But batteries of all kinds will get better and bigger and the need for solar is necessary. We’ve covered this before on OnCirculation in: http://oncirculation.com/2012/04/10/where-the-wind-blows/#more-1557. Donald Sadoway’s TEDtalk, linked in that page, is excellent in this regard, even if he does come across as rather annoying.
But I agree with you on the nuclear power. In my eyes, it has to be part of the solution, if anything is to be achieved in the next 50 years. Especially with the next generation of nuclear power plants – thorium reactors, pellet reactors, which are incredibly safe – far safer than say, coal.
Nick I am one of those Royalla Residents. One of the biggest problems is the total lack of community consultation in this process. For Simon Corbell to state that there is no residents for kilometers is untrue. The report was only considering residents of the ACT. The people who will be impacted by this development are NSW residents with no benefit to us at all. Many of us have invested in solar and have systems installed on our properties to help with the excessive costs of electricity paid by rural NSW which is 80% dearer than ACT’s electricity. This is stage 1 of the development. There have been media reports that this project could double in size with also the possibility of a 500-600MW gas-fired power plant at Williamsdale just down the road. Hume would be a better site as it is industrial. It is fine for Canberra to look toward securing it’s power needs but it would be better if they did it in there own backyard not ours.
Hi Tas, welcome to OnCirculation. Sorry for not replying to your comment sooner – I’ve been a bit swamped. It is disappointing to learn that there was no public consultation outside of the ACT. Proper consultation should always be a part of planning, and it seems the ACT government have neglected our neighbours. Unfortunately Canberra doesn’t really have a back-yard within its own jurisdiction, especially not one which doesn’t impact a much larger population. While industrial areas would of course be preferable, these tend to have much higher land-values, which would drastically increase the cost of the project. I still think it is the right decision, but I am disappointed in the lack of consultation.