News

A planning permit application has been lodged with the Victorian Department of Transport and Planning that is certain to ruffle a few feathers.

Meadow Creek Solar Farm Pty Ltd has submitted the application for the similarly named project which is planned on a site approximately 27km south-east of Wangaratta in northern Victoria.

Meadow Creek Solar Farm Pty Ltd consists of a local landholder who engaged Norwegian consultant DNV to lead the development.

The project is being designed for up to 330 MW of solar capacity and a 250 MW battery constructed on a 566-hectare site close to an existing transmission network.

In October 2022 a Notice of Award was issued to Energy Vault for the deployment of a 250 MW/500 MWh BESS at Meadow Creek.

Not everyone is pleased about the project’s development however, with a group of nearby local landowners objecting to the plans.

One Nation MP Rikki-Lee Tyrell took the Meadow Creek Agricultural Community Action Group’s concerns to state parliament in May last year, as did Nationals’ Shadow Minister for Water Tim McCurdy in February this year.

The group believes the Meadow Creek Solar Farm site consists of premium agricultural land in a “high-rainfall fertile rich-soil region that supports cultivation”. The land is currently used for grazing.

Other group objections are that the site covers a water supply catchment area and transit passage for native wildlife, and is a known grass and bushfire-prone area that is unsuitable for industrial projects.

The industrial connotation is reinforced by the group naming the project a “solar factory”.

On a broader level, the issue is being framed as a consequence of the state government’s changes to planning laws removing the right for third parties to appeal renewable energy planning decisions through the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT), which came into effect on 1 April.

In introducing the changes Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan argued that “Since 2015, more than one in five applications have ended up in VCAT - stuck on a shelf not being built”, affecting “around $90 billion worth of investment value in renewable projects in the pipeline” and restricting the creation of 15,000 jobs.

The full announcement is available here https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/faster-approvals-more-jobs-and-lower-power-prices

A degree of conflict with aggrieved landholders and communities was inevitable, and Meadow Creek Solar Farm won’t be the last renewable energy project to get tangled up in the VCAT changes.