ALPINE Shire Council has officially lodged its objection against Mint Renewables' planning application to develop a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) on private land on the Yackandandah-Dederang Road near Dederang.
The submission is with Victorian Minister for Planning, Sonya Kilkenny, who will decide, as early as next month, whether to grant a permit for the proposal to develop the BESS with installed capacity of 400MWh, on 9.5 hectares of private land two kilometres northwest of Dederang township.
Council's submission, voted in favour 5-2 by councillors last month, lists eight grounds of objection, including insufficient information, with council saying "reports which have accompanied the application are ambiguous and fail to provide the level of detail necessary to satisfy concerns which have been raised by the community and council in relation to the natural environment, fire safety, visual impact and protection of amenity".
Council says the development "will cause a detrimental visual intrusion on the significant Kiewa Valley landscape as a consequence of its location on a ridgeline", contribute to the "loss and fragmentation of valuable agricultural land" and "fails to provide an adequate response as to how bushfire risk will be mitigated and managed both internally to and externally to the site".
The submission also says the proposal "fails to appropriately respond to or mitigate potential impacts of runoff and sediment into the Glen Creek tributaries", "fails to demonstrate any economic benefits for the Dederang community", and the "use and development fail to contribute to the orderly planning of the area".
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Dederang resident Sharon McEvoy, who has spearheaded the Friends of the Kiewa and Alpine Valleys Inc opposing the development for more than a year on similar grounds to council, said more than 800 submissions have been lodged with Minister Kilkenny, and more can still be lodged up to the point of a decision being made.
"We've had submissions of support from the National Trust of Australia and Murray Dairy, and we understand the government department VicGrid has indicated the proposed location is not a good spot to site the development," she said.
"We believe there is a strong case for Minister Kilkenny not be grant the permit and if we could go to the VCAT (Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal) there is no doubt we could win, but the government has taken away that right."
Trina Solar is proposing a second, larger 500 MW/1000 MWh Kiewa Valley BESS on a 10-hectare site located approximately 1.7km south-west of the Dederang Terminal Station.
Ms McEvoy said around 500 submissions have also been lodged on this proposal.
