Gundary Solar Farm Community Consultation Kicking Off

It’s very early days for Lightsource bp’s proposed huge Gundary Solar Farm near Goulburn in New South Wales, but the company is already potentially facing headwinds.

The proposed project consists of a 400MWdc solar farm and battery energy storage system (BESS) of unspecified capacity. The facility is expected to generate a whopping 800,000 MWh of clean electricity a year, enough to power the equivalent of 133,000 homes. Lightsource says the project will avoid around 640,000 tonnes of carbon emissions annually.

The land out Gundary way – around 13 kilometres from Goulburn – is mostly used for grazing, but there are folks living out there and at least two would-be neighbours are not happy about the prospect of the clean power station.

The concerns are among the usual suspects raised in relation to large-scale PV:

• aesthetics
• impacts on native animals
• fire risk
• lack of community benefit
• the use of farmland

Just on the latter, Lightsource will reportedly aim to have sheep continuing to graze the land once Gundary Solar Farm is operational. But the landowner couple who will have the facility on their doorstep do not believe sheep can safely graze beneath solar panels, although this is being successfully done elsewhere.

Solar developers are very aware combining agricultural activities with solar farms (agrivoltaics) can help get projects over the line in terms of development approvals. They are also very aware effective community consultation and generous community benefits packages are crucial for the same reason – and Lightsource may have its work cut out for it here depending on how others in the wider community feel about the proposed project.

Currently, the Gundary Solar Farm project is at the preliminary assessment, site design and community consultation stage, with an information session to occur at the end of this month. The Goulburn Post reports the company hopes to submit its Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment in May next year, with view to a late 2023/early 2024 determination. If the green light is granted, construction could commence in June 2024; with that expected to take 18 to 24 months.

Other Australian Lightsource BP Solar Projects

Lightsource has a bunch of other PV projects in development or under construction in three states; including:

• Wellington, NSW – 200MWdc
• Wellington North, NSW – 400MWdc
• West Wyalong NSW – 107MWdc
• Goulburn River, NSW – 520MWdc
• Woolooga, QLD – 210MWdc
• Sandy Creek, NSW, 840MWdc
• West Mokoan, VIC, 364MWdc
• Mokoan, VIC – 51MWdc
• Wunghnu, VIC – 90MWdc

Headquartered in the UK, Lightsource bp has 700 staff and a presence in 17 countries. It’s one of the world’s largest solar developers, with 5.4GW of PV capacity under its belt to date. The company was founded in 2010 as Lightsource Renewable Energy. BP acquired a 43% stake in the firm in 2017, then boosted its stake to 50% in 2019.

Trivia – BP used to manufacture solar panels and had a factory here in Australia at Sydney Olympic park that was closed in March 2009.

Original Source: https://www.solarquotes.com.au/blog/gundary-solar-farm-mb2427/