Page 2550 - Week 08 - Thursday, 14 August 2014
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installed, we have the impost to and the erosion of property values that this project will bring by being built within 150 metres of homes. An alternative site is easily identifiable. There is plenty of vacant land on the western side of the territory—on most sides of the territory—that is not on the doorstep of families’ number one investment.
I want to reiterate my concern and the concern that residents continually express to me about the project that is being proposed. The newly appointed planning minister should stand up, show that he represents the constituents that elected him, take some action, heed their concerns and work with them to find an alternative site. As we have said from the get-go, it is not about whether or not this should go ahead. It is a matter of where this should be built.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Minister for the Environment and Minister for Capital Metro) (10.32): It is worth making some observations about the proposed OneSun solar farm for Uriarra. I note, of course, that this proposal is subject currently to a development assessment process and I am not going to comment on or anticipate the outcome of that process. But it is important to stress the significance of this proposal in Australian terms.
At the moment the largest solar project operational in Australia is a 10 megawatt solar PV plant which is operating in Western Australia. That will soon be surpassed by the 20 megawatt Royalla solar farm when it becomes operational in the next few weeks. That project will then become the largest solar PV plant in operation in Australia to date, and it will be the first large-scale solar PV facility connected to the national electricity market.
The OneSun Capital proposal is also a 10 megawatt proposal and it is equivalent to the project already operating in Western Australia. So in terms of the size and scale of large-scale solar, the proposal from OneSun Capital is very significant not just in ACT terms but in Australian terms. It disappoints me that these facilities continue to be characterised as industrial, as though they present some large-scale manufacturing plant with all the noise and emissions that come with that language.
These are not industrial facilities; these are PV panels sitting in a field. That is what they are. They are PV panels sitting in a field. They do not create noise. They do not create emissions. They do not create all of those things that are associated with an industrial plant. Of course, the opponents of these proposals like to characterise them as industrial, because by doing so they hope to attach the emotional language that comes with an industrial manufacturing, mining or other resource intensive facility.
These are facilities that harness the power of sunlight. That is what they do. They are low impact, they are environmentally beneficial and they provide a form of diversity in terms of our energy supply which is critical to our community’s social, environmental and economic future.
With respect to the other important point to make, I was interested to hear Mr Wall’s commentary about electricity lines. All the issues in relation to bushfire impact and concerns about bushfire risk will be properly addressed and assessed through the
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