Source : the age
A renewable energy company chaired by former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull plans to build a large-scale battery on bushfire-prone land in Melbourne’s green wedges, alarming nearby residents who lived through the devastating Black Saturday fires of 2009.
The proposed lithium-ion battery energy storage system could potentially store enough electricity to power almost 90,000 homes for a day. It would be built at an estimated cost of $500 million.
But the project has startled the small semi-rural communities of Doreen and Arthurs Creek on Melbourne’s north-eastern fringe, where residents only learnt of the proposal when a handful of neighbours were contacted by a communications agency on Tuesday.
The Middle Hut BESS project, which had been kept under wraps until this week, is at an advanced stage of planning, with its developers, Turnbull Renewables, poised to apply directly to the state government for a planning permit next month.
Turnbull Renewables said the property had been chosen because it sat beneath two high-voltage transmission lines, meaning the battery could be plugged directly into Melbourne’s energy grid.
“The site sits along the existing 330kV and 220 kV high-voltage transmission lines, the backbone of Victoria’s electricity network … [It] has been strategically chosen to store and dispatch energy close to metropolitan Melbourne,” the company said.
It said the site was one of few along the transmission line corridor with the environmental conditions needed to support a battery system, and had been positioned away from homes. The battery system would cover about 14 hectares of what is currently mostly paddocks.
But the site is also in a green wedge area that is zoned for its environmental significance and is designated as bushfire prone. A creek running through the property has Aboriginal cultural heritage value. The terrain is hilly and accessible only by a narrow gravel road.
Sarah Hunter lives on Middle Hut Road, where she and her husband run a small egg farm more than a kilometre away from the proposed battery site. She was not informed of the project on Tuesday; she learned about it through a local chat group.
Hunter said the battery system would industrialise the mostly agricultural area, characterised by its rolling hills and native wildlife, and used as a foraging area for the critically endangered swift parrot.
“There is a place for batteries but not in the middle of a hilly area in the green wedge with a bushfire overlay,” she said.
“It’s like a transformation of this beautiful area in the foothills of the Kinglake mountains. When you put in a big industrial site, that’s really damaging.”
Arthurs Creek resident Gareth Davies lives a few kilometres away, on a property at the foot of Mount Sugarloaf that came under direct attack on Black Saturday.
“I just don’t think it’s the right place,” he said. “Everybody would say that, like it’s a NIMBY thing, but my concern is it’s a known bushfire-prone area. I could barely get insurance. I had to ring around like you wouldn’t believe to get insurance here because of the risk that the actuaries put on this area.”
Middle Hut BESS is the first Victorian project for Turnbull Renewables, a company chaired by Malcolm Turnbull and founded by his wife, Lucy Turnbull. It has previously delivered two hydropower projects in NSW.
Malcolm Turnbull told The Age the battery system would store excess wind and solar power generated during the day and dispatch it at night.
“Storage is absolutely critical for the energy transition,” he said. “With more and more of our energy coming from wind and solar, and particularly solar storage, the ability to essentially time-shift electrons from the middle of a sunny day to the evening, is really vital.”
The former Coalition prime minister, who left politics in 2018, said the developers had reached out to the local community, and would host a public information session later this month.
“We are confident that this is a good project. It’ll be good for all of us,” he said.
The project is expected to be considered by Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny under the significant economic development provisions of the planning scheme.
A Victorian government spokesperson said the Department of Transport and Planning had not received an application for the project, and that all proposals were considered on their merits.
“Green wedges play an important role in supporting agriculture, jobs, tourism and open space around Melbourne, which is why we are strengthening protections for them,” the spokesperson said.
A Nillumbik Council spokesperson said they were aware of the proposal but it would not be assessed by council.
“We believe the proposal will need to be publicly advertised, giving residents and other interested parties an opportunity to make a submission or object,” they said.
According to Turnbull Renewables’ project timeline, construction would begin in 2028 and the battery would be operational by 2029.
Middle Hut BESS would be one of the largest lithium batteries in Melbourne, with a proposed capacity of 290MW/1160MWh.
A small handful of industrial-scale batteries have already been built around Melbourne’s fringes, including the Melbourne Renewable Energy Hub in Plumpton, Rangebank BESS in Cranbourne West and the Victorian Big Battery near Geelong.
The Victorian Big Battery caught fire and burned for three days in 2021. Turnbull Renewables acknowledged Middle Hut BESS was proposed for a bushfire-prone area and said a fire-risk assessment would form part of its application. It said it was engaging with the CFA.
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Adam Carey is an investigative reporter. He has previously been senior city reporter, education editor, state political correspondent and transport reporter. Contact him at acarey@theage.com.au or on Signal at adamlcarey.39Connect via email.
