South West Renewable Energy Zone project updates - Hay, NSW
The vast Hay Plains could soon be dotted with wind turbines, which supporters say provides drought-proof income for farmers. (Stock image)
By Tertia Butcher
Work starts on Cobb Highway transmission line
Ground preparation has started near Booroorban on the Cobb Highway in the next step of EnergyConnect’s construction of the new transmission line between South Australia and Wagga Wagga.
Australia’s largest transmission project has reached a major milestone recently with completion of the first of four lines critical to enabling the sharing of renewable energy between three states.
Transgrid and its construction partner Elecnor Australia have finished construction of EnergyConnect’s Line 1 – a new double-circuit 330kV transmission line stretching 135km from Buronga, in south-western NSW, to the South Australian border.
Transgrid Executive General Manager of Major Projects Gordon Taylor said completion of the line was a major milestone for EnergyConnect, with some final minor works and testing to be carried out before energisation.
“We are getting on with the job of delivering this nation-critical transmission infrastructure to enable energy sharing between NSW, South Australia and Victoria for the first time,” Mr Taylor said. “The interconnector will deliver cleaner, cheaper renewable energy to millions of customers and help achieve Australia’s emissions reduction targets.”
“We have also achieved some significant sustainability goals, reducing vegetation clearing by 35 per cent and installing 202 guyed towers which require 21 per cent less steel and 15 per cent less concrete to construct compared to conventional self-supporting structures.
“Construction of one of the largest and most sophisticated substations in the Southern Hemisphere is also nearing completion at Buronga.”
Construction of the three remaining lines continues with the installation of 80 monopoles on the line from Buronga (NSW) to Red Cliffs (Victoria) while crews are drilling and pouring tower foundations on the two lines between Buronga and Wagga Wagga.
Bullawah grants support diverse local projects
The latest round of Bullawah grants will support diverse projects for the region, from children’s sport to the protection of the historic Toganmain Woolshed.
BayWa r.e. Australia last week announced the second round of successful recipients of the Bullawah Grants Program.
Nineteen worthy organisations will receive funding to support their organisations and projects in Hay, Murrumbidgee and Edward River Councils.
Hay Plains Landcare will restore an area known as Robin’s Nest, while Coleambally Preschool will undertake renovations at its centre.
The Bullawah Grants program will also sponsor the Riverina Classic Fishing Competition, Hay Open Golf Tournament, Coleambally Darlington Point Junior Rugby League awards and Hay Inc’s Rural Education Program. A special NAIDOC Day celebration will happen in Hay thanks to the successful application from Nari Nari Tribal Council.
Hay Lions football Club will receive funding towards the celebration of its 10th anniversary Ladies Day and Hay Isolated Children’s Parents’ Association will host an information day.
The program will fund a new laptop for Coleambally Swimming Club and contribute towards Valamar Support Services ‘Threads of Courage’ event, raising awareness about domestic violence.
This round of funding is in addition to the support given to Riverina Local Land Services’ Plains wanderer education program, and scholarships with Coleambally and Edward River branches of the Community Education Fund.
Full details of all successful projects can be found on the Bullawah Windfarm website at bullawah-windfarm.com.
An additional round of the small grant program will be announced later in the year.
Below: Promotion video, produced by BayWa r.e Australia, proponents of the Bullawah Wind Farm.
ENGIE offers power bill relief – only if you’re a customer
ENGIE will offer a $1000 annual electricity rebate to reduce the electricity bills of eligible near neighbours to its proposed Plains Renewable Energy Park (PREP) between Booroorban and Hay.
But you must be on an eligible ENGIE electricity plan, and remain on that plan.
A further condition is that ENGIE must continue to retail electricity in the eligible area.
ENGIE says the total number of offers available in each location may be capped depending on uptake
The rebate will be made available through ENGIE’s integrated retail business, and be applied to local customers’ electricity bills for the operating life of the project (between 25-35 years).
The offer will be available to all households and small businesses within 20km of the PREP (Plains Renewable Energy Park) and applies from the date the project starts generating electricity.
Recent research commissioned by ENGIE found that close to half of respondents felt actively uncomfortable with renewable infrastructure in their community.
The research found that closing this gap relied on education and incentivising behaviours.
ENGIE’s Australian CEO, Rik De Buyserie said host communities of renewable energy project deserved more direct support.
“Lowering the power bills of our customers in and around The Plains is another way we can support the communities that host our renewable energy developments,” Mr De Buyserie said.
The Plains Renewable Energy Park is one of the largest renewables projects in ENGIE’s Australian development pipeline, and will include the construction of a wind farm, solar farm and a battery energy storage system operating alongside existing agricultural activities.
Letter - The Hay Plains - beauty gone forever
“You don’t know what you’ve got ‘till it’s gone”.
The Hay Plain. The largest flat area in the Southern hemisphere and one of the largest flat areas on Planet Earth.
Cut by the Murrumbidgee and Lachlan Rivers, their beds gouged out, some say, back in the Dream Time by the Rainbow Serpent, worming its way across the Plain, curling up at night to form the lake beds, before reaching its final resting place in the Lachlan River.
Travelling north from Wanganella you see “the sunlit plains extended, and at night the wonderous glory of the everlasting stars”.
You can see the curvature of the earth. On the horizon, silhouetted against the sky, you can see the outline of trucks travelling across the Plain.
On either side there is salt bush, the occasional Boree tree and some ancient redgum lined creeks.
The Plain has a wild beauty, and that extraordinary beauty is one of the great draw cards of our town of Hay.
But city money, apparently, talks louder than that wild beauty and the Plain is about to be industralised. No doubt all the requisite approval processes will be adopted but to what end?
The money on offer appears to present the danger that a right will be purchased to dig huge holes into the virgin soil, to be filled with millions of tonnes of concrete footings, above which will blast into the sky steel towers some hundreds of metres high. The attached sails will, if the experience of other districts is repeated, slaughter our wedgetail eagles and possibly our migrating water birds.
Goodness knows how the biodiversity at ground level will be impacted by these vast construction sites.
If you can see a truck silhouette so many kilometres away across the Plain imagine how far away these towers and sails will impinge upon the landscape?
And, when these blights on the landscape wear out, as they will, who pay to refurbish or remove them, as newer and cheaper technology takes over - or will the task be too great and will they be abandoned to simply rust away to a forlorn unsightly mess as is happening already to some older wind factories in other parts of the World?
The futile quest to save the environment by transitioning to renewable energy is rapidly destroying our environment.
Enjoy the Hay Plain while you can. Take photographs to show your grandchildren what we once had but either because of money or apathy we willingly allowed to be destroyed.
Shame.
The Banjo
(Name and address supplied)
