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BERYL SOLAR FARM
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FIRST SOLAR AT A GLANCE
Large global presence
World’s largest solar EPC and O&M provider
Partner of choice for leading utilities and global power buyers
Over 17GW installed worldwide and a 3GW+ contracted pipeline
Founded in 1999 and publicly traded on Nasdaq (FSLR)
Module production capacity of over 3GW pa.
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Proven technology performance in Australia
Involved in ~70% of operational utility-scale solar projects
Largest O&M provider
Actively involved in Australian market since mid-2008
Committed to the development of Australia’s solar industry
Energy yield advantage compared to crystalline silicon
FIRST SOLAR AUSTRALIA AT A GLANCE
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Greenough River Solar Farm – 12MWDC
Weipa Solar Farm – 1.5MWDC
Sun Metals Solar Farm – 140MWDC
Kidston Phase One Solar Project – 63MWDC
Gatton Solar Farm – 3.9MWDC
Whitsunday Solar Farm – 242MWDC
Adelaide Showgrounds – 1MWDC
Coober Pedy – 1.3MWDC
Involved in ~70% of large-scale solar projects installed in Australia to-date
FIRST SOLAR HAS A STRONG PRESENCE IN AUSTRALIA
Nyngan Solar Farm – 120MWDC
Broken Hill Solar Farm – 64MWDC
Manildra Solar Farm – 55MWDC
The projects included in this map represent projects over ~ 1MW that utilise First Solar technology and does not represent First Solar’s installed base in Australia
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Chinchilla Solar Farm – 125MWDC
Bulli Creek Solar Farm – 1500MWDC
Moira Solar Farm – 100MWDC
Current development projects
FIRST SOLAR HAS A STRONG PRESENCE IN AUSTRALIA
Beryl Solar Farm – 105MWDC
Wellington Solar Farm – 207MWDC
Gunnedah Solar Farm – 100MWDC
BERYL SOLAR FARM PROPOSAL
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PROPOSED BERYL SOLAR FARM – DEVELOPMENT TIMELINE
Environmental
Impact Assessment
submitted
24.03.17
Submission received
02.06.17
Application for the
Secretary’s Environmental
Assessment Requirements
submitted
23.12.16
NOV 16 DEC 16 JAN 17 FEB 17 MAR 17 APR 17 MAY 17 JUN 17 JUL 17 AUG 17 SEP 17 OCT 17 NOV 17
DA exhibition period
26.04.17 – 25.05.17
Assessment report
released
24.10.17
Secretary’s
Environmental
Assessment
Requirements
received
25.01.17
Environmental
Impact
Assessment
accepted by DPE
13.04.17
Submission
report
submitted
06.07.17
Submission report
submitted
accepted by DPE
19.07.17
DA exhibition period
18.08.17 – 25.08.17
Development
commenced
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DEVELOPMENT APPLICATION
• The proposed Beryl Solar Farm is located approximately five kilometers west of Gulgong on 300 hectares
of freehold, predominately clear land, for which we have an option to purchase
• Existing land use is grazing and cropping
• Collocated with existing 132/66kV Transgrid substation with an unconstrained capacity of 95MWac
• Proposed capacity of 95MWac, however due to AEMO rule changes size reduced to 87MW
• Centrally located in NSW, close to load center and utilises existing grid infrastructure
• Feeds to the existing Wellington 330kV substation located north west of Sydney
• Due to network location Marginal Loss Factor is stable at around 0.95
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PROPOSED BERYL SOLAR FARM – SITE LOCATION
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BERYL SOLAR FARM – LOCATION IN NSW TRANSMISSION NETWORK
• NSW has limited high irradiance grid connection points available
• Northern Region MLF’s are impacted heavily by the Queensland interconnector
• Western connection sites have already been utilised –Nyngan, Broken Hill, Parkes, Moree
• Full utilisation of existing transmission capacity provides the most beneficial outcome for the project and best return on network investment to date
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PROJECT BENEFITS
• Reduction in greenhouse gas emissions required to meet our energy demands• Assisting the transition towards cleaner electricity generation• Direct contribution to help in meeting the Renewable Energy Target (RET)• Attract and grow expertise in renewable energy in NSW• Produce enough electricity to power 28,000 average NSW homes • Reduce 83,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per year — the equivalent of taking about
49,000 cars off the road• Significant economic benefits to the region, through the creation of direct and indirect jobs• Establishment of a community fund to help support the local Gulgong community • Upgrades to the existing Beryl Road and Castlereagh Highway intersection• Embedded electricity generation, to supply into the Australian grid closer to the consumption centres• Utilisation of existing grid infrastructure
83,000 49,000 28,000Tons of carbon dioxide displaced annually
Cars removed Homes powered
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PROPOSED BERYL SOLAR FARM – ORIGINAL PROJECT LAYOUT - 100MW
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PROPOSED BERYL SOLAR FARM –PROJECT LAYOUT (EEC AVOIDED) - 95MW
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PROPOSED BERYL SOLAR FARM –PROJECT LAYOUT (AEMO CONSTRAINT) - 87MW
Includes additional offsets from boundaries as required by DPE. Yellow dashed line indicates 30m offset
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PROPOSED BERYL SOLAR FARM –PROJECT LAYOUT (R5 CONSTRAINT) - 73MW
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COMMUNITY CONSULTATION
ACTIVITY N D J 2017 F M A M J J A S O
ACTIVITIES AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
Direct engagement with nearby neighbours through
face to face meetings7/11
21/03
22/03
09/05
23/0505/06 13/07 12/10
Direct mail of notification of proposal* 08/12
Direct mail of project update, notification of SEARS,
Open day and feedback form*10/02
Community Open Day held by First Solar at the CWA
Hall 23/02
Direct mail of project update, DA submitted and
details on how to provide comments*27/03
Direct mail of project update, submission period
closed*13/07
Direct mail of project update, submission report
published*03/08
Direct mail of project update and referral to PAC* 27/10
PROJECT ADVERTISING
Mudgee Guardian advert outlining proposal, receipt
of SEARs and open day details
14/02
21/02
Gulgong Gossip advert setting out contact details
and website01/03
Flyer provided to local business for inclusion on
notice boards and post office10/02
COMMUNICATION
Website:
http://www.berylsolarfarm.com.au
Dedicated email for feedback:
*Mail outs to all residents within 2km of the proposal site, local businesses, special interest groups and the Gulgong Chamber of Commerce
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SUBMISSION OVERVIEW
Category Number of responses received
Submissions 30
Individual members of the public who raised objections 27
Requests for further information or clarifications 1
Government agency submissions
1. Fire and Rescue NSW
2. Nature Conservation Council of NSW
3. Mid-Western Regional Council
4. NSW Division of Resources and Geoscience
5. NSW Department of Primary Industries
6. NSW Environment Protection Authority
7. NSW Office of Environment and Heritage
8. NSW Transport, Roads and Maritime Services
9. NSW Transport
9
Total 40
Issues raised; number of times raisedSocio‐economic and community impacts; 30 Land use and air quality impacts; 6
Noise; 25 Water use and water quality; 5
Visual amenity; 21 Biodiversity; 3
Proposal and legislative requirements; 18 Health and Safety; 4
Traffic; 12 Solar farms; 2
Heritage; 8
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SUBMISSIONS RECEIVED – LOCAL COMMUNITY
Submissions
A 2
B 1
C 1
D 5; 6 submitted, 1
duplicate
E 2
F 2
G 1 – 59 / DP755434
H 1
I 1
J 1
Total – 18 (10 residences)
A
B
CD
EFH
I
G
J
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VISUAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT
• The EIS included a comprehensive visual impact assessment that is based on 22 viewpoints, including 8 residences
• Department considered that the Visual Assessment Report included in the EIS to be comprehensive and no issues have
been raised
• Visual impacts would be limited to residences within 1 km of the project, due to a combination of distance and screening
from topography and existing vegetation
• Department concluded that the Project would have a relatively minor visual impact and agreed with our suggested
landscaping strategy
• Only residences located to the north and north-west of the project site would be visually impacted by the project
• The impacts on the majority of these residences would be limited as they are located at a similar elevation to the
development, the development is relatively low-lying in nature and there is some existing vegetation
• First Solar has proposed onsite visual screening and have committed to providing supplementary visual impact mitigation
measures (such as landscaping and vegetation screening) for Lot 59 DP 755434
In the case of the Taralga Landscape Guardians Inc v Minister for Planning and RES Southern Cross Pty Ltd [2007] NSWLEC
59, in the context of a visual assessment of a windfarm the Chief Judge of the Land and Environment Court of NSW ruled:
… in a context where there is no compelling reason why there should not be some turbines in this landscape and where
there is a significant public interest, in general terms, in adoption of alternative, more environmentally friendly, energy
generation sources.
Although there will be change to the village's outlook, I am satisfied that the broader public interest must outweigh this
impact. [Emphasis is ours]
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PROPOSED ONSITE VISUAL SCREENING
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R5 LAND AND SUITABILITY FOR DEVELOPMENT
• Due to the mixed zoning across the development site the use of the R5 land for large scale solar at Beryl is permissible
under section 89E(3) of the EP&A Act
• The majority of the site (approximately 80%) is zoned RU1 and solar farms are permissible in that zone under both the LEP
and the Infrastructure SEPP
• A portion of the project site (approximately 20%) is zoned R5, both the LEP and the Infrastructure SEPP prohibit large-scale
solar within R5 land unless it is assessed as part of a broader project
• The area of R5 land is ideally suited to the deployment of solar, it is flat, clear of trees and remnant grass land does not
qualify as EEC requiring offset
• The area of R5 land is subject to inundation to a depth of 600mm for the 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 year ARI events.
• Additional hydraulic modelling was provided to confirm that the solar farm infrastructure could be built over the area of
inundation with no impact to surrounding land during a flood event
• Due to the inundation a large portion of the R5 land is not suitable for development as R5
• Following the decommissioning of the solar farm the R5 portion of the site (excluding offset area) would be available for
development
Supplementary Town Planning Report
First Solar has engaged a town planner to prepare a supplementary town planning report and will provide this to the PAC as
soon as it is complete
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EXISTING LAND ZONING
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AREA OF INUNDATION – 5 YEAR ARI
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ASSESSMENT REPORT AND DRAFT CONDITIONS
• First Solar are pleased with the assessment report and draft conditions proposed with the exception of the R5 land use
restrictions being proposed in the recommended conditions:
• Constraint Map
• EEC offset restriction noted in Schedule 3, Condition 13
• Assessment report concludes the potential impacts, with the exception of the town planning issue, have been well
addressed in the EIS and supporting documentation and are assessed as manageable
• Draft Conditions incorporate the commitments made by First Solar in the EIS and we stand behind these commitments
• The Department has recommended that the proposed solar infrastructure be removed from the R5 land, to further reduce
visual impacts on residences to the north and north-west of the site, however we believe this is only relevant to residence
G. The distance between the residence and the solar farm will increase from approximately 550m to 800m
• We would like to clarify that to date the Council have not objected to the development of the Solar Farm on the R5 land
• First Solar do not believe there are any compelling reasons why there should not be solar arrays on the land, given the:
• solar farm is primarily on the adjacent RU1 zoned land
• visual impacts have been assessed to be “limited” and “minor”
• benefits of the project and the broader public interest in solar energy
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LOST ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFIT OF SIZE REDUCTION – 87 - 74MW
All figures based on average 2017 NSW NEM pricing
• Lost Energy Year 1 – 33,000 MWH
• Equivalent to 3700 average NSW homes
• Lost carbon dioxide emission displacement of 24,900
metric tons each year
• Equivalent to taking 6725 cars of the road
QUESTIONS