The NSW planning system continues to be held hostage by the actions of long distance objectors, and some complaints that border on the irrational – with agitators confusing wind projects, mixing wind and solar technologies and even citing the harmful impacts of a wind farm that does not exist.
As Renew Economy has documented on multiple occasions, many wind, solar and battery projects in NSW are forcibly referred to an independent planning review if there are 50 “unique” submission that object to the project, even if none make any sense.
There are indeed projects that elicit genuine concerns from the local community, and which properly merit further scrutiny. But the process is too often hijacked by the same groups of objectors, none of whom live within cooee of the project involved, or even in the same state.
The latest project to be taken hostage by this process is Bay-Wa’s Bullawah wind project near Hay, which is seeking planning approval for an up to 143 wind turbines totalling up to 1,000 MW, along with a big battery sized at 359 MW and 718 megawatt hours.
The NSW Planning Department has been looking at this project for several years. There were no local objections from anyone with 15 kms of the project, and only five from people living within 50 kms. Most of 68 objections came from people living more than 100 kms away, with many of them interstate.
