“The area of northern Victoria from Shepparton north-west to Mildura has been the location for most of Victoria’s solar farms built to date,” Environment Victoria Senior Climate Campaigner Taegen Edwards said.
“Recently there’s been some grid congestion in the north-west of Victoria that has impacted solar farms and this may explain why more have been proposed further to the east.”
“We urgently need to transition away from old, polluting coal power stations to clean renewable energy. Australia is one of the sunniest places in the world and northern Victoria has the best solar resources in the state.”
“The growth of these solar farms is a good thing for the region and for Victoria. They’re bringing jobs and investment into the area and mean we don’t need to burn as much coal to generate electricity, which cuts the pollution causing climate change.”
“Solar panels are the least impactful form of electricity generation. They’re low to the ground so don’t have a big visual impact, and there are examples from overseas of how they can be integrated with agriculture.”
“While solar farms are a positive development, it’s also important that the local community has a say in the location and size of these solar farms so they receive full community support.”
GV Community Energy chief executive Geoff Lodge said the rise in solar farms had many positive prospects for the region.
Commenting on the region's popularity for solar farms, Mr Lodge said it may be a combination of solar yield from radiation in the northern Victorian climate and the availability of the electricity grid, and demand for power.
“If you just looked at solar you would not build it in Shepparton but you'd go to Mildura, but if you base the power generation so far to the east you would get certain losses before it gets to the rest of the state.
“We have industry based right here that can use the power.”
Mr Lodge said the growth in solar farms was good for the region as it provided local generation of a power source, created economic benefits from construction and maintenance and made a contribution to a reduction in carbon which helped in tacking climate change.
“This will provide more resilience in our ongoing supply.”
“If we continue to rely on what we did in the past we are doomed.”
Mr Lodge said the total area occupied by the solar farms was miniscule in comparison to the area already occupied by agriculture.
“If there was a situation where we were taking up 30 per cent of the agricultural land I would be the first to protest, because I come from an agricultural background and I know its importance, but the current proposals occupy less than one per cent.”
Victorian Government guidelines require solar farm applicants to have regard for the value of existing irrigation infrastructure and Goulburn-Murray Water is a referral authority for the applications.
Major solar farms already operating include Neoen's at Numurkah generating 128 MW, Wirsol and Edify Energy's at Gannawarra generating 60 MW, while a second stage at Gannawarra will provide 300 MW, another at Tragowel will generate 430 MW, and others at Lemnos, Marcona, Wunghnu and Glenrowan will create 100 MW.
A proposal for Goorambat by Neoen will provide up to 250 MW.
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