{"id":28195,"date":"2019-02-25T05:07:56","date_gmt":"2019-02-24T18:37:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/?p=28195"},"modified":"2019-02-25T05:09:15","modified_gmt":"2019-02-24T18:39:15","slug":"sunshine-energy-solar-stoush-mb0950","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/sunshine-energy-solar-stoush-mb0950\/","title":{"rendered":"Not All Sunshine For QLD 1,500MW Solar + 500MW Storage Project"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Sunshine
Image: Glen Butcher<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

An “early groundbreaking ceremony” for a huge solar power and battery storage facility in Queensland was accompanied by very little fanfare – and probably for good reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Sunshine Energy project is to be constructed on a number of \nparcels of land located between Harlin and Kilcoy in south-east Queensland. The \ndevelopment application was given \nthe go-ahead<\/a> by Queensland\u2019s Somerset Council in November last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 1,500MW solar energy facility, which is to be built in two stages, may wind up even \nlarger with  a subsequent stage as there’s provision to expand it to 2GW.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The early groundbreaking ceremony was held last week. Missing was the \nusual media coverage for what will be such a significant project, both for the \narea and the state. The image above from the event was sourced \nfrom<\/a> Assistant Treasurer Glenn Butcher’s Twitter account. And that was about \nit. There was no formal announcement from the Queensland Government and nothing \nfrom Sunshine Energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps a reason for the low-key event was legal wrangling associated with \nthe development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Local land owner Anthony Crombie is taking Somerset Council and Sunshine Energy \nAustralia  to the Planning and Environment Court in an attempt to see the \napproval rescinded. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Around 4 months ago, Mr. Crombie also launched \na petition<\/a> regarding the project, stating the development will render the rural landscape \n“unrecognisable”. \nThe petition’s aim was to pressure Council to refuse the development or request a substantially reduced \ncapacity – a suggested 200MW. Over the 4 months since the petition was launched, 242 had \nsigned it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Laundry List Of Grievances<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A notice of appeal filed with the Planning and Environment Court in January cites dozens of reasons why the \ndevelopment application approval should be retracted, mostly in relation to claimed conflicts with provisions of Somerset Regional Planning Scheme Version 3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among them, it’s claimed the development:<\/p>\n\n\n\n