BY DI SNEDDON
Tony and Sandra Zanardi and their family, alongside neighbour Paul Burley and his family enjoy views at Maison Dieu near Singleton over pasture, horses feeding on the grass and cattle grazing.
It is unusually green at the moment and quite picturesque but last year they were told of a plan to develop this view into a solar farm they say will destroy their way of life.
Terrain Solar in partnership with RATCH Australia Corporation Pty Ltd. lodged an application to initially develop the Maison Dieu Solar Farm with generation capacity of up to 150 megawatts to generate enough electricity to power some 40,000 homes.
Now the develop has been reduced to a project aimed to produce 60 megawatts of power for some 19,000 homes but for the Zanardi and Burley family, the reduction in size offers no comfort.
The residents fear that any approval of the project will pave the way for modification approvals and a much larger footprint than what is in front of them now.
“I won’t have it, I think the people of Singleton would be outraged if they knew what was happening here,” Tony said.
He says his property will be potentially barricaded off by 2.4 metre fences and razor wire, a 15 metre buffer and then solar panels, thousands of them.
“It is all well to say we need the power but this is prime agricultural land and there is no point being able to turn the power on if you have nothing to cook on the stove,” Tony said.
Paul loves his space and on learning about the proposed development planted more than a dozen trees to mitigate the visual impact he may experience should the development go ahead.
“I don’t want this to happen, I love it out here, look at what I see now and I don’t want this development in my backyard,” Paul said.
The development is proposed because it is within the Hunter-Central Coast Renewable Energy Zone and nearby to Ausgrid’s 66kv/132 Singleton Substation down the road.
While the residents are keeping informed of the developments they say consultation has not been easy.
“I have done so much research and I don’t trust the process, I’ve been through this before with the mining industry so I understand the approval process, it is causing enormous stress on all of us,” Tony said.
An environmental impact statement will include all the documentation on environmental, visual, noise and other reports and is expected to go on public exhibition in April.
