Miriam Vale Renewable Energy Hub plans to undergo further assessment
A renewable energy project pegged for a rural Queensland town will require further assessment before a decision on whether it goes ahead or not can be made.
Gladstone
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A major solar farm project will require further assessment before it can get final approvals after a preliminary decision was released on the plans.
Plans for the Miriam Vale Renewable Energy Hub were lodged with the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water last month.
According to the plans the project would consist of a solar farm and Battery Energy Storage System (BESS).
The BESS is proposed to have an initial capacity of up to 400MW/h with the potential to increase to 1600MWh.
The project would have the potential to supply up to one gigawatt of solar energy into the national electricity market.
The proposed solar farm would span across 14 freehold parcels of land with a combined total of 1082.25 hectares, with the disturbance footprint taking up about 926ha.
According to the decision document, which was released through the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC Act) public portal, the proposed continuation project will require further assessment and approval under the act before it can proceed.
The one-page document states the proposed project was deemed a “controlled action”, which are projects that are considered to likely have “significant impacts”.
The document says the project would be assessed by “preliminary documentation”.
According to the DCCEEW website, projects deemed to be a controlled actions proceed to the next stages of the process, which includes and environmental assessment and then approvals.
The Miriam Vale Renewable Energy Hub isn’t the only solar project pegged for the Gladstone region.
In October last year the Smoky Creek Solar Power Station, to be built near Biloela, was given the green light by Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek.
Meanwhile in January mining giant Rio Tinto agreed to buy all electricity from the proposed Upper Calliope Solar Farm.
In April construction began on the $500 million Aldoga Solar Farm, which will feature up to 820,000 solar modules with the capacity to pro480 MWp.
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