Five Victorian solar farms shut down over bushfire risk

The Victorian energy safety regulator has ordered five solar farms owned by subsidiaries of a Chinese-owned company to stop generating electricity after a fire at one site spread to uncontrolled vegetation.

Specific equipment used at the Cohuna Solar Farm at Horfield in Victoria was believed have caused a large grass in 2023.

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Victoria’s energy safety regulator has ordered five solar farms to be switched off due to concerns over bushfire risks caused by uncontrolled vegetation.

Operators of the five solar farms owned by subsidiaries of Chinese-owned Sungrow Power Australia have been ordered to cease generating electricity from sites at Raywood and Goornong, near Bendigo, Stawell and Ledcourt in western Victoria, and Moolort, west of Castlemaine, after a blitz by Energy Safe Victoria in February.

A spokesperson said the inspections coincided with a fire at the Raywood solar farm, 28km north of Bendigo, which started in electrical equipment and spread to vegetation on the site.

“When Energy Safe officers attended the scene, they observed a lack of adequate vegetation management including insufficient fire breaks and vegetation that had grown too high,’’ the regulator said.

The fire, which started in an inverter, sent black toxic smoke drifting over the small town of Raywood, causing authorities to issue warnings to residents and causing difficulty for crews trying to access the fire site.

Solar farm fire near Raywood in central Victoria. Picture: Supplied

Safety officers inspected two other Sungrow solar operations as part of the blitz and had concerns about vegetation management at another two sites.

The five solar farms were directed to stop operations on February 22. An Energy Safe spokesperson yesterday told The Australian that Sungrow had carried out remediation but the sites remain de-energised while the regulator assesses the work.

Energy Safe CEO Leanne Hughson said energy businesses must ensure their installations do not endanger the community.

“At the beginning of summer last year, we wrote to the operators of all solar farms in Victoria to ensure they were actively managing safety risks during the fire danger period,” Ms Hughson said.

“Solar farm owners and operators have a legal duty to minimise bushfire risks and if they don’t, we will take action to protect people and property.”

She said safety officers were inspecting other renewable energy facilities in Victoria to ensure they complied with their maintenance and safety obligations.

The Raywood fire is not the first to ignite in a solar farm. An inverter in a shipping container burst into flames at Mannum east of Adelaide in 2024, causing $250,000 damage and injuring a contractor. CFS crews contained the fire to the shipping container and stopped it spreading to nearby panels.

A solar farm near Gulgong, north of Mudgee in the central-west region of NSW, was temporarily shut down after a grass fire in 2023.

Cohuna Solar Farm, a large operation near Horfield in northern Victoria, was ordered to temporarily stop generating power in December 2023 following a grassfire.

Farmers have previously voiced concerns about other solar farm operators failing to control overgrown grass and in some areas country fire volunteers have pledged to not fight fires in renewables installations and around transmission lines.

More than 20 country fire brigades in Victoria have told the state government they will only provide perimeter defence unless lives or the safety of the public are at risk.

The group, Firefighters Against Renewables Over Victoria, issued a statement in February saying it was opposed to areas it protects being designated renewable energy zones. “We give clear notice that no time will be donated to attend training on how to defend industrial infrastructure owned by primarily foreign interests for the benefits of renewable energy or mineral sand mining industries,’’ it said.

The practice of grazing sheep under panels has been a much vaunted solution to keep the grass down but it is still not widely used.