{"id":270623,"date":"2023-07-31T19:10:16","date_gmt":"2023-07-31T17:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=270623"},"modified":"2023-07-31T19:10:19","modified_gmt":"2023-07-31T17:10:19","slug":"aussie-nsw-farmers-call-for-a-ban-on-new-solar-projects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=270623","title":{"rendered":"Aussie NSW Farmers Call for a Ban on New Solar Projects"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Watts Up With That?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Essay by Eric Worrall<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

NSW Farmers<\/a>, Australia\u2019s largest farming organisation, is demanding a prepaid decommissioning fund for solar farms, to prevent farmers being left with the bill for decommissioning and disposal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Farming lobby wants ban on new solar farms, as renewables resentment festers in regions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sophie Vorrath<\/a>\u00a027 July 2023<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Australia\u2019s largest state farming organisation, NSW Farmers, is calling for a temporary ban on the construction of new large-scale solar farms in the state, amid concerns developers are not acting in the long-term interests of regional communities.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a motion passed at the Association\u2019s 2023 annual conference last week, NSW Farmers agreed to call on the state Labor government to place a moratorium on large scale solar developments until \u201cplanning deficiencies\u201d around plant decommissioning and remediation are addressed.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCurrent planning and approval provisions for large scale solar energy facilities do not take into account the long-term interests of agricultural land, rural communities and the rural landscape following the \u2018decommissioning\u2019 of the facility,\u201d notes on the motion say.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAgricultural land, rural communities and rural landscapes are at risk in the future and there should be no further development approvals granted until these planning deficiency issues have been fully addressed.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The call from NSW Farmers follows a recent warning from Australian Energy Infrastructure Commissioner, Andrew Dyer, that landowners may wind up lumbered with responsibility for cleaning up renewable power projects at the end of their lives, by default.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more:\u00a0https:\/\/reneweconomy.com.au\/farming-lobby-wants-ban-on-new-solar-farms-as-renewables-resentment-festers-in-regions\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The demand for a prepaid cleanup fund echoes existing arrangements in the mining industry, in which mining companies have to pay into a fund to ensure mining sites are restored after the mine is exhausted, even if the mining company fails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Solar panels frequently contain toxic heavy metals, like lead and arsenic, which potentially pose long term contamination issues for farmers seeking to rehabilitate end of life solar installations as agricultural land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if a\u00a0Chernobyl style topsoil removal<\/a>\u00a0was required to completely eliminate the threat. Arsenic chemically mimics phosphorus, so chemically removing arsenic would also remove all the phosphorus from the soil. Lead is believed to mimic iron, calcium (lime) and Magnesium, so removing lead would strip other key minerals. At the very least during treatment the soil would likely have to be made acidic for a prolonged period, to try to leach the contaminants out of surface strata. Such treatment could lead to ground water contamination, which might in turn require extensive deep drilling and ground water strata barrier construction to remediate. Strong acidification would also likely kill the soil, leaving the soil devoid of beneficial bacteria and other beneficial organisms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NSW renewable operators are already reeling from a recently announced\u00a0grid \u201caccess fee\u201d<\/a>. An in my opinion entirely reasonable demand for massive upfront payments to cover land remediation after end of life could push some renewable projects well into the financially non-viable zone, even with generous government subsidies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given the debt levels being carried by some Aussie state governments, all these new charges and demands for money are likely only a prelude to the regulatory financial shakedown renewable operators, and anyone else who invests in Australia, are likely to face in the near future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australia\u2019s largest state farming organisation, NSW Farmers, is calling for a temporary ban on the construction of new large-scale solar farms in the state, amid concerns developers are not acting in the long-term interests of regional communities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":270633,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691821491,691821489,691818076,691821492,691819336,691818154,691821490,691821493,691818299],"class_list":{"0":"post-270623","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-arsenic","9":"tag-ban","10":"tag-co2","11":"tag-farming-lobby","12":"tag-lead","13":"tag-net-zero","14":"tag-new-solar-projects","15":"tag-nsw-farmers","16":"tag-subsidies","18":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/image-992.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-18oT","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":223286,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=223286","url_meta":{"origin":270623,"position":0},"title":"Liz 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Output","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"12\/10\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Fire forced the shutdown of the Wellington North Solar Farm in central western New South Wales at the weekend, but officials expect the 400 MW facility to resume full operations \u201cshortly.\u201d","rel":"","context":"In \"400 MW facility\"","block_context":{"text":"400 MW facility","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=400-mw-facility"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/0AQPqjkq_E0T5N-8AAGX-Pd0pxO3nv2h1ssvWj3gIW28YOU6XUZEjsRFQfevKewPbanAxMQ6biBPp_KA891YSu5sFjO3Mk5Ie9-ITElTXYvr4QwhO6yMTnHIj7QHPo8D0-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C656&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/0AQPqjkq_E0T5N-8AAGX-Pd0pxO3nv2h1ssvWj3gIW28YOU6XUZEjsRFQfevKewPbanAxMQ6biBPp_KA891YSu5sFjO3Mk5Ie9-ITElTXYvr4QwhO6yMTnHIj7QHPo8D0-1.jpeg?fit=1200%2C656&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, 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Solar\u00a0Rollout","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"11\/29\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"From STOP THESE THINGS The wind cult\u2019s proponents never face the prospect of being surrounded by hundreds of 250m high whirling wonders, slicing and dicing birds and wrecking the ability of neighbours to sleep in their own homes and wrecking the environment, more generally. 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Italy has seen less widespread replacement or clear-cutting of productive olive groves for utility-scale solar farms, largely due to stricter regulations and a stronger push toward integration rather\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"agriculture\"","block_context":{"text":"agriculture","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=agriculture"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/0-Italys-Farmland-Ban-Keeps-Solar-Panels-Among-the-Olives1.jpg?fit=784%2C1168&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/0-Italys-Farmland-Ban-Keeps-Solar-Panels-Among-the-Olives1.jpg?fit=784%2C1168&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/0-Italys-Farmland-Ban-Keeps-Solar-Panels-Among-the-Olives1.jpg?fit=784%2C1168&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/0-Italys-Farmland-Ban-Keeps-Solar-Panels-Among-the-Olives1.jpg?fit=784%2C1168&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121246920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=270623"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270623\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":270635,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270623\/revisions\/270635"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/270633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=270623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=270623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=270623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}