THE argument for pumped hydro at Stratford was always questionable, in my opinion, and the long two years’ delay since its presentation has made it even more questionable.
The rationale was that energy from a solar farm needed to be stored for up to 12 hours to be available when demand was at its peak and batteries five years ago were not up to that task.
Enormous strides forward have occurred since then in battery technology. It is no longer necessary to spend several hundred million dollars building a dam and underground pumping station and flood an untouched valley to achieve the necessary storage and thus make the 24-hour available electricity much less expensive.
Using the mine site as a solar farm seems a good idea since the degraded land is always going to struggle to be agriculturally valuable.
Data centres have been in the news lately and the amount of electricity produced by the proposed solar farm is about what a data centre requires.
Additionally the water required for cooling could be provided from Stratford’s mine void and this might be attractive to Yancoal in letting them stage the rehabilitation costs for the mine site.
Lastly the noise problems at data centres would be eased by all mine sites being required to have a buffer zone.
The employment generated is not great but only 10 long-term employees were promised for the pumped hydro project.
Alternatively, a solar farm at Stratford could possibly be linked with another one at the Duralie site, if that is feasible, and be a regional energy hub for the Mid North Coast Council area.
We are still an important agricultural area and it would be good to hear how such a project could decrease local farming fossil fuel emissions.
Regards,
Steve Robinson,
Gloucester.
You can help your local paper.
Make a small once-off, or (if you can) a regular donation.
We are an independent family owned business and our newspapers are free to collect and our news stories are free online.
Help support us into the future.
