Agriculture
27 September, 2025
Wind and solar companies circle, opponents tell landowners 'don't sign'
By CHRIS EARL THE Hill in under siege from wind and solar farm speculators eyeing farmland for potential renewable energy projects. Two multi-national companies are wanting agreements with landowners in the Pyramid Hill district. Projects that more...
By CHRIS EARL
THE Hill in under siege from wind and solar farm speculators eyeing farmland for potential renewable energy projects.
Two multi-national companies are wanting agreements with landowners in the Pyramid Hill district.
Projects that more 120 people on Sunday were told would change the face of the community and “our lives forever”.
Opponents to the explosion of renewable energy projects across rural Victoria told people not to sign any agreement with the speculative companies.
A message to an audience hoping for answers, definitely information, on what these companies want with local farmland.
Loddon Valley Renewables Awareness Group’s first community forum came just days after Potentia Energy sent letters to landowners around Mologa announcing plans for a solar farm generating up to 662,000 MWh.
The US and Japanese company will start information sessions in Pyramid Hill and Mitiamo next month. It says the project could be submitted for fast-tracked State Government approval before Christmas. European Energy is eyeing a wind farm development at nearby Mincha - it had said community engagement would start by September but on Monday a spokesperson for the Danish company said “introduction letters” would be sent to neighbours this week.
Community consultation is now expected in November when farmers are harvesting.
Wimmera Mallee Environmental and Agricultural Protection Assocation’s Ross Johns and Simone Lewis, a neighbour to a wind farm development near Birchip, emphatically told Sunday’s forum that signing any paperwork with renewable energy developers could effect land use, values and access.
Mrs Lewis said: “Sitting on the fence is not an option ... if you sign (land) access you are deemed as being in support ... they (companies) are using our land as security for investors.”
The Loddon Valley group has alligned itself with the Wimmera association. Mr Johns, from near Warracknabeal used the forum to take aim at the net zero policies of the State and Federal Government.
Mr Johns said: “Australia has got this wrong.” And he said fast-tracked approvals of renewable energy was not proper process.
“If people in a rural community can’t talk openly and transparently about deals you (companies) are trying to do, what are you hiding,” Mr Johns said.
Murray Plains MP Peter Walsh said government ideology had overridden logic on renewable energy. “How they get to net zero - they don’t care about you and the cost.”
Pyramid Hill Progress Association president Drew Chislett and awareness group leader Byron Talbot said they wanted the community to be wise in decisions made. They said the push for answers would continue.
Mincha cherry farm owner Tara Hammet and Mologa’s Bill Boyd were among residents who joined Sunday’s queue for more answers.
Mrs Hammet said: “Two years ago we heard about a project at Macorna through neighbours who were thinking about signing up. We weren’t concerned and then friends in south-west Victoria told us about their experiences with renewable projects.
“Then when the Mincha project became more known we started to try and get information,” she said.
“I am a neighbour of the wind farm that’s beng proposed and have not been contacted.
“We understand project hosts have non-disclosure clauses ... why? It is terrble for the community, it’s fracturing but not out of hand but it’s begeinning (to go that way).
“We have contacted European Energy and they said they would start contacting people this week.”
For Mr Boyd, the lack of initial contact from Potentia has been in contrast with dealings he has had with gold exploration companies for almost 30 years.
Mr Boyd also owns land between Mitiamo and Mologa that Catalyst Metals is exploring and has an application before the State Government to construct a tunnel.
“Catalyst comes and sits at my kitchen table six times a year,” he said.
“The first I twigged that something was happening at Mologa was when I saw some survey pegs in the area.”
Mr Talbot said the Loddon Valley Renewables Awareness Group had 20 active members but expected more would sign up after Sunday’s forum.