It with great sadness and disappointment that Narrabri Shire Council has voted at its October 15 meeting, to not grant the Narrabri community battery a rental licence for its battery in the council car park, despite it having every approval needed.

The months of extra research work the council staff have put in at the request of the councillors to find a suitable alternative site, is to be commended, as attested to by councillor Greg Lamont. At the end of all this extra in-depth scrutiny of the battery’s location, with no other suitable council site found, the final analysis of the location in the car park was deemed ‘low risk’.

What is so hurtful to the battery’s committee and supporters, is the misinformation that some councillors are implying.

Councillor Jocellin Jansson told the council meeting at several times that there would be no community benefit to come from the battery, which is completely untrue.

If councillors had taken the time to read the information that Geni.Energy has sent them over the past few years, or invite them to present to them, then they would know that the profits generated by the community battery selling its power to the grid, was to come back to be used for the community of Narrabri. What a huge disappointment that is for the supporters of the battery.

It was to be a beneficial boost to help organisations in our community.

To say we feel let down by some of our councillors is an understatement.

It has left us with feelings of disillusionment.

From the council meeting, we understand that some people in the community were worried about the fire risk, which has been covered by Geni.Energy, Essential Energy and the battery manufacturer.

Public liability insurance had been provided to the battery, showing this ‘low risk’ assessment as well.

It is important to note that 67 letters of support and only three letters of objection have ever been received by council.

Geni.Energy has never been invited to brief the councillors on the project.

I have a 15Wh battery installed at my home, with the installer telling us that he has installed household batteries from England to America, with no fires to date being recorded.

In the last four months 100,000 small household batteries have been installed across Australia.

At the March council meeting, the community battery was accused of having the same fire risk as E-bikes, drills and scooters.

Then at the October council meeting, it was inferred that it was the same as the single large-scale battery in Victoria that had a fire during its installation. This battery is 900 times larger than the community battery.

With the worldwide interest in batteries, the technology and the standards have changed.

The standard that people should be aware of is called UL9540A certification, which is the world-wide gold standard.

The Narrabri community battery had this certification and that is one of the reasons that the council, the federal government and the insurers deemed the battery ‘low risk’.

So where does this leave Narrabri? With 400 community batteries being installed around the country, with federal government help – we will remain without one.

We are certainly not a progressive and forward-thinking shire, which will not look good to the wider community.

William and Judith Pownall
Narrabri

 

 

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