While Narrabri Shire Council was debating the placement of a community battery, elected members in nearby Gunnedah Shire Council similarly discussed the matter.
Cr Rob Hoddle told last week’s Gunnedah meeting, held on the same evening as Narrabri Shire, that he had been approached in relation to the Narrabri battery project.
Cr Hoddle, through a notice of motion, asked for council staff to report back to elected members about options for a community battery energy storage system.
“The federal government have funded a community battery project to go into Narrabri. The size of the battery will run 50 houses for a day, so it’s not terribly big. But they’ve run into all these brick walls,” he said.
“It was meant to go in a site which is near a school … and then there was an issue, maybe it’s a fire hazard or something, so they can’t really accommodate it at the moment.
“So there is a possibility that we could get it here, but we have to look at the cost of installing it, whether there would be a benefit, who would get that benefit.”
Cr Juliana McArthur voiced concern with the urgency of the matter and ensuring council conducts due diligence in relation to such a project.
“Because if it’s not safe for Narrabri, it may not be safe for Gunnedah,” Cr McArthur said.
Council’s responsible director told the meeting getting a report back in time for the May agenda would be difficult.
“It’s going to be very difficult to get council a comprehensive answer to all those questions, given that we haven’t even dipped our toe in the water yet,” Andrew Johns said.
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