27-05-2025
Volunteer firefighters fear renewable energy projects will put bushfire-prone town at 'risk'
The town of Dederang, nestled in Victoria's Kiewa Valley, has felt the impact of several bushfires through the decades.
It's why most of the town's population — about 200 residents — are fighting proposals to build two Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) on private land.
"It's one of the highest, most bushfire-prone areas in the state. If they lose control, it will go and then it'll be chaos," said local resident Paul Ingram.
Late last year, Mint Renewables and Trina Solar submitted planning applications to the Victorian state government to build a BESS in Dederang.
The systems are designed to support wind and solar renewable energy by storing excess electricity and releasing it when demand is high.
Dederang is full of CFA volunteers; most are farmers, and they fear the fire risk that lithium-ion batteries could pose for the town.
Doug Connors, a CFA volunteer in Dederang for 50 years, says the town wouldn't be able to fight a battery fire if one erupted.
"As a brigade, we're equipped and trained to fight grass and scrub fires," he told 7.30.
Teresa Hicks is a third-generation dairy farmer with three young children.
She and her fiancé Darren Sagrera are CFA volunteers and her father Jack Hicks is a former CFA group captain at the Dederang brigade.
She says her family wouldn't feel comfortable fighting a battery fire because it would be too toxic.
"No one's going to get on the fire truck anyway, because it's too dangerous," she said.
"We're not the only ones being affected. Wherever a bushfire gets into is going to be affected. Bushfires will run for hundreds, if not thousands of kilometres. We've seen it. So that's the risk."
Dr Matthew Priestley is a battery and energy expert from the University of New South Wales. He says lithium-ion batteries need to be safely managed to avoid overheating.
"What we find is lithium-ion batteries do have a tendency to overheat, and that's why we have a safety mechanism in them, which is called the battery management system," he said.
"The job of the battery management system is to monitor the health of the lithium-ion battery system."
The CFA confirmed to 7.30 that it has consulted Mint Renewables, Trina Solar and the community about the two projects proposed for Dederang.
In a statement, the CFA said: "Fire safety at large-scale renewable energy facilities is a focus for CFA and is one of the key considerations for communities where a facility is proposed."
"The role of CFA is to advocate that developments proposed in CFA areas are located, designed, constructed and operated as safely as possible."
Dr Priestley says the chance of a fire breaking out at a large-scale battery plant is low.
"They are rare and they're generally due to a fault somewhere in the device," Dr Priestley told 7.30.
"When one does fail, often they move into a very dangerous state called thermal runaway.
Trina Solar's Country Manager John Zhong says he understands that the community has concerns.
However in response to the backlash against the proposals, Mr Zhong compared the rejection of the batteries to kids who refuse to go to school.
"My kid doesn't like to go to prep, but then I have to tell them 'hey, going to prep is … part of your journey to actually learn and study and to become an adult'," he said.
When challenged on referring to the community as 'kids' and whether Trina Solar ignored the community's concerns, Mr Zhong said the company did "receive their submissions" and did "take their comments into account".
Mr Zhong also said the company conducted extensive "fire safety hazard analysis" of the area where their proposed battery will be built.
"The bushfire risk has been carefully assessed," he told 7.30.
He admitted the company had sought guidance from a CFA consultant based in Melbourne, not in Dederang.
"We engaged this consultant from Melbourne, and it's engaged by our planning consultant NGH as a sub-consultant. So we, our team, have been there during the community consultation process."
Mint Renewables declined 7.30's request for an interview.
Instead, they provided a statement that said: "We know that the community has genuinely held concerns."
"Our project will only proceed if we are granted a permit by the Minister of Planning that requires us to follow the CFA guidelines".
In March, the community had a win when the Alpine Shire Council agreed to write to the Victorian government opposing one of the batteries.
"Five councillors voted in favour of opposing it, and so we won that. And that was just amazing … I was crying," Dederang resident Sharon McEvoy said.
For the past 18 months, Ms McEvoy has been spearheading the campaign against the two battery projects.
"The first one is basically at our front door, 450 metres downhill," she told 7.30.
"The other one is uphill from that proposal, a couple of hundred metres, and that would be about 600 metres from our house."
She's helped send hundreds of letters to the state government and created petitions against both proposals.
"We have got over 800 submissions, objections that people have written in personally in some way, shape or form, to the development programs department voicing their objections to it," she said.
"For the second proposal, we've got over 700 written in. We presented a petition to the parliament with 1,300 signatures saying, 'please don't build it here'."
7.30 requested interviews with both the Victorian Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny and the Victorian Energy Minister Lily D'Ambrosio; both declined.
Instead, a Victorian government spokesperson said: "To continue to keep bills down and keep the lights on, we've streamlined planning approvals for renewable energy projects."
"All members of the community can make submissions which will form part of any planning decision-making."
It's expected a decision on Mint Renewables and Trina Solar's projects will be made later this year.
The Alpine Shire Council is expected to vote on whether it will formally object or endorse the Trina Solar battery project at a council meeting on Tuesday.
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