Locals raise concerns about a proposed lithium battery project in the Kiewa Valley

The Border Mail

Transcript

00:00 I'm curious to know who actually will own the site.

00:05 You're talking about Minch Renewables,

00:07 but as far as I can read, Minch is only the developer.

00:11 You've got a company called Infratil,

00:13 who is a New Zealand based company,

00:15 which is listed in New Zealand.

00:17 Their share price is okay, but it's certainly struggling.

00:20 But who's the actual underwriter for the whole thing overall?

00:25 Is it the Victorian government that's actually paying

00:27 for all the land to be purchased across all these

00:30 renewable energy zones throughout Victoria?

00:32 There's seven separate zones throughout Victoria.

00:35 Each of these will have a base

00:38 and the battery and the solar system.

00:41 The one at Meadow Creek, Tim, is 550 hectares.

00:46 You think about that in land value.

00:48 Your land is worth, what, 10, 15K an acre?

00:52 This is 400 acres.

00:53 That's the land value alone.

00:55 So my question is, who's actually buying it?

00:58 Is it us as a taxpayer that's buying all this land

01:01 across the state?

01:02 - So mostly my understanding is that

01:07 they're leasing the land.

01:08 And when you read deep into the reports,

01:12 and I've done a fair bit of it,

01:14 you will see that they say

01:17 the Victorian energy consumer will pay.

01:21 So it's simple mathematics, really.

01:23 These companies come in, put up the initial investments.

01:28 And I think Ian can maybe speak to this

01:32 about one company that he spoke to

01:34 'cause he had the conversation.

01:36 You know, like, well, how do you get your money back?

01:39 And he said, "Mate, we'll get our money back in two years."

01:42 So you are all paying for that.

01:46 Like, we are all paying for that with our electricity prices

01:49 because companies like this and like Infotrel,

01:52 they don't invest unless they're going to make money.

01:56 Now, to be fair, our government can't do it

01:58 because they can't afford it.

02:00 So this is the way that it has to go

02:03 if we wanna go down this path,

02:05 but they will make money.

02:07 And I think there's a question.

02:09 Sometimes they will be paid to take power out of the grid

02:14 because the renewable energy makes it a little bit unstable

02:18 and they have to sort of level it out.

02:20 And when that happens, they pay them $1,000 per megawatt hour

02:25 that they take out of the grid.

02:26 And sometimes when they put it back in,

02:29 they get paid also $15,000 per megawatt hour.

02:33 So you do the maths.

02:34 - On the end of the day, the consumer,

02:38 that's all of us who use electricity,

02:40 which I think is everyone in this room,

02:41 will end up paying.

02:42 So the chances of our energy bills going down

02:47 in the foreseeable future as interest rates rise

02:50 and they are going to continue to rise

02:52 and as inflation rises, our energy costs will not decrease,

02:57 especially with projects like this across the board.

03:02 This is something you need to think about laterally,

03:04 not just on this singular project,

03:06 but the projects right across Victoria.

03:09 It is gonna have a major impact on your hip pocket

03:12 for the rest of your days of your lives,

03:14 your children and your grandchildren, not just you.

03:18 Thank you.

03:19 (audience applauding)

03:22 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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