Alison Thomas is concerned about the scale of the project and its impact. (ABC News: Mark Moore)<\/p>\n
A large battery storage facility is proposed to be built near a tiny village 30 kilometres west of Canberra's CBD.<\/p>\n
Uriarra Village residents say they support decarbonising the grid but have not been told enough about the 520-megawatt battery's impact.<\/p>\n
Quinbrook, the company behind the proposal, says it will meet with locals again while its plans sit with the federal government for environmental approval.<\/p>\n
Uriarra Village, at the foothills of the Brindabellas, feels removed from the hum of Canberra's city life just 30 minutes away, and that is why locals love it.<\/p>\n
Resident Alison Thomas has enjoyed the surrounds for almost 10 years.<\/p>\n
"So we came out to inspect the house … and it's just this landscape of mountains and paddocks and gum trees, and there was a swarm of yellowtail black cockatoos," Ms Thomas said.<\/p>\n
But Ms Thomas fears for the landscape's future over plans for a 520-megawatt battery proposed for Uriarra Station, two kilometres from the village.<\/p>\n
If approved, it would be roughly twice the size of the Williamsdale battery energy storage system, which sits at the ACT's southern border.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The battery would capture excess renewable energy and then feed it into the grid in times of higher demand.<\/p>\n
'"It's a rural landscape, and we're trying to put in an urbanised industrial facility that's going to create light pollution, noise pollution, visual pollution into an area that people come to for peace," Ms Thomas said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
An artist's impression of a proposed battery site to the north-east of Uriarra Village residences.\u00a0 (Supplied: Private Energy Partners)<\/p>\n
Ms Thomas said she supported battery storage in principle but believed the rural location on the edges of Canberra's nature parks was the wrong site for the industrial infrastructure.<\/p>\n
"I'm all for green energy. I'm all for battery storage, but it's the right facility in the wrong location," she said.<\/p>\n
Ms Thomas said the area was valued for its tranquillity, natural environment, cultural and pastoral history and gateway to the mountains.<\/p>\n