Authors: Alicia Webb
Daniel A'Vard
Once your community has decided to build a hydro project, it's time to start working on detailed impact investigations. These will be essential when you apply for development approval from your local council or other planning authority.
Get to know your planning authority
The first step in applying for development approval for a hydro project is to figure out what the approval criteria are. Start by establishing who the planning authority is for your project.
Most community energy projects will require development approval from the local council. This makes them a major stakeholder in your project and it is important to build a relationship with them early. The Influencing and working with local government article contains some hints and tips on engaging your council. Essentially you need to get the council on side by explaining the benefits of the project and how well it fits in with their sustainability plans. It will also help if you can show how supportive the community is.
During your engagement with the council, you should find out exactly what approvals and assessments you need to undertake in order to submit a development application.
Water diversion
In most places in Australia, you can't just divert natural water courses to produce electricity without investigating environmental impacts in depth. Typically, you will need to get a diversion licence from the water authority or catchment management authority.
Completing the impact assessments necessary for a diversion licence will be one of the major development expenses associated with your project.
Environmental assessments
Prior to lodging a planning application, you will need to undertake detailed technical assessments of your proposed project. These will typically include studies on:
- Visual impact
- Noise
- Flora and fauna
- Water and land management
Social impact assessments
- Aboriginal cultural heritage
-
Social and economic effects
Management plans
- Traffic
-
Bushfire
You may also need to write environmental management plans for the three phases of: construction, operations and decommissioning.
Planning application
All generation projects need to lodge a planning application with the relevant statutory decision-maker (either the local council, state or the federal government) for the change of land and water use. Planning approvals for community-scale mini hydro generation are usually the responsibility of the local council, with appeals taken to the relevant state government department.
It's important to seek planning approval early in the development cycle, because if approval is denied, your project can't go any further. On the other hand, you need to do sufficient feasibility and assessment work so the decision-maker can assess the merit of your project and its compatibility with the local ecosystem.
In the planning application you need to describe comprehensively the hydro project proposal and all its associated impacts.