Happy Valley solar project moves forward with community-driven design

SA Water will proceed with a modified layout and landscape design for the installation of around 30,000 – or 10 megawatts of – solar panels within its Happy Valley Reservoir reserve, after extensive discussions with local community members.

The main changes to initial plans are the retention of a 40-metre buffer of pine trees between the panels and nearby Black Road and reconfiguration of the solar array to fit in a smaller area. ForestrySA will harvest the remainder of its commercial Aleppo pine plantation hosted within SA Water’s site prior to the solar panels being installed.

Happy Valley is one of around 40 SA Water sites across the state where the utility is proposing to install a total of more than 500,000 solar panels. This is part of a wider initiative by SA Water to achieve zero net electricity costs, as one way to keep water prices low and stable for its customers.

SA Water’s Senior Manager of Community and Stakeholder Engagement Matthew Bonnett said a lot of effort has gone into understanding and incorporating the community’s views on the project, while still limiting environmental impact and satisfying the utility’s energy management objectives.

“We hosted several community meetings over the past few months, which were an opportunity to work with neighbouring residents to develop landscape designs for the Happy Valley site that would maximise the visual amenity of the area following installation of the solar panels,” Matthew said.

“In addition to the pine tree buffer along Black Road, we will plant native vegetation behind the pines to provide understory screening, wind protection and support local wildlife and ongoing biodiversity.

“Native plants will also be put in along South Road to further screen the solar panels, and a large area of native vegetation will remain between the solar array and nearby reservoir.”

Discussions on the Happy Valley solar panel project began with Flagstaff Hill and neighbouring suburbs in late 2018 through street corner meetings, and has continued in several formats since, including letters, an online engagement space and community meetings.

“Happy Valley was identified as a suitable site for solar panels based on the high energy required to run the water treatment plant and ability to provide value for money in helping reduce overall electricity costs,” Matthew said.

“Once this was determined, we carried out surveys to ascertain the best location within the reservoir reserve for the solar array, considering suitability of the area’s topography to avoid steep gradients, and minimising impact to native vegetation.

“An independent ecological assessment found ForestrySA’s commercial Aleppo pine plantation within our land to be the least biodiverse area in the reserve, with limited or no understorey vegetation and no hollow-forming trees for wildlife nesting.

“Native trees, such as Grey Box, within other areas of the reserve support declining and threatened bird species, including the Brown Treecreeper, which is endangered in the Mount Lofty Ranges.”

At this stage, ForestrySA plans to harvest their Aleppo pines at Happy Valley in the next few months, once the ground has dried out after winter rains. Installation of solar panels will begin following development approval and will take several months to complete.

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