The company chosen by the ACT Government to deliver a controversial solar farm at Uriarra has slammed a bushfire risk assessment report commissioned by local residents who oppose the project.
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Elementus Energy commissioned a peer review study of a report prepared in August by Obliqua consultant Helen Bull, calling it "seriously flawed" and "misleading" in its findings that the solar farm posed a serious risk to Uriarra Village.
A report by professional services firm GHD says Ms Bull's assessment of fire risk to Uriarra is based on outdated international risk management standards and questions the type of fire threat the local community could face.
Consultant Paul de Mar's report says the original risk assessment is based on "tricky and misleading interpretation of weather data" and questions the source of wind analysis used by Ms Bull.
The report provided to ACT Government planning officials says the only credible form of bushfire threat to the village from the One Sun Capital solar farm would come from grassfire and ember attack from forest, woodland and plantation areas more than 200 metres away.
It outlines risk factors that suggest a dangerous fire would approach from the north to south west, not from north-east where the farm will be built.
The report questions information from studies of Victoria's 2009 Black Saturday bushfires and the risk from electricity infrastructure needed for the solar farm.
It says Ms Bull's fire behaviour predictions are based on false assumptions and ignores physical features of the landscape.
"Obliqua appears to have first stated its conclusions about both the proposed 22 kV powerline and solar farm assets increasing fire risk, and has then gone about trying to find evidence to support the prompted conclusion," the report says.
"Obliqua has not assembled any evidence to support a claim that the proposed solar farm will increase the risk of fire ignition, and has ventured such an opinion without technical knowledge of the electrical assets and systems planned to be deployed by Elementus. The unsupported opinion should be disregarded."
Mr de Mar's rebuttal says the original assessment also creates "a misleading narrative" about high fire risk weather days.
In August Ms Bull's report raised serious concerns about bushfire risk from the planned solar farm and warned power lines should be installed underground and a bank of screening trees pushed back at least 155 metres.
She found a fire in the planned five hectares of tree screening along Brindabella Road could place the village at serious risk, and would likely spread in high fire conditions. Flames and smoke could block access residents and emergency service crews.
The development includes a 4.3-kilometre overhead power line past the village to reach the Cotter substation.
Ms Bull, who has reported on bushfire risk for the Victorian government, fire agencies and local councils, was commissioned by Uriarra residents who oppose the solar farm.
A certified bushfire planning and design expert, Ms Bull was unavailable for comment on Thursday.
This week, The Canberra Times reported Elementus won't use partner Solar Save for Uriarra project, as the firm deals with liquidation and a dispute with the Australian Tax Office.
It was also revealed two Elementus bosses were senior players in a failed NSW green-power company whose treatment of customers was the subject of a highly critical report from the NSW energy and water ombudsman.
A development application for the project is still being considered. The project saw the ACT Government swamped by 122 submissions from members of the public, with just six supporting the project.
The 26,000 panel project will see the ACT Government pay a 20-year feed-in tariff entitlement to Elementus Energy.