Hydro Power Station at Yetholme Info

18/09/2025

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Pumped hydro has defeated another hopeful, this time with a global energy giant that has given up its dream of a project in NSW.

07/02/2024

The proposed pumped hydro project, at Yetholme, near Bathurst, has no social licence, no land access and currently no Environmental Impact Statement.

It is also located outside the Central-West Orana Renewable Energy Zone.

'The cost seemingly has blown out.'

29/01/2024

The Editor
Australian Financial Review

Re: Pumped Hydro at Yetholme – No social licence, no land access, no Environmental Impact Statement

I refer to the Australian Financial Review article of 23 January 2024...”Canada’s ATCO seeks partner for Central West Pumped Hydro; taps ICA.”

The proposed pumped hydro project, at Yetholme near Bathurst NSW, has no social licence, no land access and currently no Environmental Impact Statement. It is also located outside the Central-West Orana Renewable Energy Zone.

The article about ATCO and renewable specialists ICA Partners’ intention to find investors does not mention that the project has no planning approvals, despite references to construction.

The article states: “Although ATCO is yet to say how much the construction – slated for late 2024 to 2027 – would cost, sources reckon it would be in the order of $2 billion.”

ATCO’s release of an Environmental Impact Statement has been deferred several times. Meanwhile, the cost seemingly has blown out from a stated investment of up to $500 million in early 2021: yet not a sod has been turned.

The Snowy Hydro II project has seen massive cost rises and all indications are that this one will be no different. What that means is that it could put upward pressure on electricity prices if this project is to be viable.

ATCO’s intention, as reported in the Australian Financial Review article, appears to be to offload the project to relieve pressure from its shareholders and bankers.

Friends of the Fish River would welcome an opportunity to hold a public forum to discuss the proposed project with ATCO and any interested investors, to explore the project parameters from a community perspective.

The pumped hydro proposal would industrialise a swathe of forest and farm land with potentially disastrous environmental consequences. The project would rely on water from the Fish River which is precious to the community and provides a significant volume of the drinking water for the City of Bathurst.

In this water scarce area the proposed Central West Pumped Hydro power station would have serious impacts on the flow and health of the Fish River. This is not just a threat to Bathurst, but also a threat to the entire Murray-Darling Basin which is already under serious strain.

David Willis
President
Friends of the Fish River Inc
O’Connell NSW 2795

22/01/2024

A pair of male Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos, Bathurst.
These beautiful big cockies are amazing to watch when they fly as it always seems they're flying too slowly to stay up - yet they do!
Males have the red eye-ring and black-ish bills (females don't have the red eye-ring & have white-ish bills).

19/01/2024

READ OUR LETTER TO POLITICIANS
We have once again sent politicians a letter outlining our concerns and our recommendations for improving the planning process; this time in response to yet another Department of Planning and Environment request for ideas on how to improve their process.
We're wondering HOW MANY TIMES they need to be told, in HOW MANY DIFFERENT WAYS, by HOW MAY DIFFERENT IMPACTED COMMUNITIES, before they take notice and do something to stop the unchecked proliferation of large scale industrial renewables on cultivation land.
Read our letter on our website here:
https://www.glanmireactiongroup.au/resources

20/07/2023

big contamination issues

16/07/2023

Here is a letter published in the Western Advocate and reproduced here with permission from the author.

WHAT ABOUT THE CARBON ACCOUNTABILITY FOR THIS PROJECT, ATCO?
By Dr Andrew Bolam
July 12 2023

RE: Proposed pumped hydro project at Yetholme.

Listening on 2BS to Karen Nielsen (ATCO managing director for global renewables) outline the decision to indefinitely halt progress on the long-awaited Yetholme Pumped Hydro proposal environmental impact statement, it struck me that, in my opinion, her explanation for the decision was as short on substance as was the original project proposal.

I believe ATCO's proposal was flawed from day one and this announcement is just confirmation.

Time and again, ATCO has demonstrated what I believe is a shocking ignorance and contempt for carbon accountability - the one true measure against which its proposal needs to be judged.

How much carbon will it emit? What is the net carbon output for the life cycle of the project?

Carbon accounting doesn't just "keep the bastards honest", it also provides a framework for the design process and business model planning. Without it, ATCO's engineering plan and feasibility assessment are meaningless.

It is a sign, frankly, of how perverse this unregulated gold rush to renewal energy has suddenly become.

Thank goodness the new state government is showing a glimmer of wisdom in taking stock.

We in the Friends of Fish River community group will be advocating that the industry needs to be regulated like any other and development proposals need to be carbon transparent and the way to do this is through project life-cycle carbon accounting.

Perhaps ATCO hopes that placing this proposal in a holding pattern will pressure government to provide an even more favourable financial environment with lower environmental standards.

As far as I am concerned, however, it just makes the ATCO proposal a sitting duck that will be fully in our sights as we escalate our concerns with the state and federal governments.

Dr Andrew Bolam, Yetholme

16/07/2023

10/07/2023

EIS for pumped hydro "deferred indefinitely"

ATCO said the EIS is in the process of being finalised, but "we have decided to defer our EIS submission until some of the NSW Government's policy frameworks mature, and there is a clear commercial pathway for large civil projects like pumped hydro"

'We understand that there is interest in the extensive studies ... carried out.'