News
20 May, 2026
Stand as one on gas-fired power plant proposal: Champion
Southern Highlands residents are being to ask to stand as one this Friday and send a clear message to the Land and Environment Court that plans for a massive gas-fired power plant in Moss Vale are unacceptable.
Southern Highlands residents are being to ask to stand as one this Friday and send a clear message to the Land and Environment Court that plans for a massive gas-fired power plant in Moss Vale are unacceptable.
Wingecarribee Shire councillor Heather Champion is encouraging residents to turn out in force this Friday morning to send a dignified but nevertheless very clear message that plans for the proposed power plant in Douglas Street lack social licence.
Cr Champion has been active on social media in relation to the proposal but has also been speaking with hundreds of people face to face.
Most people are aware of the proposal and want to know what they can do to make a difference.
However, Cr Champion said many people were still unaware of the proposal or what it could potentially mean for Moss Vale and surrounds – acknowledging that it could be the region’s ‘next Repoly’.
A Development Application (26/0352) for a 16-megawatt plant was lodged with WSC in September 2025 and is the one currently subject to Land and Environment Court proceedings after being refused by the Southern Region Planning Panel.
An on-site hearing in relating to these proceedings will be held this Friday.
However, there is also a State Significant Development (SSD-102795459) proposal for the same site seeking approval for a 19-hall facility capable of producing 673 megawatts of power.
At 633 MW it would be the second-largest gas-fired power plant in NSW – all of it being used to run a private AI data centre and with no direct benefit, objectors say, to the local community.
It would run 24/7 and would have serious health implications for residents of the area.
The NSW Greens have described it as a “climate bomb”.
Cr Champion is encouraging people to be on-site from 10am on Friday morning (for a 10.30am start of proceedings) but is asking them to be respectful and dignified.
Friday’s on-site meeting will form part of official Land and Environment Court proceedings and as such, banners, slogans, chants or jeers will not be allowed.
Lawyers for council will be allowed time to speak – as will lawyers for the proponent and a number of people who have already registered with the Land and Environment Court.
Objectors say that stacks from the proposed plant will stand at 23.5 metres high – approximately six to seven storeys – protruding above an eight-metre-high industrial building, on what is currently open rural land in walking distance from Moss Vale, New Berrima and Burradoo.
“This power station is not being built for the people of the Southern Highlands,” Will McCarthy of Burradoo wrote recently.
“It is being built to serve a private data centre. The impacts – visual environmental and social – will be borne locally, while the benefits are largely private.”
Friday’s meeting will be held at 30 Douglas Road in Moss Vale.
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