“Despite strong community support, this project has been derailed because of the spread of false and exaggerated information.” That's Sally Hunter – a farmer, community leader and founder of non-profit Geni.Energy – speaking to the Senate inquiry into information integrity on climate and energy.

Sally shared her experience of how misinformation has derailed a fully funded, community-backed battery project for her town of Narrabri in north-west NSW.

Sally said false and exaggerated claims about battery safety and performance had destroyed years of work and wasted hundreds of thousands of taxpayer and ratepayer dollars.

Appearing alongside her was Andrew Bray, National Director of RE-Alliance, who told the committee that Sally’s experience underscored a national problem: the lack of accessible, trusted information for regional communities navigating the energy transition.

“While the rollout can be messy and communities have legitimate concerns that deserve to be addressed, one of the biggest contributors to community anxiety is not being able to easily access factual, locally relevant and trusted information,” Bray said.

RE-Alliance has been advocating for the federal government to establish Local Energy Hubs – community-based centres that would provide accurate, independent information about renewable projects and help residents participate in the transition.

Read more in '“The wheels fell off:” Farmer tells Senate how misinformation killed a community battery project' in RenewEconomy.