The Gunning council chambers were filled to capacity and concerned residents overflowed out the door on Wednesday night at the well-attended public meeting for the proposed Gunning solar farm.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The meeting was called by the developers Photon Energy, to hear concerns and ideas from the community and affected landholders near the proposed site.
The site earmarked for the solar farm is 12km south-west of Gunning in the vicinity of Elms and Lade Vale Road areas.
It will have maximum capacity of 316MW. The Elms Road is in both the Upper Lachlan and Yass Valley Shires. The development is a State significant development and will be assessed by the Department of Planning and Environment and determined by the Planning and Assessment Commission.
Mr Robert Ibrahim from Photon Energy along with Mr Michael Gartner, managing director and co-founder of the company addressed the meeting.
Mr Gartner said in his opening address: “Photon Energy wishes to keep the communication channels open and transparent and we encourage feedback from all residents.” He also said they [Photon Energy] are in the early stages of the application and it will be a lengthy process.
“We are yet to contact all residents in the area.” he explained.
He encouraged anyone who hasn’t yet been contacted by the company to make themselves known to them. The project, comprising of hundreds of thousands of solar panels, has the residents uneasy with many questions asked on the night.
Questions put forward included compensation to affected landowners, size and footprint of the farm, effects on the habitat, flora and fauna, lightning strikes and bush fire control, feral animal and noxious weed control (mentioned were foxes and serrated tussock), timeframe for building and increase of traffic during the construction phase.
The location of the sub-station for the project is also yet to be determined and Transgrid will be in consultation.
The site for the solar farm was chosen due to the the proximity to the Hume Highway and the site is mainly cleared and a heavily grazed and open area. The panels are photovoltaic, meaning they convert light into electricity similar to roof top designs.
The farm is approximately 5km wide.
Photon Energy is hoping to commence building the farm by 2019 and have it commissioned by 2020. The lifetime of the solar farm is approximately 25 years. Photon Energy has completed the feasibility study and are now taking the proposal to the next level.
It’s close neighbour, the Gullen Solar Farm is building a development of a 10 – 11 MW solar photovoltaic (PV) power plant. The project is co‐located within the existing Gullen Range Wind Farm and occupies an area of approximately 30 – 50 hectares. The solar farm will produce approximately 22,000 megawatt‐hours of energy for approximately 3,100 NSW homes.
