Why this council is opposing a $170m solar farm that would power 48,000 homes

Plans to build a $170 million solar farm in south-east NSW will be decided by an independent panel after residents and the local council objected, arguing the project would blight the rural landscape.

Wallaroo Solar Farm Pty Ltd is proposing to develop the 100-megawatt farm on 393 hectares of grazing land adjacent to the ACT border and south of Wallaroo in the Yass Valley Council area.

The proposed solar farm would be built on 393 hectares of land on the NSW/ACT border. Credit: Wallaroo Solar Farm

The NSW Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure is supporting revised plans for the solar farm after the proponent cut the proposed footprint of the project, added landscaping to minimise the view impacts from nearby residential areas, and introduced controls to mitigate glare.

The farm has been referred to the NSW Independent Planning Commission as it attracted more than 50 negative submissions, which included contributions from the council and a prominent Canberra region winemaker.

Wallaroo Solar Farm said the project would comprise 182,000 photovoltaic modules, a substation and a battery storage system and that it would provide renewable energy for about 48,000 homes in NSW per year.

Backlash over the development, which is deemed “state significant”, underscores a broader wariness regarding the construction of renewable energy projects in regional Australia.

An artist’s impression of the proposed Wallaroo Solar Farm on the NSW/ACT border.Credit: Wallaroo Solar Farm

More than 80 per cent of nearly 100 public submissions on the proposal were negative.

Yass Valley Council argued the location was at odds with the council’s development strategy and that it would undermine plans to protect the area’s “open rural landscape and environmental values”.

“A solar farm is more akin to an industrial activity and is inconsistent with protecting the landscape values of the locality and the rural character and amenity as envisaged in the buffer area along the border of Yass Valley and the ACT,” one submission says.

The council also says the visual assessment for the proposal does not consider the nearby residential development of Ginninderry in the ACT, nor the future Parkwood development in NSW.

Winemaker Nick O’Leary strongly objected to the proposal on grounds it would decrease the value of his neighbouring property, which features 35 acres of vines, a 500-tonne winery and a cellar door.

“We have a thriving local winery community and the social and economic impacts would be significant if this project is approved,” O’Leary said.

The ACT Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate in its submission says the proposal “may have a level of visual impact on sensitive receivers in the ACT”.

“It is recommended that ongoing consultation with potentially affected sensitive receivers should continue, [as should] implementation of further mitigation measures to reduce visual impacts,” it says.

In a report prepared in June, the NSW Planning Department says the critical assessment considerations will be “energy security, land use compatibility and visual amenity”.

The department recommends the project for approval with conditions, including that the project does not generate more than 32 heavy vehicle movements a day.

The IPC will hold a public meeting in Murrumbateman on July 18.

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