Orange Grove Sun Farm has joined Photon Energy in submitting an application to the Department of Planning and Environment in November 2017 for a solar farm on Orange Grove Road. 

Orange Grove Sun Farm has proposed a 110 megawatt farm with an estimated capital investment of $120 million. The project overview stated that about 80 full-time employees would be needed during construction, and three full-time employees during operations. 

In the preliminary environmental assessment, which was prepared by parent company Overland Sun Farming, a letter from Gunnedah Shire Council’s Andrew Johns was included, which expressed support for the venture because of the investment value and employment opportunities.

“Looking at the project from an economic development perspective, a potential $120 million investment into the Gunnedah community and the possibility of 80 construction workers and up to three permanent employees, is a welcome investment,” Mr Johns said.

“The council has a strong focus on economic development and investment, and welcomes projects facilitating growth and prosperity in the shire.

“We understand the State Department will undertake a thorough assessment of the proposal, including interrogation of the project’s environmental planning credentials, before a decision is made.”

Overland’s land and development manager, Sten Fraser, said the Orange Grove Road site was chosen because of various factors.

“Things that we considered include the support of the landowner, the land being general farming and having a history of intensive farming (to minimise any impacts on native flora and fauna), and being close to the electricity network,” he said.

“We are carrying out various assessments of the land, electrical network system etc.  If everything continues to look positive, we will apply for planning consent for the solar farm.

”We have and will increasingly expand our communication with stakeholders as our project progresses.”

In the documents submitted to the NSW government, Overland Sun Farming points to climate data from the Bureau of Meteorology, which shows the site has an average of eight to night hours of sunshine a day, with an average of 68.8 cloudy days.

“The Gunnedah Shire region experiences a consistently high availability of solar radiation, and is therefore ideal for large-scale solar development,” the document states.

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The site is within the Namoi River catchment and at its closest point it is approximately 2.3km north of the Namoi River and lies within Gunnedah Shire Council’s flood planning area. 

“Preliminary consideration of published Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and Department of Primary Industries Water (DPI Water) regional flooding information identified the site as within an area of the floodplain that may be subject to inundation during large floods,” the document states.

The site is zoned RU1 Primary Production under the Gunnedah Local Environmental Plan 2012 (Gunnedah LEP) and has been “highly modified by past disturbances associated with land clearing, cropping, livestock grazing and weed invasion”. It is currently used for livestock grazing and cropping. 

The area is mapped as biophysical strategic agricultural land (BSAL) as defined by the Strategic Agricultural Land Map – New England North West regional mapping presented in State Environmental Planning Policy (Mining, Petroleum Production and Extractive Industries) 2007 (the Mining SEPP).

The site is approximately 4.2 km north-east of TransGrid’s Gunnedah Substation at its closest point. The 132 kilovolt (kV) transmission line traverses the landscape close to the south-eastern corner of the site before it crosses to the southern side of Orange Grove Road.

Ironbark Energy is in the process of trying to establish a solar farm on the old Gunnedah Abbatoir site on Quia Road.