This decision is, I suggest, worthwhile and is consistent with opposing the so-called “state significant project” proposed for the wrong location at Brewongle.

We residents suggest that smaller solar projects properly located and operated locally to supplement power use by locals, including councils, may be a money saver to the benefit of the region and be climate change friendly.

Installation work can be controlled by locals including councils and employment can be kept local.

Leeton Council has a solar installation located at its waste disposal site and that installation, I understand, brings or will bring power cost savings to the council.

I note Orange is considering an installation to be floated on a dam. 

Bathurst may have a site such as an otherwise unusable piece of land that is appropriate for a solar plant.

There are several companies engaged in advising/building such projects. They have recently been reported in The Land and, indeed, a conference featuring them was recently held in Sydney.

The project and installations outlined above are in stark contrast to unvetted, under-resourced, subsidy-seeking, overseas-based corporations coming to this area and proposing a “state significant” plant at the location of their choosing.

A site fixed unilaterally without first consulting council, local planners, agents or residents and apparently in ignorance of local history, the quality of the land or the number of residents affected.

The proposal being not for the benefit of local residents, but rather that power be fed into “the grid” with profit and subsidies going to the overseas-based corporation, with no financial saving or benefit to Bathurst Regional Council or to its residents.