A PUBLIC information night attended by around 150 people has heard that another site in Brewongle would be more suitable for a proposed solar power farm.
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Monday night’s meeting was organised by the Brewongle Action Group which is fighting the approval of a 203-hectare solar farm that will contain almost 400,000 panels.
Foreign-owned Photon Energy is in the early stages of applying for the $145 million project’s approval through the NSW Department of Planning and Environment.
Brewongle residents say the power plant will devalue neighbouring properties and rob the country of prime agricultural land.
Brewongle Action Group’s Peter Hennessy chaired the three-hour meeting which aimed to inform the community about the group’s concerns.
“We ask that you sit with an open mind, or even a mind that’s not quite closed,” he asked those at the gathering.
Mr Hennessy said 26 residences would see the solar panels from their homes or properties if the project was approved.
He said, however, that an alternate site on the same property, between Tarana and O’Connell roads, would be a better option and have less visual impact on neighbours.
“It wouldn’t be in their [neighbours’] front yards and none of them would be impacted by the view,” Mr Hennessy said.
There is absolutely no doubt that the visual issue would go away. This is a genuine attempt to find a better site.
- Peter Hennessy
While more residents are located within two or three kilometres of the alternate site, he said “because of the terrain a couple of these would only have a glimpse [of the panels]”.
In addition, hills towards Ridge Road would help block the visual impacts of the solar farm.
While the entire property is classed as RU1 Primary Production, Mr Hennessy said the alternate site was not such “prime agricultural land”.
However, he said the project’s move to this new site would cost Photon Energy extra in cables.
“It would be approximately $500,000 to run cabling to the new location,” Mr Hennessy said.
If this new site was considered by the NSW Department of Planning and Environment, he believed most complaints about the project’s visual impacts would be withdrawn.
“There is absolutely no doubt that the visual issue would go away,” Mr Hennessy said.
“This is a genuine attempt to find a better site.”