LOCALS had the chance to ask questions and have their say about a proposed $200 million solar farm project at Eglinton when a community drop-in session was held on Thursday.
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Garth Heron, who is head of development for Neoen, the French renewable energy company behind the proposal, was at pains to emphasise the project had a long way to go.
But he said Neoen considered it important to speak to the community early.
"At this stage, what we have is an idea to put a solar farm here," he said.
"What we're really doing today is gauging concerns and gauging feedback from the community to help us improve the design for that project.
"Ultimately, it may result in us submitting a proposal to the state for a development application, but between then and now, we have a lot of homework to do."
He said feedback about the visual impact, for instance, might lead to changes.
"It can often influence where we put equipment on the site and sometimes we end up changing the shape of where the panels go to try to improve the project on the whole," he said.
A project map that was part of the drop-in session showed the land for the proposed solar farm, which is on Thomas Drive, off Eleven Mile Drive, has one 330kv and two 132kv transmission lines running through it.
Other information on display at the drop-in session, which was held at The Church Block at Eglinton, covered the stages of the project, employment opportunities and the name.
The project is being called the Windradyne Solar Farm at the moment, but the public is being given the chance to vote on an alternative name.
Mr Heron said the company has a number of projects under analysis, but Bathurst "is one of the top five in the state that we are looking at".
"There is plenty of great sunshine here, an excellent resource, there is also good land availability and, most importantly, access to the electricity network," he said.
He said there was plenty of enthusiasm at Thursday's drop-in session about renewable energy in general.
"There are also people who want to understand the visual impact and today we've got some very early photo montages so we can show them what the project is likely to look like from different angles," he said.
He said some companies have their first open days when the solar farm design is finished, but Neoen takes a different approach.
"We're going out nice and early to let the community know we're here so that they're not surprised when we talk about the project later and, secondly, get as much early feedback as we can."