ANIMALS will be able to graze under the panels on a proposed solar farm at Eglinton and Bathurst's fearsome winter fogs are not a big concern, according to the company behind the project.
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Garth Heron, head of development with the French renewable energy company Neoen, was in Bathurst recently for a community session to introduce the project.
Mr Heron said Neoen normally takes out a long-term lease on properties to operate its solar farms.
"And on all of our sites right the way across NSW and Victoria, and soon to be Queensland, we've got agriculture going on around our solar sites," he said.
"We're doing sheep grazing under solar panels on all of our sites across Australia now."
There is a lot of debate about competing land use, he said, but "we think if it's done well, then you can mitigate a lot of that by continuing to use the land for agriculture at the same time as having solar energy".
Mr Heron said the compatibility of sheep grazing was a happy discovery for the company.
"In the very beginning, we were just building solar projects, and one of our landholders wanted to try running some sheep under them and we initially ran it as a trial, but the trial was so successful that now we're running sheep on every single site," he said.
"And we've actually improved how we prepare for sheep grazing as well. So it used to be that we did absolutely nothing before building the solar project.
"And now we're actually looking at seeding and improving the ground before we start construction so that when a solar farm is in operation, it's also a very good feedlot for the sheep underneath."
Mr Heron also said Neoen was confident about the quality of the "solar resource" in Bathurst despite the long, often gloomy winters in the city.
"Fog does affect solar production, but the resource here in Bathurst is excellent," he said.
Irradiance is the measure used, he said, and it is "very high" in Bathurst.
"Bathurst is very suited to solar panels and you can see it in the town - you've got almost half of the rooftops covered in solar panels," he said.
"It's certainly a town with great solar potential and it's a great region of Australia for sunshine."
Neoen's $200 million solar farm proposal for Eglinton is still at the very early stages.
