Until the refinement of the carbon filament light bulb by Thomas Edison in 1879, humans had relied on burning candles, waxes and oils for light for thousands of years.

The quality of light was very poor, with ever-present risk of fire.

Light globes, and the development of efficient electricity generation and storage, meant human activity was no longer limited to daylight.

RECENT ECO NEWS COLUMNS:

Initial Bathurst electric lighting systems were isolated: the showground in 1893, a number of businesses, and St Stanislaus' College in 1895.

The first Bathurst Electricity scheme began operating in 1924, with a steam turbine adjacent to the waterworks, and a 2200 volt line to a substation in Bentinck Street. (View the old substation tower in front of Mitre 10.)

The system was owned and operated by Bathurst Council, with power distributed to 370 street lights at 240 volts.

The advantages of larger generators soon became obvious and, in 1930, Bathurst was connected via a 66,000 volt power line to the Railway owned and operated power station at Lithgow.

Thus began the era of increasingly large coal-fired generators adjacent to coal mines, with a distribution network fanning out.

The Electricity Commission of NSW was formed in 1950 to manage generation and distribution. This was the model for decades.

Initially, electricity was mainly used for lighting. Since the 1960s and 70s, domestic appliances, heating and air-conditioning have mushroomed, with dramatic increases in demand.

Large coal generators, with hub and spoke distribution, are going the way of candles.

Renewable energy generation and storage is now reliable, dispatchable, much cheaper than coal, and can be sited all over the state.

Unfortunately, after a decade of inaction by our Federal Government, the grid is not fit for purpose, with an estimated $12 billion in investment needed urgently.

There are significant benefits economically and in energy security in local generation and storage.

An estimated $400 million goes directly out of Bathurst in energy costs each year.

Imagine if even a portion of that was kept local.

Elgin Energy, a leading international solar and storage developer, is proposing to build a large-scale solar farm at Glanmire, 11 kilometres east of Bathurst, with a capacity of 60 megawatts generation, and 50MW battery storage, sufficient to power 24,000 homes.

Most concerns of neighbours can be addressed, and the development will be of overwhelming benefit to Bathurst.

Elgin needs to commit to community benefit projects, and ideally when the project is sold by Elgin it is structured in a way that enables local equity.