New England Solar Farm: approval for $768 million project outside Uralla

The 720-megawatt New England Solar Farm will see 2.4 million solar panels installed on farm land just six kilometres east of the town.

The project was approved with conditions, given the project received 67 formal objections.

The commission found the $768 million development wouldn't adversely impact the agricultural land it will be built on.

But, as a condition of the approval the developers will need to prepare a decommission and rehabilitation plan within three years of switch on.

It will also have to provide a vegetation screen to a nearby resident who will have their outlook impacted.

A public meeting was held before the decision in February to give decision-makers Andrew Hutton, Snow Barlow and Zada Lipman the opportunity to hear the communities concerns.

The biggest worries were whether the land was suited for use as a solar farm, visual impacts, transport and traffic management and how the land would be rehabilitated at the end of the farm's tenure.

The solar farm will include 150 power conversion units, a lithium-ion battery storage facility and connect to a TransGrid transmission line.

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The farm is a UPC Renewables project and is expected to create enough power for about 250,000 NSW homes.

It's expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 1.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year, the equivalent of taking 330,000 cars off the roads.

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