Loomberah community takes concern over solar project to council meeting

"That is what I would see out to the south towards my kitchen windows, solar panels," Ms Wealand said.

The panel installation would take place along the western boundary of her property, right down to Ascot-Calala Road, then swing around to the southern boundary of her place and be built out towards the horizon.

"The scoping report set out that all the infrastructure, including the huge battery storage area and the trans-sub station, the temporary facilities, and basically all the 80 acres of infrastructure, is put down against my eastern boundary," she said.

The proposed 500MW solar farm project, which includes a Lithium Battery Energy Storage System, is slated to built between Kia Ora Lane and Duri-Dungowan Road and will sit 15 kilometres south of Tamworth.

Ms Wealand will be one of three representatives from the Loomberah Family and Farmland Inc. who will share their concerns about the project at the Tamworth Regional Council meeting on Tuesday, March 12.

Ms Wealand has lived in the North West region on and off for more than 20 years.

But from the moment she stepped onto her Loomberah property, "she knew it could be something special".

The property is not only Ms Wealand's home, but also the base for a successful bed and breakfast, Ivanhoe Park Homestead.

Ms Wealand was always aware of the project, but did not know about the infrastructure set to go around her, until the energy provider, Venn Energy Group, submitted their scoping report to the Department of Planning and Environment.

The report is the first step in the approval process for the Canadian company.

"I am totally surrounded by panels," Ms Wealand said.

"If I were just a hobby farmer, I wouldn't be as worried about this. But I have spent a lot of time and money, renovating, furnishing, and styling my 100-year-old home to turn it into a successful bed and breakfast," she said.

"During the two-year construction phase of the project, the business would be near impossible to run, especially with the noise going on during daytime hours and the ten heavy trucks per hour. It is not conducive to a quiet bed and breakfast.

"When the project is finished, we won't have the traffic or the noise, but the 35.6 hectares of infrastructure on the top of the hill will have lights on 24 hours a day."

Despite the property being on prime land and built up by Ms Wealand, she worries the project next door will impact its value.

"The moment a real estate agent knows a solar farm is going around me, I have lost a huge chunk of the value," she said.

"The construction of the farm prohibits me from replacing what I have got."

Tamworth Regional councillor Mark Rodda will put forward a motion at the next council meeting to address the concerns of the Loomberah community.

He's advised the council to write to both NSW Premier, Chris Minns, and Energy Minister, Penny Sharpe, about the number of proposed renewable projects outside the Renewable Energy Zone [REZ] and the need to "quarantine the land outside the REZ" from any future large-scale alternative energy projects.

"I'm only thinking about the impact on people's lives, and they would like to get on with the job they do, which is to grow food and fibre, and to basically push those projects back inside the REZ, which was created for that purpose, where they will have dedicated transmission lines and infrastructure for those renewable energy projects," he said.

Cr Rodda said he doesn't want to see another Hills of Gold situation, where the community of Nundle remains divided over a wind farm.

"We are continuing to fight these little fights and battles everywhere," he said.

"The intention of the renewable energy zone was to create a space where they would be largely located, but outside of that, where there is good electrical transmission connection, it's then extended to those areas outside the REZ.

"This is the collateral damage of the previous government privatisation agent. When they embarked on the privatisation of coal-fired power, transmission lines, and the Transgrid."