Riverina landowners up in arms as 'destructive' solar farm plan progresses

Since its announcement in 2022, Maxwell farmer Cam Dooner has been working with international sustainable energy company X-Elio on plans to construct a solar farm on his property.

The project is set to be uniquely designed to allow sheep to graze on the land amongst the solar panels.

However the planned project on his approximately 310-hectare property has been met with fierce criticism from members of the local community.

In 2022, community feedback was sought as part of the process - and it was unequivocal. Of 73 respondents, 64 were against the project.

While Mr Dooner initially planned to lease 1000 hectares of his property for what was then a $300 million project, this has since been reduced, but the new signing has raised concerns the scale of the project could increase once more.

Cattle and cropping farmer Don Kirkpatrick said the news has raised concern the solar farm could double in size with a second farmer now on board.

Daughter Emily Kirkpatrick believed the solar farm combined with sheep tracks made through the property would "disrupt the natural waterways" that run through the property.

"It's also destructive of agricultural land," Ms Kirkpatrick said.

"The renewable energy guidelines say classes 1 to 3 of [agricultural] land shouldn't even be considered for these developments."

Max and Jane Lieschke will have a clear view of the proposed solar farm site from their property and are against the project.

Mr Lieschke said he's not against such a project, but doesn't want it on his doorstep.

"It should be somewhere [else] where it doesn't affect people," he said.

The project has also raised concerns that if a fire was sparked or escapes from their land to where a future solar farm was located and burns through the infrastructure, that insurance will not cover it.

"If [a stubble burn-off] gets away and burns them out, we'll be in big trouble, because we [are only covered for] $20 million ... and they are a couple hundred million or more," Mrs Lieschke said.

The Kirkpatricks also raised safety concerns that if and when the project enters construction phase, it will result in increased traffic along Holbrook Road, which has seen multiple serious and fatal accidents in recent years.

"The road has a bad track record," Mr Kirkpatrick said.

Concerns were also raised about the potential fire hazard of a battery energy storage system which was proposed for the site in a 2022 scope report for the project.

"If fires occurred there, our local RFS brigade would be unable to attend the fire on site and it would take a good half an hour for specialist firefighters to come out," Emily Kirkpatrick said.

Privacy concerns were also raised that a future solar farm project could also see security installed around the project perimeter.

However, Mr Dooner dismissed this notion as an issue, saying it was against the law for cameras to point towards a property and that any installed would be in accordance with legal requirements.

He added that if he were in their shoes, he would welcome more security, given the prevalence of rural crime in the region.

"I recently had a motorbike stolen and I wish I had security cameras [at the time] to figure out who drove up there," he said.

Mr Dooner said if battery storage was eventually installed at the site, it "will be as safe as anywhere else".

"I can guarantee this, that X-Elio is not going to go outside the scope of approval from the state government," he said.

In contrast to concerns raised about the visual impact of the project for neighbouring property owners, Mr Dooner said having a neighbour now also signed up for the project will help alleviate some community concerns.

He said with more land for the project, the location of solar panels was now more flexible, with the potential to hide panels away from neighbouring properties.

Mr Dooner also took issue with talk that such a project should not be built on prime agricultural land.

"Let's get that clear, the whole lot is going to be left to farming," he said.

"It's not being taken out of agricultural production like opponents would have you think."

Responding to accusations he was only in it for the money, Mr Dooner said money was a factor, but that's business.

He said the financial benefit for the project was comparable to the profit received on the land in a good farming year.

"The only difference is that it's guaranteed income ... and it's only for a 25-year period," he said.

Wagga MP Joe McGirr has also raised concerns about the impact of the project on the visual amenity, soil quality and agricultural productivity of the area.

Dr McGirr also expressed alarm at "the proposed significant increase in the size of the development".

"It is essential that full, genuine consultation is held with the community and that all feedback is acted upon and genuinely taken into account," he said.

"There are many other more suitable places to develop solar farms within NSW, including the Renewable Energy Zone near Hay, and there is no reason that such projects need to be developed on prime agricultural land.

"It is my view that the proponents should seek another site.

"I expect that they should genuinely engage with the community and act upon their concerns."

On Thursday, X-Elio country manager Belinda Fan confirmed there were now multiple farmers engaged in the project. However, she would not disclose the exact number citing commercial confidence reasons.

"We have a number of landowners working with us on developing this project," Ms Fan said.

She said the landowners X-Elio was working with were "very supportive of the proposed project and we appreciate their ongoing support".

Ms Fan also confirmed X-Elio would soon approach the Maxwell community to discuss planned changes at the proposed solar farm site.

"We're looking to come back to the community in the next few weeks with a revised footprint [in response to community feedback]," she said.

Responding to concerns about potential security cameras on the site, Ms Fan said it was too early to go into that level of detail.

"We're nowhere near pinning down the actual construction and physical design of the project," she said.

"We need to go through the development process first ...to hopefully co-design the project with the community.

"So it will definitely be a few months yet before we start talking about what the actual construction will look like."

Responding to concerns about a lack of communication between X-Elio and local residents, Ms Fan said "we can always do things better".

"X-Elio is always learning about better ways of engaging with the community," she said.

"We've been working in the background to really take on board the feedback and to plan how we can adapt the feedback into our project."