400 MW Solar project to be reviewed in New Soth Wales

UPC/AC Renewables Pty Ltd in Australia has submitted a scoping report for the 400 MW Stubbo Solar Farm project to the New South Wales Department of Planning, Industry, and Environment (DPIE).

All solar farms in NSW of around the same scale as the Stubbo Solar Farm are assessed as State Significant Developments under Part 4 of the NSW Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979.

The lodging of the scoping report is an important first stage in this assessment process. The Department will review the report and then issue its Secretary’s Environmental Assessment Requirements (SEARs) for the project. The SEARs sets out issues that must be addressed in an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the project. The EIS will cover all facets of the project impact, from environmental through to social.

The solar farm will be located across 1,000 hectares of cleared grazing land in the locality of Stubbo, 10 kilometers north of Gulgong, in New South Wales’ Central West tablelands region. It is estimated to produce enough clean renewable energy to power more than 150,000 NSW homes and offset 600,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions annually.