Jindera’s 130 MW Solar Farm granted conditional approval

The Jindera Solar Farm in New South Wales Riverina region has become the latest in a string of major solar projects to be approved in the Greater Hume Shire, despite community backlash about the use of Important Agricultural Land. The project is contingent on 60 conditions, however, with the majority of submissions made to the IPC stating opposition to the plan.

The solar farm will install approximately 120 MW (AC)/150 MW (DC)  and a Battery Energy Storage System with maximum capacity of 30MW/60MWh. The project proposes to cover around 327 hectares of the subject land with single axis tracker PV solar panels and is the result of a partnership between Green Switch Australia and Hanwha Energy Corporation.

The project is to be situated not far from the proposed Glenellen Solar Farm, which has sought to side-step the community frustration about agricultural lands being used to house solar panels by incorporating agrivoltaic principles to allow sheep grazing and cropping to continue on the site. Both projects aim to connect into the same local TransGrid Jindera 330/132kV substation.

Also in the pipeline for the Greater Hume Shire are FRV’s Walla Walla Solar Farm, which was approved in November of last year, and French company Neoen’s 400 MW Culcairn Solar Farm and energy storage facility. In the Riverina region more broadly is the 90 MW West Wyalong Solar Farm, 17 MW Finley Solar Farm, 333 MW Darlington Point Solar Farm , 349 Limondale Solar Farm, 150 MW Coleambally Solar Farm, the 109 MW Sebastopol Solar Farm and 255 MW Sunraysia Solar Farm.