New England Solar Farm wins grid connection agreement

The $768 million solar farm and battery system, which will be able to power as many as half-a-million NSW homes, won a grid connection agreement last week.

Head of solar development Killian Wentrup said it had taken a lengthy three-year process to win support from the people of Uralla.

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But he said it won't be the last. He said locals should take advantage of the "fantastic opportunity" to become an energy powerhouse.

"Generation could get into the multi-gigawatt scale," he said.

"I would say that it's a fantastic opportunity to become one of the key powerhouses of the state with respect to clean energy generation, being a net exporter.

"With that comes obviously the economic activity; there'll be a lot of capital flowing into the region as a result of these projects.

"The job creation aspects are significant. For our project alone the solar farm itself at peak construction will be employing something like 500 workers on site.

"If you add the battery on as well it could easily be another 100-200 workers. That's a significant number of jobs created.

"Logically the majority of those jobs if they can be sourced from the region will come from the region.

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"It makes a lot more sense to have people either bussed in or drive in from Armidale or Tamworth if you have to go that far away to find workers than it does to move workforces around the country for this project.

"That's what we expect to see - a lot of job creation."

One of the biggest benefits for the New England - billions in new investment will mean additional, faster improvements to the region's infrastructure.

But energy-hungry local industry will also be able to take advantage of extra local generation, he said.

Construction is expected to start later this year, with the upgrading of the Big Ridge road outside of Uralla.

The 720 megawatt plant should power its first lightbulb by the middle of 2022, but the full plant will take three years to complete.

The plant also aims to install a battery capable of storing and distributing up to 400 megawatts of power.

The project received approval from the NSW Independent Planning Commission in March.