Green Light For Narrabri’s Silverleaf Solar Farm

A solar farm pretty much on the doorstep of the NSW town of Narrabri recently received development approval after quite a lengthy review process.

Engie’s proposed $191 million 120MW (ac) Silverleaf Solar Farm is to be situated on approximately 330 hectares around 4km from Narrabri, in New South Wales’ North West Slopes region.

When originally proposed, it was estimated 440,000 solar panels installed on single axis trackers would be used for the project, which will connect to the existing Narrabri substation.  After construction finally kicks off, it’s expected to take between nine and twelve months to build. The clean power station has a planned operational lifespan of 35 years, after which it could be reconditioned with new kit, or decommissioned and the site rehabilitated.

This project has been in the pipeline for quite a while, with the Secretary’s Environmental Indicative Assessment Requirements (SEARs) issued in June 2018. The exhibition of the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the project concluded in October 2019. Twenty submissions were received about the proposal –  five from the community and fifteen from government agencies; among those Narrabri Shire Council. The submissions were mainly comments rather than statements of support or opposition; of which there were two of each.

It looks like the history of Silverleaf Solar Farm may go back even further than 2017/18 – or at least a project of the same size for the same site. I came across documents associated with a withdrawn development application dated late 2015 from another developer that no longer exists.

Like many developers of large-scale solar projects in Australia, Engie had a rather optimistic timeline for construction of Silverleaf – with its website still indicating “completion in 2021” at the time of publishing. But at least now the company can get cracking.

The NSW Minister for Planning’s Notice of Decision for Silverleaf Solar Farm can be viewed here.

Silverleaf isn’t the only large-scale PV facility on the board for the Narrabri Shire area. There’s also Canadian Solar’s 60MW Narrabri South Solar Farm, which was approved back in 2018, and the 55MW Wee Waa Solar Farm. It’s not clear when construction of those projects will kick off, or if they will.

Solar Energy In Narrabri Shire

While operational large-scale PV may be non-existent in the region at this stage, there are plenty of solar panels in Narrabri and beyond. More than 2,465 small-scale solar power systems with a collective capacity of 10.25MW had been installed in the 2390 postcode as at the end of March 2022.

The heavy lifters in solar panel uptake have been the region’s households and businesses. Unlike many other local governments across Australia, Narrabri Shire Council doesn’t appear to have jumped on the PV bandwagon just yet, but they have been thinking about it – for years.

Its 2016/17 operational plan noted:

“Investigate viability of installing Solar Panels at appropriate Council facilities.”

And its 2021/2022 operational plan states:

“Develop and implement plans for installing energy efficient technologies and innovations at identified Council facilities i.e. solar panels, LED lighting, air-conditioning.”

So, it still looks like the organisation is getting around to it.