October 1, 2025
Australian Solar Enterprises, the company developing the Tumuruu solar farm near Blackbutt, has released an updated timeline for the project.
A company update said gaining approval to connect to the electricity grid required detailed technical studies and progress, while steady, was taking longer than expected.
It was expected a final investment decision would be made early next year.
Construction could then start mid-2026 and be completed late in 2027 when the first power could be produced.
The Tumuruu Solar Farm will be built on 673ha – which has been described as poor quality agricultural land – at 341 Bowman Road, Taromeo.
The company proposes to build a low-profile solar farm with panels barely a metre from the ground that will cover about 60 per cent of the site.
The panels will be ringed by vegetation buffers.
The solar farm’s 400MW power output will be fed into two high voltage transmission lines that already cross the site.
- External link: Tumuruu Solar Farm website
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Why such low panels? How are they going to keep the ground clear under the panels? Increased shade cover will, no doubt encourage more weeds and grass to grow under the panels, and increase the risk of a fire hazard. Is the maintenance going to be by whipper snipper, slashing, spraying weed killer?
Having a vegetation buffer around the perimeter is good, especially if it is of at least a 30-50 metre size, like some of the residential blocks in recent times. Are these measures going to reduce fire risk? At around 980 acres of solar panels, that’s one heck of a fire hazard. (653ha x 60% coverage)
Could there be cattle, or perhaps sheep run on the property to keep the vegetation growth, and fire risk to a minimum? The animals may need the panels a bit taller to get under to do their “maintenance”.
Just some thoughts.