Council
2 September, 2026
Wind farm proposal ‘vandalism’ says deputy mayor
Cr Flint visited the site on Saturday and met with residents who will be directly impacted if the Mint Renewables project gets the green light.
Goulburn-Mulwaree deputy mayor Caitlin Flint has described a proposed solar farm near Tarago as “vandalism”.
Cr Flint visited the site on Saturday and met with residents who will be directly impacted if the Mint Renewables project gets the green light.
“I stand with the residents of Mount Fairy who will be unquantifiably impacted and the land irreversibly damaged if Mint Renewables have anything to say about it,” Cr Flint said after her visit.
The proposed Boro solar farm would contain 650,000 solar panels and associated infrastructure including a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) and would have a footprint of 750 hectares.
Cr Flint said the lifestyle, liveability, safety and amenity of families on 120 properties would never be the same.
She said the proposed solar farm would unload into the same grid which heads straight to Sydney - completely bypassing the communities who are left to carry the real load.
“Now more than ever we need the Government to step up and regulate these proposals,” Cr Flint said.
“Goulburn-Mulwaree isn’t the solution to the renewable energy agenda.”
Goulburn-Mulwaree mayor Nina Dillon and Member for Goulburn Wendy Tuckerman also visited and spoke with residents in mid-August.
Cr Dillon said it was unbelievable that anyone would consider covering such a large parcel of “beautiful, unspoiled land” with solar panels.
“It’s not just an eyesore for the many local families but a genuine safety concern with fires on a remote – one access road – location.
“The State Government needs to get serious and plan the location of these solar farms in consultation with our communities and not just dump 42 State Significant projects in one local government area,” the mayor said.
Mint’s own research shows 11 per cent of people in the area support the project but 77 per cent are opposed or strongly opposed.
It also found that concerns were not isolated to directly affected landholders but are also shared more broadly across the community.
Mint says the transition to renewable energy was accelerating – creating an urgent need to develop and connect new sources of dispatchable, renewable energy in NSW.
“Solar hybrid projects – combining solar energy with battery energy storage – are particularly well suited to this task as they can store energy generated during the day and dispatch it into the evening and morning peak demand periods when coal plants have historically provided the bulk of supply.”
However, Cr Dillon said unwanted developments were being dumped on the Goulburn region because of its location.
She said the attraction for developers was “solely because the main transmission line (Melbourne-Sydney) runs through it and proponents are looking for a ‘cheap’ location for their projects in the way of accessibility (Sydney/Canberra) and established infrastructure.
The Goulburn region is not officially designated as a Renewable Energy Zone but is home to a rapidly growing number of renewable energy projects which residents say are destroying the landscape (including productive farmland) and relationships between families, neighbours and friends.
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