1. Any solar farm needs access to solar radiation, cleared land, electricity mains and zone substations. NSW has a land mass of over 800,000sq km. Regional NSW has over 400 regional zone substations and approx 200,000 km of overhead mains, from which to select suitable locations.

2. By the BOM's official data over a 20 year period, Orange and the ranges in general, are in the bottom 25 per cent of solar radiation exposure within the state. Orange's national reputation is based on its beauty and not its year-round sunshine.

3. This proposal will generate approx. 5MW of power, which is less than 10 per cent of Orange's peak demand. The proposed industrial park offers only limited economic scale and is barely worthy of state-wide significance, but of sufficient size, to taint a location for strategic growth options, in full defiance of our community plan.

4. Orange Council operates to a Local Environment Plan (LEP). It is a community-based document that sets out the zoning, its land use, objectives and guidance on local and strategic developments. Imposing a forced industrial estate contrary to the local LEP on picturesque and higher value agricultural land, fractures and defeats the concept of orderly land use and strategic future development.

5. There is little real economic benefit or sustainable employment for Orange to be derived from this proposal. Consultants sourced from somewhere, materials from China, and profits to private investors elsewhere, and miniscule employment opportunities for locals. By the developer's own proposal, the total project will generate employment of less than 1 full-time person per year over the duration of this project. Any local start-up business offers more employment opportunities.

6. The development commandeers a property with two creeks, where Orange is constrained by water, not by power shortages. We are yet to see what ecological damage this proposal could do to the local area, bearing in mind that some international reports highlight the high toxicity of solar panels. There is not a single detail within the proposal on disposal and decommissioning of what may prove to be a hazardous material. Perhaps it's the developer's notion of shared stakes; they glean the rewards, the local community deals with the risks.

7. Then there is the carnage to the attractive highway entrance to Orange. This proposal defies the basic planning principle, that industrial land is generally reserved for lower profile, sparsely settled, remote or lower value land.

8. The developer's indifference to locals continues with no solar panel setbacks off the highway, and plant screening appallingly inadequate from every direction. Commuters and locals will need to get used to glint and glare, as well as disruptions on a state highway, over an extended construction period, and we have yet to see any proposals for permanent road exits and lane development on the highway. We don't even know if the intermittent supply of solar energy will disrupt the local electricity grid configuration or who bears the cost for network upgrades ... but already we know that the Australian taxpayer directly subsidises 35 per cent of the construction cost of this industrial park.

This development is not essential Orange community infrastructure, unlike a hospital, school, water services etc, where there are direct benefits. No strategic advantage or enticement to business is conferred to the local community by this proposed development.

There is ample underutilised or vacant land with amenable features right across rural NSW, that can reticulate solar power across the state within a functional electricity network, but an interloping Canberra based developer, prefers to impose their will upon our community, by selecting a high value, scenic site, over more suitable industrial locations across the state.

This proposal is not about essential public infrastructure or servicing our local needs; rather this proposal points to externally imposed development, opportunism and exploitive self-interest, at the expense of wider Orange community cohesion and orderly planning considerations.