Controversial $430 million Oxley Solar Farm set to shrink by half in response to Castle Doyle community opposition

The Oxley Solar Farm, planned for a site 14 kilometres south-west of Armidale, faces substantial opposition from the community, because it is close to the Oxley Wild Rivers National Park and homes in the Castle Doyle area.

The project's General Manager Bruce Howard said the company planned to shrink the project and shift it north-east, away from the national park and residents.

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The $430 million project will take up about 20 or 30 per cent less land, with half the number of panels, he said.

It will still produce the same amount of power, because they now plan to use slightly larger, more modern solar panels, which are more powerful.

"We believe there will be zero impact on the World Heritage area, you won't see it, with our revised proposal," he said.

The decision has come in response to universal opposition to the project's DA to the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment. All 78 public submissions were against the project. The proponent has yet to formally respond to the submissions.

Armidale Regional Ratepayers Association Acting Treasurer Lou Forsythe said the news was a "small win" - but that the fight against the project would still go on.

"We're still working towards the project not even being there," she said.

"There are better places that it can be put."

Mr Howard said the company had proved it was listening to local residents.

Company employees have spent the last week taking photos around the project area in order to create a photomontage of the visual impact of the scheme. It's also producing revised soil erosion, Aboriginal heritage and traffic management plans.

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If approved, the project would product about 225MW of solar and 50MW of battery generation capacity.

In his own submission to the project's DA, Armidale Mayor Ian Tiley said the original project is close to the popular Blue Hole recreation area, which is visited by about 70,000 people a year.

The project was also immediately adjacent to the historic Gara River hydroelectric plant. Completed in 1895, it was the first hydroelectric project to light a township in Australia.

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