A 300-megawatt solar farm will be built in Walla, the NSW Independent Planning Commission has determined.
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The project, originally proposed in 2018 by Bison Energy and taken over by FRV Services Australia, is the first of four proposals in Greater Hume Shire to be approved.
Commissioners Andrew Hutton and Professor Zada Lipman were referred plans and agreed with the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment's assessment of land-use compatibility, biodiversity impacts, and effects on neighbours.
There is no clear timeframe yet for when FRV Services might start construction for the $400 million project, which will involve 700,000 panels across 421 hectares.
But FRV has committed to source workers from the local community "wherever possible" for around 250 jobs.
Merryl Thomas and Gary Sheather, who run the Walla Hotel-Motel, are positive about what the development will bring over 30 years.
"We haven't heard from them [FRV Services] directly, but we've heard indirectly they'll be in contact and working out what we can do," Ms Thomas said.
"With this happening, there could be more infrastructure in town.
"Even after it's built, there will be people maintaining it ... there will be tours, like they did for the wind turbines in Portland.
"We need renewable energy, and small towns need an injection."
Two landowners will lease to FRV Services including Danny Phegan.
"The recent submission period showed 105 for and 18 against," he said.
"It has been a thorough two-year process leading up to its approval, and surely now it is time to talk about not only the opportunities ... but the benefits."
While the majority of submissions to the IPC were supportive, the previous community engagement by the NSW DPIE had 85 objections out of 150 submissions.
Orange Grove Gardens owner Trish Feuerherdt was among the residents who expressed their objection at the IPC's November 5 meeting.
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"While the function centre has already been impacted because of this proposal, it is only part of our business and we are also farmers first," she said.
"This is not a few hundred panels. It is kilometres of them in a non-energy zone, reliable non-integrated farming land that has the ability to produce in droughts."
The Commissioners accepted the NSW DPIE's view that if the Jindera, Culcairn and Glenellen solar farms were approved following this one, "they would have a combined development footprint of approximately 2300 ha, which is approximately 0.69 per cent of the 335,000 ha of land being used for agriculture".
