Community

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Regional Support

The region’s excellent solar resource, role as a major regional hub, supportive regional council and community, and favourable attributes make it an excellent locality for a solar energy facility. The community has demonstrated continued and consistent support for this project that will develop a local skill base and create employment.

Key Messages

The Normanton Solar Farm aims to provide clear, open and honest communication with stakeholders. The following key topics will be addressed through regular updates , with the detail of those messages tailored to meet the needs of audience groups such as communities and other stakeholders.

1. Community benefits and opportunities – short, medium and long term.
2. Project construction progress updates;
3. The Solar Farm development partners, their background and their commitment to deliver this project;
4. The Project details, location, proposed technology, and analysis of the impact of the project on the local power grid;

The Normanton Solar Farm approach to communications will be to provide two-way communication wherever possible with all stakeholders in order to encourage stakeholder input.

We are extremely grateful for the support the community has demonstrated for this project so far.

 

 

Project Benefits

For Carpentaria Shire, and the local community, the likely local and regional development, tourism and educational benefits include:

• Local employment during project development, project construction, and long term project operation, with the likely outcome that the development team will use the learnings from Normanton to develop projects in other Northern Australian locations, utilising the skills and experience of the Normanton staff in this broader project portfolio;
• Showcasing Carpentaria Shire and the Gulf Region throughout industries worldwide including, tourism, scientific, renewable energy, educational, research, and all levels of Australian Governments - Local, State and Federal;
• Training and development opportunities availability for Savannah Guides in conjunction with future planned tourism programs. Note that there will be no tourism activities on site, as the focus is only on education, research, and knowledge sharing. Tourism display will be located at the Normanton Visitor Information Centre. Direct access to knowledge sharing data will be available through digital sources.
• Cultural opportunities for local indigenous groups.

Beneficiaries of the Normanton development, and the longer term Knowledge Sharing plan will include:

• Communities looking to improve their resilience and sustainability through the development of locational renewable energy solutions that lessen reliance on long, unreliable, and often expensive rural energy grids;
• Governments and electricity network providers receive the benefits arising from successful application of the Scouller model where renewable energy power stations are situated at the fringe of long, rural power grids to provide localised support, and over the longer term improve reliability, sustainability and financial outcomes;