Broken Hill's fortunes have long relied on what lies beneath, but with the mining boom long gone from the region, there’s new hope for a resource it won’t run out of.
With high levels of solar radiation and access to infrastructure, the city on the edge of the New South Wales outback is now home to a 140 hectare solar plant, completed in October.
AGL Broken Hill Solar Plant Project manager Adam Mackett told SBS News, together with a sister-site in the New South Wales town of Nyngan, it's the largest purpose-built plant in the southern hemisphere.
"The solar resource at Broken Hill is fantastic,” he said.
“It's got a lot of days of sun, the sun's really strong, so when we measure sun we talk about solar irradiance, and it's fantastic out here.
“The connection is also really good. A town the size of 20,000, Broken Hill has a high demand both for residential and commercial, so it's a strong connection and a good place to put a solar plant."
Although rooftop solar panels have become a common addition to many Australian homes, utilities companies have been slower to exploit them.
Roger Dargaville, of the Melbourne Energy Institute at the University of Melbourne, said that was because of the cost of building new infrastructure.
It has taken state and federal government funding to get the Broken Hill project off the ground.
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"At the utilities scale, the solar farms have to compete with the large-scale generators such as coal fired power stations, and they can produce power at the order of 5 cents a kilowatt hour,” Mr Dargan said.
“So you actually have to be considerably cheaper at the utilities scale in order to be cost competitive."
The site will have just two to three permanent staff members, Mr Mackett said.
"This type of plant is really 'set and forget' technology, similar to what's on people's roofs,” he said.
“We do anticipate some ongoing maintenance, but from a jobs perspective, given the set and forget technology, we'll probably have about two to three people full time operating the plant."
Local resident and Broken Hill Chamber of Commerce president Ann Rogers said she was disappointed the plant had not led to greater employment for the region.
"We can see that hasn't happened, and probably that has been an opportunity that has been missed, but they obviously only need two people out there at the time," she said.
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She said she was hopeful it would draw more renewable projects to the region where wind and sunshine is plentiful, but jobs are not.
"I had the opportunity to have solar put on our roof out here, and I'm just amazed at the saving we've had from our electricity bill that's come in now, so I can see the benefit of renewable energy in costs, but not only that, it's the greening and that sort of thing too,” Ms Rogers said
“We've got the perfect opportunity out here in Broken Hill to be able to do that."
