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Essay by Eric Worrall
“This is the thing that happens with renewable energy” – Dubbo Deputy Mayor Philip Toynton.
Fire forces 400 MW solar farm offline
Fire forced the shutdown of the Wellington North Solar Farm in central western New South Wales at the weekend but officials expect the 400 MW facility to resume full operations “shortly.”
DECEMBER 8, 2025 DAVID CARROLL
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Data provided by market analyst WattClarity shows the Wellington North solar farm, located about 50 kilometres southeast of Dubbo, shut down soon after 1pm on Saturday 6 December. The NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) reported that a 92-hectare grass fire at the site was brought under control by 2.35pm on Saturday as heatwave conditions fuelled bushfires across the state.
A Lightsource bp spokesperson said on Monday that emergency services have since left the site, and the company is now assessing the impact to the facility and working to understand the cause of the fire.
“The incident has been fully contained, with no ongoing fire activity,” the spokesperson said. “Our incident response protocols were activated immediately, and our teams worked closely with emergency services as they managed the situation.”
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Read more: https://www.pv-magazine-australia.com/2025/12/08/fire-forces-400-mw-solar-farm-offline/
Renew Economy also covered the incident. The local deputy mayor is not pleased about having a solar farm in his district;
Grass fire forces one of Australia’s biggest solar farms to shut down for a day, no word yet on cause
Giles Parkinson
Dec 7, 2025A large grass fire has forced one of Australia’s biggest solar farms – the 400 megawatt (MW) Wellington North facility in the central west of NSW – offline for a day, but it is now back up and running at near full capacity.
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Asked about the cause, the company said in an earlier statement: “The team is working to understand the cause.” The Wellington North solar farm started sending power to the grid in June, 2024.
…The incident generated significant interest on social media, with Dubbo deputy mayor Councillor Philip Toynton, an outspoken critic of renewables projects in the area, posting pictures and comments and attracting more than 700 other comments, almost all of them critical of renewables.
“This is the thing that happens with renewable energy,” Toynton, a member of the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party, said in comments in a video posted to Facebook. “Zero emissions my backside.”
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Read more: https://reneweconomy.com.au/grass-fire-at-one-of-australias-biggest-solar-farms-forces-facility-offline-no-word-yet-on-damage/
I’ve visited Dubbo multiple times in the last 5 years, in my opinion The Shire Bar and Grill in Dubbo is one of the best steak restaurants in the outback, well worth a visit if you are travelling in that area. And be sure to call into Peak Hill Country Crafts for a coffee and cake and some amazing Aussie historical memorabilia, on your way to Parkes Observatory.
But summer in Dubbo is hot and dry.
On this occasion firefighters caught a break – although conditions are currently dry in Western New South Wales, the wind died down to 6 knots on Sunday, which likely helped with containing the fire.
The million dollar question of course is whether fires are more likely at solar farms, and whether fire control measures are adequate.
Wellington North Solar farm to their credit controlled the fire quickly. But are safety standards that good at all the outback solar farms?
It wasn’t necessarily the solar equipment which started the fire. When conditions are as dry as they are currently, major fires can start spontaneously – a pile of grass cuttings can become an ignition source, or a spark from a lawnmower blade hitting a rock. It is even possible the fire could have started because of attempts to mitigate the fire risk.
Having said that, I suspect having acres of high amperage electronics in close proximity to dry grass probably enhances the fire risk. Dubbo Deputy Mayor Philip Toynton obviously appears to think so.
But all we have at this stage is speculation and anecdotal evidence from people on the ground like Deputy Mayor Toynton. In my opinion we are as unlikely to see an honest assessment of enhanced fire risk at solar farms in Australia’s arid outback as we are to see an honest accounting of endangered species bird kills around wind farms and solar concentrators.
h/t Walbrook – According to Walbrook locals are claiming 10% of the solar farm panels are damaged.
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Back up and running with soot all over the panels.
Whatever the cause of the fire this incident will be used as another reason why we need more of these useless things.
Correction: worse than useless things.
The Marxists have discovered if you control the courts you control the country. In this case they picked the wrong country.
A sprinkler system covering the whole solar installation would be a good idea.
Powered by a whopping big diesel generator.
All poly pipe of course.
Water could be supplied by tapping into the groundwater table.
How environmentally friendly, hey?
Hmmmm . . . not good. It’s generally acknowledged that solar cells are more efficient when they run cooler than being warmed fireside.
Body text “offline for a day” is not the same as headline text “Briefly Interrupts Output”.
When I hear “briefly” I think of lights out, computers reboot and I hope the refrigerator compressor is okay.
When I hear “for a day” I think go home from work, I hope the freezer doesn’t defrost.
Locals report that 10% of the panels are damaged
this photo shared by a volunteer of the RFS. From this photo it appears to be a mostly grass fire in this part, however with the panels all at different angles it is likely that, at the very least, cabling/mechanisms have been damaged.
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=122236005410041394&set=a.122100123218041394
Thanks Walbrook, I’ve added the pic to the article.
Not just the cabling but the backing film you’d reckon so although they might run with new cabling not for long with weather attacking the backs-
Wellington North solar farm grass fire burns almost 100ha
Yep and the backing films typically melt at 150C-
What is the solar backing film? | NenPower
So any fire underneath them means they’re likely stuffed
The solar “farm” next to my ‘hood (18 acres) got hit by lightning a few years ago. Only a few panels were directly damaged. Then I noticed electricians changing several rows of panels and asked why. The guy said that the way they’re wired up- like Christmas lights, if a few get cooked, it damages all that are in that series. So even if only 10% were damaged directly by fire, I suspect many more will have to be replaced.
Well the Chinese will be happy. They’ll ship them more replacements with new and improved…kill switches so they can attack the Aussie grid (of course the Ausdies are busily destroying it with this worse-than-useless crap anyway).
Where I live in California, I’m supposed to clear all brush and grass within 100 feet of the house.
Seems to me that mowing all that vegetation under and around those solar panels could be a slow painful job.
Thousands of hours are invested on a daily basis to maintain the gravesites of the dearly departed, a worthy cause for sure. But industrial solar panel yards are left unkept? Brilliant?
Perhaps the supports should be a bit higher, and a large contingent of browsers could keep the vegetation suppressed. Sheep, goats, rabbits or some such. Or use Tony S’ suggestion and plant a bunch of the ambient temperature folks there.
You could use browsers like Edge and Chrome. But I am unsure of how much grass they eat.
Feed them AI and they will figure it out. 🙂
“central western New South Wales”
Why not throw a North and East in there, just for a complete set.
Humor – a difficult concept.
— Lt. Saavik
If the solar panels burn, I’d presume that would release a lot of nasty chemicals.
They don’t do controlled burns of the grass near the “farm”? Or at least mow it short so it’d be less likely to burn.
“But summer in Dubbo is hot and dry.”
Copy that.
It seems plausible that the massive solar array affects the local environment. Solar panel equivalent of the UHI for example. Shading the soil. Changing moisture exchange. All of that can make hot and dry worse, or one might speculate it so.
Flora and fauna are likewise affected.
All of this can, possibly and I am just throwing socks at a windmill, cause increased fuel loading. It can also change atmospheric dynamics aka wind flow. Mowing was mentioned, but were the clippings removed?.
The question is, are any of the above considered by the “experts?”
So a fire makes news when it interrupts solar farm output?
Why? Solar farm output is interrupted every night, all night. No thing new here.
Geoff S