Grade C: farther from the grid than most farms

The way a developer screens land, against where operating solar farms were built. Land no farm goes on isn't graded: a protected area, built-up land, water, or a point more than 100 km from a substation. Otherwise two parts are graded. The grid: the distance to the nearest substation or to the nearest line of 66 kV or more, whichever compares better, as a farm can connect at a substation or cut into a line. The land: the average slope within 500 m. Each part is placed among 122 operating solar farms of 5 MW or more: A is within the median farm, B within three in four farms, C within nine in ten, D beyond. The weaker part sets the grade. Land is also compared with the 47 farms of 100 MW or more, on substations and lines of 132 kV or more, and the better grade is shown, unless you say you have 300 ha or less; the page says when the large farms set it. Under 20 ha the grade is at most C: most farms use 20 ha or more. Sun is shown but not graded, as it varies little between farms. No Australian guideline publishes these thresholds, so they are what is typical of operating farms, not a requirement. The grade compares the land with where farms were built: it doesn't account for network capacity, planning rules or title, and it isn't advice about the land.

The 124 solar farms of 5 MW or more that were operating when this page was built and have a known site: an OpenStreetMap outline (© OpenStreetMap contributors), an EPBC referral area, or a Geoscience Australia point. Each is measured at the centre of its site. Many farms built their own connection substation, which sits on the farm, so a farm's own substation is left out: one inside the farm's outline, one near the centre of its site, or one named after the farm with "solar" in its name. A town's grid substation that only shares the farm's name is kept. The farm is then measured to the next nearest substation, as a new site would be. 2 farms measured more than 100 km from a substation, most likely a misplaced point, are left out of the grade.

Substations and transmission lines: Geoscience Australia's Electricity Infrastructure dataset (1,850 operating substations, 3,130 lines, last edited April 2026), CC BY 4.0. Solar yield: the Global Solar Atlas 2.0 (Solargis for the World Bank), long-term yearly PV output per kWp at about 1 km, CC BY 4.0. Slope: CSIRO's slope grid from the 1 second SRTM DEM-S, at about 90 m, CC BY 4.0. Land use: ABARES Catchment Scale Land Use of Australia, December 2023, at 50 m, CC BY 4.0. Renewable energy zones: AEMO's 2024 Integrated System Plan and Victoria's declared zones of 2026. Solar farms: Geoscience Australia, AEMO, the Clean Energy Regulator (CER) and EPBC referrals to the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW). Places: ABS Suburbs and Localities 2021.

Not on its own. Whether a substation has spare capacity is set by the network operator and AEMO, and changes as projects connect. The site doesn't hold network capacity, land title, zoning or planning rules, flood or bushfire overlays, or what a developer would pay.

NSW and Queensland so far. Elsewhere the check covers the point you chose.

Each check stores the point rounded to about 100 m, the result and the date. If you answer the hosting question or choose lots, those are saved with it. See the privacy page.