New Zealand solar developer Helios announced the project at a public meeting in Ranfurly in September last year, saying it said could power up to 70,000 homes.
Helios first applied for resource consent from the Central Otago District Council in March but then put the application on hold in May after council planner Adam Vincent decided the application would be publicly notified.
The council this week advertised submissions were open.
At the meeting last year, Maniototo farmers Phil and Donna Smith and Geoff and Lauren Shaw said they were approached by the company about leasing their land in 2022.
They would be able to continue to run sheep on the land.
Mr Shaw said it was not a difficult decision to make for land that was neither irrigated nor highly ecologically sensitive.
"The solar development helps us to continue to improve our environmental sustainability of our farming operations while also making an important contribution to the country’s renewable energy generation."
Helios’ application said construction of the solar farm would take up to two years, including site preparation, earthworks for electrical infrastructure and cabling, building a substation and battery energy storage system and a transmission line to connect to the national grid.
There will be 550,810 panels, a maximum of 2.8m above ground level, in groups with 6-8m between them, over about 660ha. Seventy-three inverters will convert the energy into current for the national grid.
A 2000sq m power storage facility will be located in the centre of the site next to a new substation. All power connections on the site will be underground. Panels and other infrastructure will cover just over 36% of the site.
A mix of native and exotic species is proposed.
Helios spokesman Jonathan Hill said up to 300 people would be employed during the peak of the construction period — about 6-8 months of the two years it was expected to take.
After construction, there will be five to 10 full-time-equivalent jobs for the 35-year term of the solar farm.
The company would establish a community fund with money paid into it each year to support community initiatives, Mr Hill said.
Submissions close on December 19.
