The outcome of the Uriarra solar debate is clearly a win for the villagers and for Canberrans who want to see the Elementus solar farm go ahead. It now looks to be built off the Monaro Highway south of the city in a location with few residents in its line of sight.
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But you might well look back at 18 months or more of battle between residents and the company and ask how Elementus got into such trouble in the first place and why it took so long for change to come. And you might look at the deal now and wonder whether the government has gone further than it needed to to help out.
Minister Simon Corbell was at pains to point out on Tuesday that Elementus would bear the costs of a new redevelopment application and of shifting its plans from Uriarra to Williamsdale, and would pay a market lease for the site. Elementus said the affair would cost it "several hundreds of thousands" of dollars.
But the upshot is, the Land Development Agency has spent $3.1 million buying 453 hectares of land for a purpose not entirely clear. Mr Corbell said about 40 hectares would be licensed to Elementus. As to the rest, it would be used "as an environmental offset", he said. It contained valuable grassy woodland communities on it and had been "acquired by the Land Development Agency recognising that it could be used as an environmental offset for development in other parts of the territory should an offset be required under environmental protection law".
A spokeswoman for Icon (formerly Actew Water), said Actew Corporation bought the land in 2009 for its water security program, land offsets and "other energy related projects".
In 2013, ActewAGL and Actew Corporation took part in the solar bid, planning to use part of the land, but missed out on a feed-in tariff. "Since then, Icon Water have reassessed the need for parts of the land and decided that it is now surplus to its requirements," she said.
It had been marketing the land for sale since August 2014 as a solar site for the next round of solar auctions and had been contacting organisations which might be interested.
"Subsequently, the ACT government expressed their interest in acquiring the land at market value."
All of which deals with Elementus's problem, assuming it can get through the next round of approvals with the help of the office of the co-ordinator general – which is David Dawes, chief executive of the Land Development Agency.
The announcement also presumably deals also with Icon's desire to get rid of the land. What it achieves for the Land Development Agency is less clear.
Asked about plans for the land, Mr Dawes said part would be used for environmental offsets and board was "still considering options for the remainder".
Asked how the land purchase had come about, who had approached the agency and whether the purchase had been driven by the solar farm issue, Mr Dawes responded: "The land was advertised for sale and the Land Development Agency board saw it as an excellent strategic purchase."
So. Not a loser in site.
