Newfield Wind Farm Controversy

The Camperdown Chronicle, Page: 2
Tuesday, 28 March 2006

Spanish company Acciona Energy has confirmed it will lodge an application for a $45 million Newfield wind farm to Corangamite Shire Council by August. The company, formerly called EHN Oceania, is now in the planning and environmental assessment stage of the project and is now satisfied the proposed site has the potential for 14 wind turbines which would generate enough energy to power 28,000 homes. Acciona, an international renewable energy company whose network extends throughout seven countries, plans to build a 28 megawatt wind farm on privately owned properties along Newfield Ridge, eight kilometres inland from Port Campbell next to the existing gas plants. Due to the wind farm being under 30 megawatts, the final decision will be in the hands of the Corangamite Shire Council.

If the application is approved, Acciona hopes the wind farm will be operational by mid 2007. Acciona Energy environment and stakeholder relations manager Stephanie Rice said the company had been investigating the potential for a wind farm at Newfield since 2004. "We've been monitoring wind in the area for a while now." she said.

"Newfield has a good wind resource for producing green power and it's a good opportunity to connect electricity into the grid network. "We're going through the planning process at the moment, conducting studies, surveys and investigations and preparing an environmental assessment and planning permit application for the local council," Ms Rice said. "We've had meetings with the local council and have kept them informed about what we're monitoring along the way." Ms Rice said Acciona had contracted independent consultants GHD, an engineering and sustainability consultancy company, to interview locals in and around Port Campbell, Newfield and Timboon.

"We've done some survey work and interviews in the community around February and March," she said. "The purpose of these interviews is to understand the community's aspirations and vision for the future, as well as local attitudes and opinions on renewable energy and the wind farm proposal. "In the coming months we're planning to talk to locals and have consultation sessions. "The results from the survey and interviews will inform the framework for on-going community consultation."

"We want to give the local community a picture of what renewable energy is and find out what they want to know and provide them with information. "Ms Rice said there had been a mixture of responses from locals about the proposed wind farm. "We've had a lot of positive comments and also heard concerns about the impact of a renewable energy on neighbouring farms. "The most issues people talk about are the noise levels and impact on flora and fauna."

Ms Rice said the developer is "fairly confident" that the project will go ahead. "We're only at the beginning stages of this project but we're an experienced company," she said. This is the third project in Australia to be undertaken by the company which claims to be the largest wind energy developer in the world. "We have a very successful project in South Australia and last year we got development approval for a wind farm near Goulburn in New South Wales," she said.

"This wind farm is a smaller size (to our other projects), but it's an important one in helping Victoria reach its greenhouse gas emission targets. "We're happy to talk to people about any questions they might have."