Monday 4 December 2006

Wind Power's ahead

Ballarat Courier
Saturday 2/12/2006 Page: 30

WIND FARM company Wind Power Pty Ltd has placed an application with the Pyrenees Shire Council for its plans to build a 19-turbine wind farm at Lexton. The proposal, which the company has been looking at for some time, will provide enough power to supply about 16,000 homes.

The facility will also displace about 113,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide, or greenhouse gas a year, the equivalent of taking 26,000 cars off the road. Director Andrew Newbold said Lexton was a very good location for a wind farm and the company was very excited about the project.

"The site has an excellent wind resource is located along the Ballarat-Horsham Transmission Line, which means there is good access to the grid," Mr Newbold said. He said the closest neighbouring house to the wind farm was more than a kilometre from the nearest turbine.

Mr Newbold said support from the community had been fantastic, and said the community was "fair-dinkum" about tackling issues of climate change as well as developing our sustainable future. "The community is concerned about a lack of water, salinity and climate change," he said.

"Many homes in the area have solar power and people around Lexton are aware of how important it is to manage our demand for electricity." The company is still in discussions over its plans to build a 70-turbine wind farm at Stockyard Hill near Beaufort.

The wind farm is estimated to cost more than $250 million. The Pyrenees Shire Council was not available for comment yesterday.

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