Nichols' wind farm to be something to crow about

Burnie Advocate
Monday 16/7/2007 Page: 7

ROBERT Nichols reckons the answer to conserving energy is in the wind. The owner of Nichols Poultry at Sassafras will soon have his own wind farm to generate renewable energy. He may well be the first in Australia to build an energy processing plant for the daily running of his business. "It would effectively reduce energy costs by 60 per cent," Mr Nichols said. "Most businesses would say `wow' to that. "I've done the research and I haven't come across any other business who's doing this." It's taken Mr Nichols three years of research and overseas trips visiting farms and he's now in the final stages of buying turbines.

He hopes his own wind farm will be built by the end of this year. "Preserving precious natural resources is a passion of mine," Mr Nichols said. "The wind turbines we're looking at aren't massive, we're not looking at building a Woolnorth in Sassafras. "It will be capable of producing 200 kilowatts of energy, that's a big chunk of power. "It'll cut down on the energy we use from the grid."

Mr Nichols said he hoped other businesses would consider going above environmental requirements as part of how they operate. "I hope other businesses would look at this. "It's strange to me we live in such a windy state but we don't see too many wind farms. "There looks to be a hike in energy costs over the next few years of about 10 to 15 per cent. "I look forward to having at least 60 per cent of my energy costs reduced." Mr Nichols said through his research he had found Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands to have the most amount of wind farms on properties.