Positive reaction to wind

Ararat Advertiser
Friday 12/10/2007 Page: 1

ARARAT - Pacific Hydro has reported a positive response to its planning application to the State Government for a 75 tower wind farm at Crowlands. A number of information days have been held and will continue, including one in Ararat last Thursday. The site for the proposed wind farm is in the Pyrenees Shire about 25 kilometres north east of Ararat, along the ridge top between Crowlands and Glenlofty. The area consists of cleared grazing land with low density population.

The planning application seeks approval for a maximum of 75 x 2.3 megawatt wind generators. At this maximum size, the wind farm would produce 430 gigawatt hours of zero emission electricity each year. This is the equivalent to the annual power needs of 80,000 Victorian households, or the combined needs of Ballarat and Bendigo.

Pacific Hydra's community relations manager Emily Wood said around 50 people attended the information session in Ararat, viewing the application and asking questions about the project. "Everyone seemed very pleased with the project and just wanted to check where things were up to," Ms Wood said.

Displays at the session included summaries of the application as well as the full report. Photo-montages were also displayed from a range of locations, along with maps of the area, access tracks and layout of the windfarm. "We are encouraging the community to have their say about the project," Ms Wood said. "Interestingly, many people commented that they thought if they were happy for it (the wind farm) to go ahead they shouldn't put a submission in, when this is not the case. "If you would like to see the project go ahead, you can also put in a submission."

An economic forum was held on the same evening, run by Industry Capability Network (ICN) in conjunction with Pacific Hydro. ICN is an independent, not for profit service for the manufacturing, engineering and services sector funded by the State Government. It provides a register of local businesses that government contractors can look at to find the services they need locally. Ms Wood said 30 people attended this session to hear about the project and the kinds of jobs that will be created if the wind farm receives planning approval.

Pacific Hydro has conducted a number of these forums, with another scheduled for next Thursday, October 18 in Stawell, between 3pm and 8pm at the Stawell Town Hall. Ms Wood said Pacific Hydro prefers to employ locally - with a standard minimum of 40 percent local content - and will require a range of skill areas to enable the project to be constructed, including civic works, electrical cabling, concreting, hire of trucks and traffic management. "So while the project is not yet approved, we are starting to talk about this stuff early so that we can keep in touch with businesses who are interested and also ensure there is enough time to allow business to plan," Ms Wood said.

Tomorrow the information sessions move to Elmhurst, from 10am to 2pm at the Elmhurst Recreation Reserve, then on to Beaufort next Wednesday from 3pm to 8pm at the Community Resource Centre, followed by Stawell on Thursday and Crowlands on November 1 from 3pm to 8pm at the Crowlands Hall. The Crowlands Wind Farm planning application went on display on September 21 and is on display for six weeks.