Snowtown wind farm to double

Adelaide Advertiser
Friday 12/9/2008 Page: 30

NEW ZEALAND energy company Trust Power is on track to more than double the size of its $220 million wind farm at Snowtown, while it plans to go ahead with its controversial Myponga project next year, pending government approvals. In the Mid North, the 47th and final Stage 1 turbine was installed last week. When operational, it will result in the farm powering about 55,000 homes.

But the company is assessing the commercial logistics for Stage 2, which is about 120 turbines to feed 250-plus megawatts into the power grid. "We've got the planning approval, so we're finalising commercial arrangements to ensure the economics work so that we can build it," said business development manager Rodney Ahern. One element of the process already sorted is dealing with farmers and landowners along the Barunga Ranges.

"We lease the land from farmers and they get royalty payments for the turbines and, in many cases, they make about as much money out of the turbines as they do out of farming, especially in drought conditions," Mr Ahern said. One of those property owners, Neville Michael, has 14 turbines on his land and is earmarked to have more of the 80m giants. "Initially I thought it would be a bit like Gulliver with those enormous fans, but at a distance they're really not too bad," he said.

In Parliament on Wednesday, the firm's Myponga wind-farm project was raised, having been the subject of a bitter battle with locals since approval in 2003. While Mr Ahern told The Advertiser Trust Power was "getting ready for construction hopefully for next year", Planning Minister Paul Holloway said he was concerned about ongoing delays in building the 16-turbine wind farm. "It certainly is unusual that, when approval is given, it takes such a long time for construction to be undertaken," Mr Holloway told Parliament.