Green power turns to vitriol

The West Australian, Page: 9
Wednesday, 10 May 2006

Plans for a windfarm in an A - class reserve at Denmark have driven a wedge between all three tiers of government.

Deep in WA’s south in the greenest of green towns, it’s hard to comprehend why a not-for-profit wind farm generating enough energy to meet local consumption and putting money back into the community would not win support. But standing atop Monkey Rock overlooking Denmark’s Wilson Head and surrounding rugged coastline, it’s equally hard to believe that any project would be worthy of jeopardising such a stunning landscape.

Hence the debate that has embroiled the town of Denmark, 400km south of Perth, divided the local green movement and dragged in all three tiers of government since it was mooted in 2003 as a way of the local community doing its bit to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The debate has been given new life by supporter State Planning Minister Alannah MacTiernan’s tiff with Federal Environment Minister Senator Ian Campbell, who wants the ability to veto any such projects facing public opposition.

Senator Campbell has attacked the WA Government over the proposal,saying its support for the Denmark project is an attempt to cover up its dismal record on alternative energy. Ms MacTiernan said the plan had many merits. “If there has to be virtually unanimous community support then you won’t ever have any wind farms because you can’t get unanimity on this issue,” she said.

The debate will intensify this month when the proponents — local business people, professionals,farmers and retirees with strong green credentials — table their long-awaited final feasibility study. Denmark Community Windfarm (DCW) chairman Craig Chappelle said if shown to be viable, the project would only proceed if it had solid community support — something both camps have claimed so far.

Denmark Shire president Kim Barrow said it was hard to gauge the majority view towards the project,which his council rejected last year in opposing a rezoning application for Wilson Head. Ms MacTiernan overturned that decision. Cr Barrow said while most residents supported the concept of a community wind farm, the sticking point remained the site.

It was also a generational debate. “The young are very opposed to it, the old can’t understand what all the fuss is about,” Cr Barrow said. “But the interest groups are the ones that bombard you.” The two politicians who live in the town are also divided. Nationals member for Stirling Terry Redman said the project did not have the support of the community, local council or State Planning Commission and likened it to putting a wind farm in Kings Park.

But project initiator and WA Greens MLC Paul Llewellyn said the debate was bigger than Wilson Head. “Do we want to make a positive contribution to greenhouse gas emissions and that’s where the debate starts and finishes,” he said. Mr Llewellyn said siting of windfarms was an issue worldwide and research showed 9 per cent of people did not like wind farms in any location. He believed it was that minority driving opposition.

Vocal opponent Pete Mortimer disagreed, saying the worth of the project was not in question, just the site — an A-class reserve in the Ocean Beach area, which was widely regarded as “the jewel in the crown of the Denmark environment”. “You couldn’t get a bigger impact probably if you tried anywhere in the Shire of Denmark,” said Mr Mortimer, a surveyor, passionate environmentalist and a keen surfer who frequented Ocean Beach. “We’re not opposed to renewable energy but what we don’t want is to build wind farms on places like Wilson Head which is so important culturally, socially, visually and environmentally.

If you keep building wind farms in those types of landscapes we’ll have wind farms and we’ll have renewable energy but we won’t have these landscapes left anymore.” Mr Mortimer believed there were suitable alternative sites on cleared farmland in the west of the Denmark Shire. Other opponents said the Denmark community could build a wind farm anywhere in WA.

But Mr Chappelle said Denmark should house its own turbines — with up to three needed to generate 2.4MW — and Wilson Head was the only viable site. It was 30 per cent windier than the next best local location, close to power infrastructure and had the necessary clearance from vegetation and buildings. It was also within an area already home to a surf club,angling club, roads, power lines and a lime quarry.

Mr Chappelle said DCW would welcome any moves by Senator Campbell, whose department had already provided $250,000, to fund another site selection process and subsidise a less efficient location. He said the project had proved more complex and generated more vitriol than he thought possible. “It started as an idea to help the community, planet and environment and it’s ended up a political football,”he said. “But we’re not giving up. We believe in this community, this project, sustainable economies and doing something for the planet, and we believe Denmark is the right place to do it.”