Company re-applies for wind farm

ABC Ballarat | Local News | Story
Wednesday, 12 July 2006

Company re-applies for wind farm Pacific Hydro will re-lodge an application for a wind farm at Yaloak, near Ballan, east of Ballarat. The Victorian Government rejected the company's first bid a year ago, because of concerns about a population of wedge-tailed eagles. Pacific Hydro spokesman Andrew Richards says the plans for 70 turbines will be lodged in October or November. He says slight alterations to the position of some turbines, and favourable bird studies, have given the company confidence to re-apply.

In particular, he says they were focussing on the wedge-tailed eagle, which was the key issue at the time. "While we believed that there wasn't a significant impact, we have looked at what the Minister has required us to do - we've relocated a number of turbines away from wedge-tailed eagle high usage zones," Mr Richards said. "And with that re-defined windfarm we are doing additional modelling in relation to the wedge-tailed eagle."