Windfarm plans gain momentum

Albany Advertiser
Tuesday 31/10/2006, Page: 2

PLANS to establish a small windfarm in Mt Barker are building up speed. The $5 million project will include three turbines, two-thirds the size of Albany's.

Situated 3.3km north of Mt Barker on a private sheep farm, the site is the closest point to the Mt Barker sub-station. At 250 metres above sea level, SkyFarming director Andrew Woodroffe said Mt Barker contained all the ingredients a windfarm needed to succeed. SkyFarming submitted an amendment to the Town Planning Scheme for the Shire of Plantagenet to consider late last week.

"This is the first step in the planning process which will take about one-and-a-half years," he said. "The next step will be to start the connection and access to the grid process." After monitoring wind in the area for the past year, Mr Woodroffe said the results were encouraging. "We've had two stalls at the Mt Barker Coop to date, with very positive responses from the local community," he said.

Shire of Plantagenet Development Services manager Peter Duncan said the matter would be discussed at the next Council meeting on November 14.

"The Council will then determine whether it can proceed or not, before it's then passed onto the Environmental Protection Authority," he said. "If the EPA is happy with it, the proposal will be publicly advertised for 42 days." Given the extent of the approval phase, Mr Woodroffe estimated the wind farm would be completed by the end of 2008.

Expected to generate about 7500mw of electricity each year, the wind farm is expected to offset about 7500 tonnes of carbon dioxide which would otherwise be pumped into the atmosphere from the burning of coal. "A recent change to legislation now allows funding of 50 per cent of the capital to grid connected projects 2mw in size," Mr Woodroffe said.