Farmers to receive windfall

Bendigo Advertiser
Friday 13/4/2007 Page: 8

A $250 million wind farm planned for rural Victoria will help drought-proof struggling farms, the company behind the project says. The Victorian Government yesterday signed off West- Wind Energy's plan to build a 160-megawatt wind farm at Mt Mercer, 30 km south of Ballarat.

WestWind Energy plans to build 64 turbines on 2600 hectares of land, which crosses several farm properties. The firm's planning and business development manager, Tobias Geiger, said the project would help droughtproof farms for another two to three generations because of the extra income it would bring the farmers.

Each of the seven landowners will be paid up to $7000 per turbine built on their properties. "Obviously, for the landholders it's a great relief now that it has been approved because it will help them really drought-proof their activities," Mr Geiger said.

Farmer Ian Wylie, who will have 18 turbines built on his property, said the income would help him survive the drought. "It will just mean now being able to get through the drought without having to sell breeding stock, we will be able to buy more feed and keep things going along until the drought breaks," he said. "When the drought does break we'll be able to put in infrastructure so if it does happen again we won't be in strife."