Wind farm a winner, but not under new rules

Age
30 August 2011, Page: 2

TWO months ago Australia's first community-owned wind farm was honoured by Premier Ted Baillieu. The Hepburn Community Wind Park won the community category in the annual Premier's Sustainability Award. The award was not without some irony. According to the project's chairman, Simon Holmes a Court, the two turbine plant about 10 kilometres from Daylesford would not have been built under the Premier's new wind farm regulations.

While heavily backed by the locals, with most of its nearly 2000 investors based in the region, the farm was opposed by a handful of residents living within two kilometres. "There is no way we would have got our project up under this policy", he said. Operating at Leonard's Hill since June, the Hepburn farm is expected to generate 12,200 MWs of power a year more than enough for the town's 2000 homes.

Mr Holmes a Court, who doubles as chairman of Embark Australia, a body that helps other communities develop renewable energy projects, said the policy would kill off small proposed wind farms at Woodend and Castlemaine. He said it also meant Victorians were unlikely to end up with its share of the national 20% renewable energy target by the end of the decade. "Victoria will miss out on the coming renewables boom", he says, while funding other states will go ahead.