Wide support for regional wind

il}M
y

M UN]TY, STAKEHOTDER SU RIIEY

wind farm," he said.

Nearly l20landholders

access," he said.

Barry Blail

Hepburn Wind.

As specified in the

at

wanted to host turbines

for the communitywind farm. MrBlakestersaidthese sites were being assessed
against desigl principles and requirements identifledin the study. 'At this stage we believe

, PRELIMINARY study

fio a communitywind rm intheNewEngland rea has attracted lots of

upport - including from

Leonards Hill, just south of Daylesford, Victoria.

findings, a community decision-making process will be used to

choose the actual site. The current focus is to assess different sites and

New England Wind

generators will produce

as much electricity

as

onsewation-conscious

used byhalf of all homes

gather key facts and fig-

&oolchildren.

chool students were

nthusiastic in their suport and designed a dislav for the Sustainable fting Expo (SLEX) in
rrmidale at the weekend.

Kentucky

Public

intheregion. Capital of $30 million

ures

in the decision-

makingprocess.
RIGHT - APPEAL: KentucKy Public School

will be required, averaging about $4000 per

dwelling covered.

more than one dozen sites will aatisfy high

communitystandards
a successful as

Mr Blakester said New England had good wind

resources. "Wind energycosts are six times less to generate

well as those required for

wind power

School principal bnnl' Spillane said chilhen n-ere asked to come

operation, such as good wind and electricity grid

students outline sustainable energy research findings to schoolmates.

compared
B2

with

solar

plrinh anideaforamasmforSLDC '\-ears 3-6 undertook esearch on sustainable ivingandwayswe could mkat altemative forms
fenergv," he said.

energy," he said.

back on preliminary
studyfindings. "i{nswers to the ques-

MrBlakestersaidsome people respondedto a Quick Poll seeking feed-

'It

ltas then decided

hel-t'ould make model

tion, 'How comfortable Eue you with the proposed size of the wind farm?' actually challenged us to consider an even bigger wind farm," hesaid. "The proposed size is

papier mach6)- wind

mbines."

The lvind farm study

uthor

sa-vs a

pre-feasi-

dliq' survey has conirmedrlide support for a ommunit_vwindfarm. Adam Blakester said

probablyaboutright. "Size is subject to a

range of other variables,

indings reflected supnrt of 1300 community

nembers and key stakenlden rrtro participated

such as electricity grid capability to take wind-

generated

powe!

so

n the sun-er-, planning

there's work ahead of us

pmsandmeetings. 'The studv identifies

before exact numbers

willbeknovrn.

q designprinciplesand q:-,:rements for the rr i

"Comments

made

stressed the importance

nnnunity wind farm, o ensure goals and

equirements identified
Iakestersaid.

of strong, majority local ornmership and decision-

making with clear antitakeover provisions."

stakeholders will incorporated," Mr

recom-

Mr Blakester said the other strong theme was

the importance of profes-

The study

sional people to lead and

nends establishment of

runthewindfarm.
He thanked everyone who took time to provide input for the Quick Poll. "Theirviews havebeen

r l6\fW wind farm, of

tght 2MW turbines or

quil'alent.
The wind farm would hen become Australia's irst large-scale commu-

lf you do one thing this Vear, switch to AGL and you could

rin' rvind farm, four imes the generating rorrer of pioneering

I

added to the wealth of understanding we are

buiJding about the com-

munity's desires and requirements for 'the

sAltE $300