January 18, 2012
New Zealand

Consent hearing set for wind farm plan

The Southland Times, www.stuff.co.nz 19 January 2012

A public consent hearing for the proposed Flat Hill wind farm near Bluff will be held at Invercargill’s Civic Theatre on February 20.

Canterbury company Energy3 proposes building an eight-turbine wind farm near Greenpoint.

Director Warren McNabb said the company had changed the placement of five of the turbines in its application due to one landowner pulling out of the arrangement. “He did not want the turbine to continue on his property,” Mr McNabb said.

The planned turbine would be moved to land owned by Graham Laidlaw, a supporter of the wind farm whose lands contain the other turbines.

There were also turbulence issues with two other turbine positions, which meant they also had to be moved, he said.

The other two turbine positions were moved because of the concerns of the Greenpoint community raised during the consent process, he said.

There continued to be some opposition to the wind farm.

“People quite often think the worst until it’s built,” he said.

“I know from projects in Marlborough some people that were objecting expected something a lot bigger, when it was built they were quite pleasantly surprised … we’ve attempted to have dialogue with everybody.”

URL to article: https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/01/18/consent-hearing-set-for-wind-farm-plan/

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