October 18, 2012
Australia

Mortlake farmer’s wind worries

LOUISE PREECE | Stock & Land | 19 October 2012 | sl.farmonline.com.au

Mortlake Hereford breeder Peter Allen and his wife Lisa concerned over the possible effects of a proposed wind farm in their local region, where Acciona Energy plans to erect 51 turbines.

Recently, he and four other neighbours paid $3000 each to put an independent noise monitor on their properties over a period of a fortnight, hoping to compare the research to Acciona’s own data loggers.

It was in the pre-construction phase, where background noise was examined.

“But after two weeks Acciona rang me to say their equipment had not been working, which made our data null and void,” he said.

“That’s money down the drain.”

Mr Allen said if the company was “fair dinkum” it would offer to pay for another independent test.

“I don’t believe the fox should be in charge of the chickens,” he said.

He said independent research such as this was vital and should not be left up to the wind companies to carry out.

In response, Acciona’s Brett Wickham reported the company’s meteorological mast had actually broken down in that specified period, but they had informed the landowners straight away.

“We have offered to pay for another independent noise monitor and are more than happy to do that,” he said.

“I wasn’t happy the met mast had broken, but it does happen from time to time.”

He added Acciona adhered to strict compliance rules regarding noise monitoring, and that they employed the services of independent companies to conduct the tests.

“These companies need to uphold their reputations too,” he said.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2012/10/18/mortlake-farmers-wind-worries/