March 15, 2013
Australia

Farmers ramp up Yorke Peninsula wind farm opposition

ABC News | 15 March 2013 | www.abc.net.au

The battle against a wind farm on Yorke Peninsula has been taken to Adelaide’s Parliament House, with opponents saying there is growing recognition of the wind farm’s threat to local agriculture.

The Heartland Farmers Association yesterday established a stall on Parliament’s steps, handing out local produce.

Members are concerned about REpower’s $1.3 billion Ceres development, to be built over 18,000 hectares.

The association’s Naomi Bickner says the threat to Yorke Peninsula’s agricultural industry is becoming more evident.

“There’s certainly more and more concern as more information comes to light with firefighting implications as well,” she said.

“People are really saying, ‘hey – yes we might support wind turbine development but they need to be located more appropriately’.”

In January, project manager Peter Sgardelis said landholders stood to earn tens of thousands of dollars a year to let the turbines be built on their properties and more consultation with locals would be conducted in coming months.

He said the nearest turbine to a house would be 1.3 kilometres away, further than guidelines require.


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2013/03/15/farmers-ramp-up-yorke-peninsula-wind-farm-opposition/