August 21, 2013
Australia

Council stalls Gullen Range wind farm project

Lucy Barbour | ABC Rural | 21 August 2013 | www.abc.net.au

A Chinese company building a wind farm near Goulburn, on the New South Wales southern tablelands, has been refused permission by the local council to run a cable underneath a rural road.

Goldwind is constructing 73 wind turbines across two sites at its Gullen Range wind farm.

It needs permission from the Upper Lachlan Shire Council to run the cable under Prices Lane to connect the sites.

Mayor John Shaw says council refused the proposal because the company forgot, until now, to ask.

“Look, the message is, keep your hands off our roads,” he said.

“Don’t believe that you can build a wind farm and not worry about where you’re going to put your cabling because it’s all right, we’ll use council roads.”

“That’s not what’s going to happen. They just can’t come in and do everything they want without some sort of hiccup along the way. And if this is a hiccup, then so be it.”

The council concedes that underground cabling was approved in Goldwind’s environmental assessment.

Mayor Shaw admits the council’s decision may be overridden by the New South Wales Government.

“We read the EA’s obviously, but things do slip through and you miss them, and maybe we should have been a bit more on the ball,” he said.

“They’ll go to the Department of Planning and we’ll see where it goes from here.”

Goldwind says it’s currently working with the council to reach agreement on the installation of the connection cabling.

The Gullen Range wind farm is expected to be completed by early next year and will generate 165.5 mega watts of renewable energy to the New South Wales electricity network.

The ABC has requested an interview with Goldwind but the company was unavailable.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2013/08/21/council-stalls-gullen-range-wind-farm-project/