March 18, 2022
Australia

Ryan Corner wind farm permit approved, construction north of Port Fairy beginning soon

Ben Silvester | The Standard | March 18 2022 | www.standard.net.au

Victoria’s Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning has granted an amended planning permit for the Ryan Corner wind farm north-west of Port Fairy, giving the project the green light to proceed.

Global Power Generation (GPG), the company building the wind farm, applied to amend its planning permit in September 2021, removing four of the planned turbines to leave a total of 52.

A spokeswoman for GPG said construction plans for the project were receiving final sign-off and “preparatory works are commencing in the following weeks”.

Construction of the wind farm will begin before the middle of the year and is due to be finished in the second half of 2023.

The spokeswoman said construction would take “approximately 17 months” and “extensive testing” would then be done before the wind farm went into operation.

The company signed a deal in September 2020, with Snowy Hydro agreeing to buy 70 per cent of the power produced by the wind farm once it was operational.

The permit for Ryan Corner had previously been amended in 2017, when a number of turbines were removed, but their maximum heights were increased to 180m.

Prior to that, the proposed wind farm had 67 turbines, but the project had lain dormant for nearly a decade after the initial permit was granted in 2008.

The most recent amendment to the permit went before Moyne Shire Council before going to the Minister for Planning.

Council voted against the proposed amendment, mainly because GPG was asking to clear a further 4.6 acres of native vegetation from the site, but since only the minister has decision-making authority the council’s objection had no power behind it.

Under the permit GPG is allowed to clear nearly four hectares of vegetation, but the company has to offset this by planting native vegetation elsewhere in Moyne Shire.

URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2022/03/18/ryan-corner-wind-farm-permit-approved-construction-north-of-port-fairy-beginning-soon/