Brolga and bat ruling a ‘death knell’ for Victorian wind farm 

Strict conditions set around a proposed $1 billion wind farm in Victoria to protect nesting brolga and a tiny, critically endangered bat have sounded a “death knell” for wind power in the state’s south-west and make renewables targets unachievable, according to the project developer.

The unprecedented rules imposed by Victorian Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny on the controversial 400-megawatt Willatook wind farm north of Port Fairy – which has been on the drawing board for more than a decade – have shocked the renewable energy sector, which is already struggling with cost inflation, social licence problems and slow approvals and connections for projects.

The conditions intended to protect the brolga – an iconic indigenous crane famed for its dancing rituals that is threatened in Victoria – and the 55mm-long, cave-dwelling southern bent-wing bat include wider buffer zones around wind turbines that effectively cut the number of turbines that could be installed at the site by almost two-thirds.

In addition, they impose a five-month ban on construction work at the site every year, which Ben Purcell, managing director in Australia of project developer Wind Prospect, said “just can’t happen” given the required deployment of 300-400 people and major crane equipment at the site that cannot be just set aside.

“This is not just a Willatook wind farm issue; if you apply these buffers to other projects it is hugely problematic,” he told The Australian Financial Review.

“This is a much bigger policy issue – does the government actually want to meet their targets? Do they actually want to mitigate climate change?”

But the tougher requirements to protect brolga are supported by some local farmers and bird conservationists in the region, who dispute Wind Prospect’s assertion in its environment effects statement for Willatook that only one pair of brolga has been regularly nesting within a wetland area in the central north part of the site area between 2010 and 2021, saying there are five or six, at least.

“We want to see the brolga protected,” said Paul Lewis, a beef and lamb farmer in Hawkesdale who has joined other landholders in the area to oppose the project and is concerned about the major expansion of wind power in the region.

“There’s a massive build-up in our area, they are just trying to put them everywhere, all on top of everybody down here,” he said, pointing to the drawcard for developers of the 500 kilovolt transmission line that crosses the region. “There are a lot of people not too happy about it.”

Moyne Shire Council, which includes the wind farm site, has called for the Victorian government to cease issuing any wind farm planning permits in the Shire until strategic land use planning in the state’s designated South West Renewable Energy Zone is completed in consultation with affected councils and communities.

A spokesman for the Victorian government rejected the suggestion that the ruling imperils targets for emissions reduction and renewables if the conditions were applied to other projects.

“The minister for planning’s assessment of the environmental effects of the Willatook wind farm project is to be published shortly, which will help inform decision makers on approvals for the project,” the spokesman said.

“Victoria is on track to deliver 95 per cent renewable energy generation by 2035. We currently have 73 large-scale onshore wind and solar projects commissioned or in commissioning – this will deliver a combined capacity of 5.5 gigawatts.”

Still, one renewables industry source described the issue as “very concerning”, particularly as the conditions appeared to come out of the blue after a lengthy environmental impact approvals process that has been going on for about two years.

“If these are the types of restrictive conditions we are going to see on wind farms then there is no way we will meet the government’s targets for renewable energy or greenhouse gas emissions,” said Nic Aberle, policy director at the Clean Energy Council, which represents the renewable energy industry.

“This is a project that has had essentially two-thirds of the turbines cut out, and the consequence of that is we just keep burning more coal for longer.”

The conditions on Willatook, handed down to Wind Prospect last week and expected to be made public imminently, represent the latest hurdle thrown in the way of the expansion of renewable power generation capacity in Australia needed to help replace closing coal power stations as well as meet federal and state renewables and emissions reduction targets.

‘Cause for significant worry’

On some estimates the pace of the buildout is only half of what is needed to meet the Albanese government’s 82 per cent renewable energy target in 2030, dogged by issues including delays in planning approvals and grid connections, a lack of community acceptance for new transmission lines, supply chain logjams and rising costs.

Only one clean energy project reached financial close in Australia in the March quarter of 2023, according to the Clean Energy Council – a battery in Melbourne – at a time when additions of clean energy to the grid need to be accelerating.

Danny Nielsen, vice president and Australian head of Vestas, one of the world’s biggest providers of wind turbines, described the slow progress towards achieving the 2030 renewables target as “a cause for significant worry” and said the issue of development approvals stretched beyond Victoria, with no approvals in NSW for about two years.

“All wind projects in Australia are struggling with environmental conditions in some shape or form. That could be bats, that could be footprint, you name it,” Mr Nielsen told the Financial Review.

Vestas is not involved in the Willatook project but has two projects under construction and expects to secure a number of wind farms by the December quarter. It keeps a close eye on projects edging towards a final investment decision.

“If you look at New South Wales … we’re looking at the amount of projects that come through that actually have a development approval and it’s quite a number of years ago since the last project reached development approval. That shows that the speed for us to get new projects to market is not quite there,” he said.

Mr Nielsen said the hold-up in planning and approvals meant the task for reaching 2030 targets was just getting harder and harder, particularly given the supply chain problems impacting across energy and infrastructure.

“We are creating a tremendous backlog that puts even more strain on what you can call the supply chain,” he said, calling for immediate action to accelerate the deployment of renewable energy projects, streamline regulatory processes, and provide favourable policy frameworks that encourage investments.

“We should not forget that we are also in a renewables arms race with the race of the world, so we are competing for capacity to decarbonise.”

The Willatook site, 22km north of Port Fairy, lies within a zone designated by the Victorian state government as suitable for renewable energy, with easy access to an existing 500kV transmission line.

The 25-year project would involve up to 59 turbines, the top of which would be 250 metres above the ground, up to three 170m-high wind monitoring masts, a substation, battery storage, maintenance buildings, underground cables and above-ground transmission lines.

The conditions set by Victorian Planning Minister Ms Kilkenny require larger buffer zones around each turbine, which would reduce the number of turbines on the site from 59 to 18.

Wind Prospect said the proposed brolga nesting buffer zone was already roughly four times the size of Melbourne’s CBD.

However, the assessment handed down calls for a wind turbine-free area more than 3½ times larger, and includes areas that brolga would not breed such as small farm dams or areas that only hold water for a short period. Buffers for bats, which provide minimum distances between turbines and bat habitats, are also required and also affect the viability of the project.

“The recommended bat buffers do have a massive impact on the viability of the project as well: it is mainly the brolga buffers, but the bat buffers absolutely have a major impact,” Mr Purcell said.

In addition, construction is to be banned under the environmental conditions between July and November each year to prevent disturbing nesting brolga, which the company says is simply not feasible for a project with a two-year build timeline. The moratorium on construction also fails to recognise the buffers that have already been provided for, it says.

“This assessment represents both a process and a policy failure, which sounds a death knell for wind power in south-western Victoria and will render Victoria’s renewable energy target unachievable,” a spokesman for Wind Prospect said.

Victoria is aiming for 65 per cent renewables use by 2030 and 95 per cent by 2035 under updated targets announced last October.

“Anyone who has an interest in renewable energy in Victoria should take notice of this unprecedented and flawed assessment, which essentially applies a hard brake on our energy transition,” the Wind Prospect spokesman said.

But Hamish Cumming, a farmer and bird conservationist who gave evidence at the panel hearing on the Willatook project, said tough conditions on the project were fully justified given the latest scientific evidence that showed that brolga required a 5km non-disturbance zone from their nests, greater than the 3.2km included in an interim guideline on brolga management for wind farm ventures.

“Willatook cannot happen,” Mr Cumming said, noting that the proposed project does not even comply with the 3.2km buffer advice. “There are only 200 breeding pairs left of southern brolga, and Willatook was going to have an enormous impact.

“The only reason they want to put the turbines in this area is because of the 500 kilovolt power line that is coming through. If that line was not there, the wind farms would not be interested in this area because it is too environmentally sensitive.”

Still, the Wind Prospect spokesman called for the state government to revise its decision, suggesting the conditions rendered the project unviable and had major implications for similar projects in the state.

“We urge the government to reconsider this decision, and will pursue all available avenues for appeal, with the goal of developing this important project responsibly and with established best-practice,” he said.

Wind Prospect, a UK-based wind power developer that set up in Australia in 2000, has had the Willatook project on the drawing board since 2010, originally as a 190-turbine project. The Victorian government decided in December 2018 that a full environmental effects statement was required due to potential threats to biodiversity that is protected under state and Commonwealth legislation.

The assessment from Victoria’s minister for planning, which is informed by a report of an independent panel that thoroughly examined the project and public submissions, will be considered by the environmental or planning authority that will make a recommendation to the minister for a final decision.