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Wind Power News: Oceania
These news and opinion items are gathered by National Wind Watch in its noncommercial educational effort to help keep readers informed about developments related to industrial wind energy. They do not necessarily reflect the opinions of National Wind Watch. They are the products of and owned by the organizations or individuals noted and are shared here according to “fair use” and “fair dealing” provisions of copyright law.
Some Australians still need convincing the country’s future lies in renewable energy
Last year, the Energy Minister asked the Energy Infrastructure Commissioner to investigate regional pockets of stubborn resistance and recommend ways of getting the doubters onside. Andrew Dyer’s Community Engagement Review Report makes the bold assumption that Chris Bowen’s renewable energy plan can be put back on track, that his target of installing a 7MW wind turbine every 18 hours and 22,000 solar panels a day until 2030 is not as fanciful as it sounds. Opposition in the regions can be . . . Complete story »
Wind turbine destroyed by fire at Pacific Blue’s Clements Gap Wind Farm near Redhill
Fire has destroyed a wind turbine in South Australia’s Mid North, with the cost of the damage estimated at $2.2 million. Country Fire Service crews were notified at about 8:50am of smoke coming from the top of a wind turbine at the Clements Gap Wind Farm between Redhill and Mundoora, south of Clements Gap Road. CFS Region 4 duty officer Andrew Stuart said crews arrived at the scene within 15 minutes. “On arrival, crews found a grass fire underneath the . . . Complete story »
Proposed projects Central West NSW are dividing farming communities
Grant Piper is on the frontline of the renewable resistance, a growing grassroots movement against plans to “industrialise” traditional farmland, turning regional communities into “modern-day power stations”. But in this turf war, there’s a power imbalance. The New South Wales government is building a new network of high-voltage transmission lines across the state to open up new renewable energy development, and it has the power to take the land it needs. One line is set to slice through a corner . . . Complete story »
Wind turbine fire at Redhill
A fire has destroyed a turbine and caused multiple spot fires at a wind turbine farm in Redhill, located in the state’s Mid North. 5 CFS crews are currently working to create an exclusion zone around the collapsing wind turbine. The firefighters are staying on top of spot fires created by falling debris where possible while remaining clear from the turbine collapse zone. Firefighters are expected to remain on scene for some time while the head of the turbine continues . . . Complete story »
Turbines at newly installed Victoria wind farm pulled down to fix faulty parts
Spanish energy giant Acciona is pulling down turbines at its brand new Mortlake South wind farm in Victoria to fix faulty parts, just months after the project was commissioned. The faulty parts are bearings in the nacelle, an Acciona spokesperson told RenewEconomy. He said that not all of the 35 Nordex turbines will need to be dismantled. The wind energy giant, which is also building Australia’s first gigawatt-scale wind project at MacIntyre in Queensland, told residents in December that some . . . Complete story »
City NIMBYs v regions in a fight over renewables
Farmers and others from regional communities will rally in Sydney’s Martin Place next week to campaign against renewable energy projects that will blight landscapes, alienate farmland, damage bushland and disrupt livelihoods. Public protests do not come naturally to people of the land; we can be relatively confident they will not glue themselves to the road, chain themselves to critical infrastructure or block the traffic, and I doubt children will be given the day off school to join them. But governments . . . Complete story »
Battling offshore wind for NSW coast
Down in Austinmer, that pretty northern Illawarra village south of Sydney, with its crescent beach and tidal pools, Dr Saul Griffith can hear each day half a dozen coal trains thundering down the railway line near his home as he despairs about the nation’s energy future. About 50km south down the M1 and off Grand Pacific Drive, Jay McIlquham, president of the Shellharbour Game Fishing Club, is fuming that his rights to fish offshore could soon be threatened in the . . . Complete story »
New bid to scuttle Robbins Island wind farm looks headed for Supreme Court
A new bid to scuttle the controversial Robbins Island wind farm proposal is headed for the Supreme Court. The appeal from long-time project opponent the Circular Head Coastal Awareness Network is against the Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal’s recent decision to approve the wind farm. TasCAT overrode a state Environment Protection Authority condition that would have forced proponent ACEN to shut down the turbines for five months a year to protect endangered orange-bellied parrots. ACEN said that would make the . . . Complete story »
Tanya Plibersek blocks Victorian government’s plan to build wind turbine plant at Port of Hastings
Environment minister says ‘large areas of [wetland] will be destroyed or substantially modified’ by the proposal for windfarm development. Tanya Plibersek has blocked plans by the Victorian government to build a plant to assemble wind turbines for offshore windfarms because of “clearly unacceptable” impacts on internationally important wetlands. Plans to build the terminal at the Port of Hastings – seen as critical for the state’s strategy to develop an offshore wind industry – included dredging up to 92 hectares (227 . . . Complete story »
Plibersek ruling on Victoria’s offshore wind strategy an ill-wind for ALP energy policy
Labor’s renewable energy target has been thrown into jeopardy after Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek vetoed its lynchpin, Victoria’s offshore wind strategy, over a “clearly unacceptable” risk to local wetlands. Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan’s green energy plan centres on a terminal at the Port of Hastings, where wind turbines will be assembled together and sent to an array of offshore energy farms. Initial estimates by the state-owned Port of Hastings corporation in October priced the project at $0.8-$1.4bn. But Ms Plibersek . . . Complete story »
