Interest in Lake Macquarie wind farms

www.theherald.com.au
28 Mar 2012

Lake Macquarie City Council has called for the state government to introduce wind farm guidelines that were not ''unnecessarily restrictive''. Mayor Greg Piper said interest had been expressed about power-generating wind farms in Lake Macquarie. ''Information has been provided that the area's climate is suitable [for wind farms],'' Cr Piper said. ''There may be a proposal in future that could be given consideration.''

Cr Piper said wind farm plans would need to overcome hurdles about their effect on residents, visual amenity and environmentally sensitive land. He said where wind farms were possible, they should not face ''undue restrictions''. Cr Piper said it would be ''very difficult for any proposal to be approved under draft state government guidelines for wind farms''. Cr Paul Scarfe expressed concern about wind farms in Lake Macquarie. ''Most of us support ecofriendly electricity generation as a matter of principle, but wind farms can be terribly ugly things,'' he said. ''I don't think too many people around the lake would want to see mass farms here.''

Cr Hannah Gissane said ''one man's trash is another man's treasure''. ''I for one would rather see wind farms than subsidence, ash dams and coal-fired power stations,'' she said. Cr Gissane said the government's draft guidelines would ''impose incredibly onerous measures that are likely to seriously inhibit investment in clean technology in NSW''. Cr Phillipa Parsons said the guidelines were the ''greatest hypocrisy''. ''It's open slather for coal seam gas and coal operators,'' Cr Parsons said. ''They're putting the brakes on wind farms, yet it's 'come one, come all' for coal.''

Cr Jodie Harrison said the draft guidelines included a ridiculous measure that would require wind farm proponents to gain written consent for every resident within 2km of proposed wind turbines. The Clean Energy Council, an industry group, said Australia had 1188 wind turbines and 57 operating wind farms. Wind power in Australia had increased by an average of 35% a year in the past five years.