Antinuclear

Woodend Integrated Sustainable Energy sets the pace for Victorian community wind energy

Insight: How communities can take lead in green energy REneweconomy, By Giles Parkinson   30 November 2012 This is the second in a series looking more deeply into issues which affect the development of the clean energy industry in Australia. The first was on the 2kms set-back rule imposed by the Victorian government and at least partially adopted in NSW.

For the past 12 months, a digital display located behind the counter of the newsagent in High Street in the Victorian town of Woodend has logged what Barry Mann describes as a major lost opportunity. Real time data from a wind mast located in an old timber mill a few kilometres out of town documents the amount of electricity that would have been produced if a proposal to install three wind turbines in a harvested pine forest 6kms from town had been allowed to go ahead.

Before the mast was taken down earlier this month: the data stood at this: 12.6 gigawatt hours of electricity generated over 12 months and four days (12.630 million kilowatt hours) – about enough electricity to satisfy the needs of 2,037 homes and generate $1.5 million in revenue from selling the electrons to the grid. (You can find the data on their website)

Mann is a director of WISE (Woodend Integrated Sustainable Energy)  – a local not-for-profit group that says its goal is to ”assist communities to take responsibility for their energy and carbon future.” It is one of dozens of similar groups in Australia that are hoping to implement their own local plans, but don’t have so many electrons to show for it yet.

For the moment, Woodend’s own plans have been frustrated by the election of the Baillieu Conservative government, and the introduction of a 2km setback ruling and the declaration of a “no-go” zone through large slabs of the Mt Macedon ranges – two initiatives that local member Donna Petrovich is proud to take responsibility for. (See addendum below)

“I was gobsmacked by the decision,” Mann says. “The no-go zone is such
at odds with what community thinks about community power. But good
policy stands the test of time and this isn’t good policy. But it’s
(the wind project’s) time will come.”…..

Woodend is one of a number of new community wind energy projects that are being pursued in Victoria. The digital display has been taken down now, and it and the laptop and the mast have been handed over to another community wind energy group in Castlemaine, known as the Mt Alexander Wind Group, or MACWind.

This group hopes to install between one and six turbines, and while
their options have been narrowed by Petrovich’s “no-go” zone and the
2km set-back rule – background to which can be found in the first of
our in-depth series – their options have not been eliminated. There
are still several potential sites, and no shortage of land owners
volunteering their land.

Indeed, some 60 land-owners have put their hand up to host the turbines, leading to a new term of TWIMBY (Turbines Wanted in My Backyard) to be coined, mostly to counter the NIMBY politics that have characterized the Baillieu government’s – and that of most other Conservative state governments – approach to renewable energy. Project
co-ordinator Jarra Hicks, the principal of Community Power Agency, says the group is looking to finesse the land ownership model, and extend some of the benefits of hosting to those in the immediate vicinity…..

Addendum: Petrovich, the Liberal member of the Victorian Legislative
Council since 2006, representing Northern Victoria Region, has riled
local green groups and many community members with her role in the
Baillieu government’s restrictive wind farm rules

The principal issue is Petrovich’s assertion that the policy she
claims to own was based on community consultation. Mann would like to
know which community, and how did that place in the six week period
between the policy announcements and the final sign-off. He says WISE
and MACWind have both demonstrated strong community support for
smaller scale community owned wind projects, yet the nearby Hepburn
Wind project, which won Premier Baillieu’s Sustainability Award, would
likely be banned under the new rules. RenewEconomy invited Petrovich
to comment on these, but so far has not received a response. We will
update you when we do….. http://reneweconomy.com.au/2012/insight-how-communities-can-take-lead-in-green-energy-65335

December 1, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Victoria, wind