Community Wind Farm for New England?
As part of the New England Community Wind Farm Feasibility Study, a public forum will be held in the Armidale Town Hall on Tuesday 1st March at 7pm.
The meeting will be hosted by Sustainable Living Armidale (SLA) as part of their popular program of monthly forums, and with support from Armidale Dumaresq Council.
In New England there has been a significant take-up of micro-generation (rooftop solar power, small wind turbines, solar hot water, solar heating, & solar farms). People’s interest in wind energy is growing rapidly. In South Australia the electricity grid receives nearly 20% of its energy from wind turbines, achieved in just seven years from scratch.
New England is one of the regions where the potential for wind generation is high, as shown by the number of applications for large-scale commercial wind farms, and supported by findings from government surveys.
“We want to gauge local support for a proposed community-owned wind farm,” said Adam Blakester from Starfish Enterprises, lead partner in the wind farm consortium, “which if it goes ahead would be the first in NSW and only the third community-owned wind farm in Australia.
“There will be a short presentation, but the main part of the meeting is to hear from the public about their level of interest in participating as cooperative members, investors, or as landholders.
“In addition to public forums such as this across the region, we are conducting an on-line community survey and we urge everyone to complete it. We’re also consulting with a range of legal, financial & community energy specialists, and looking at other community owned renewable energy facilities in Australia, such as HepburnWind, and internationally,” he said.
SLA Convenor, Joc Coventry said, “We’re very happy to be partners in this study, along with other groups such as The Community Mutual Group, UNE and Farming the Sun, because we see the urgency of moving to renewables, and would like to see community involvement so that the benefits will stay local.”
A second community wind farm forum will be held at the Uralla Community Centre on Tuesday March 8th at 10am, hosted by Uralla Shire Council.
The SLA Tuesday Forum: “A New England Community Wind Farm” will be held on Tuesday 1st March at 7pm at Armidale Town Hall. All welcome – light refreshments available after the forum.
