New England Wind organised a coach tour to Canberra from 7th to 10th November 2013. Twenty-one passengers travelled from New England, with a further seven joining the tour in Canberra. These passengers made up a diverse and enthusiastic group, comprising landholders from across New England, council staff and councillors, state government officers, mature-aged students, sponsors of the tour, members of sustainability groups and members of the New England Wind Consortium.
The tour included two windfarms, a solar farm and a bioenergy plant, as well as presentations from, and discussions with, farmers who are living with turbines on their properties.
Infigen provided an in-depth tour of Woodlawn Windfarm and Capital Solar Farm (both near Bungendore), allowing access around and inside wind turbines and among their experimental solar farm.
Tour members were able to experience visual and noise effects of wind turbines from various distances away, as well as from right underneath turbines on what happened to be a day of high wind in the Canberra region. They also learned how turbines are turned on and off, how they automatically reset themselves when necessary, how maintenance is done, what is present at the substation on site and a myriad of other details of windfarm operations.
One of the more surprising parts was when Harry Osborne of “Currandooley” ~ which hosts turbines for the Capital Windfarm ~ talked about how eagle populations have actually increased around the turbines. He observed that eagles love hunting with the shadow flicker of turbines and that rabbits fall easy prey as they become mesmerised by the turbine blades turning. Harry also spoke at length about how their farming and grazing operations have continued as normal since turbines were installed, with animals grazing happily underneath turbines.
Overall, the windfarms tour was deemed successful with passengers providing very positive feedback regarding the usefulness of the tour and the significant learning which resulted.
NEW would like to again thank our Sponsors ~ NSW Office of Environment Heritage, The Earth Welfare Foundation, AGL Energy Limited and New England Mutual ~ who made the tour possible as well as the many people who assisted from the Canberra end to ensure a very worthwhile visit to renewable energy operations in that region.
Re-post from New England Wind’s Windfarms Tour to Canberra
New England Wind photo album
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