October 19, 2022
The Tarong West wind farm will be 16 per cent smaller than originally planned, guests at three community information sessions learned this week.
But the size reduction means there should be less visual impact on neighbouring properties, and no impact on the total power output due to improvements in turbine technology.
Renewable Energy Systems (RES) – the company planning the wind farm’s construction – announced these changes at community meetings held in Kumbia, Ironpot and Chahpingah this week.
The company said the wind farm would be reduced from its initially proposed 151 turbines to 128.
This would make the project roughly equivalent in size to the nearby Coopers Gap Wind Farm.
The reduced number of turbines would also allow RES to change initially planned locations for some of them, allowing them to move the turbines further into the project’s boundaries and further away from adjoining properties.
The meetings were a follow-up to an initial round of community briefings held by RES in May.
At that time, the project was known as the Iron Leaf wind farm.
The wind farm will be built across several farming properties at Ironpot, not far from Coopers Gap.
In in late September Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced the State Government would invest $776 million from its $2 billion Queensland Renewable Energy and Hydrogen Jobs Fund into the project, and once built by RES it would be managed by Stanwell Corporation.
The May community meetings unearthed concerns about local employment, visual amenity, noise and traffic.
RES representatives told this week’s meetings that those matters had been taken into account as planning progressed.
The company also announced it was considering establishing a community benefit-sharing program similar to the Coopers Gap Wind Farm Community Fund.
The fund would receive a share of the wind farm’s revenue that can be used by communities surrounding the wind farm.
The company said they would like to encourage community engagement because local communities would be the best judges of where these monies could be spent.
Further community consultation meetings will be held next year once plans are further advanced.
Final approvals for construction of the wind farm are not expected until 2024 and, if approved, the project will become operational in 2026.
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