Updated: Wind industry in shock over draft NSW planning guidelines, which could kill new projects – even in renewable energy zones. Talks are being sought with the state Labor government.
Not exactly as black and white as the headline puts it to be. I think it’s a well meaning guideline (requiring a certain distance between neighbouring buildings and windmills) but as they’re saying in the article it certainly opens up an avenue for abuse. However, these are infact just guidelines (I think, idk I live in the objectively superior state of QLD) so there is still an opening for discretion. But they will probably need to modify it to have certain accommodations to keep industry happy
They have a draft map of suitable locations for wind turbines and then filled the map with shades of green. Where green, for some reason, is a location where your application is likely to be denied.
They are supposedly using red for sites that are “desirable” for wind turbines… supposedly because that’s just according to the key on the map. There is literally no red on the map that I can see.
Keep in mind most of NSW doesn’t even have any reliable wind at all - probably the grey area of the map. To me it sends a clear message NSW just isn’t planning to allow wind power at all. They are going to keep burning fossil fuel as long as they possibly can.
Yeah, honestly if it was 1km, and just to existing dwellings or council approved dwelling plans I think it’d be reasonable. It stops the wind turbine companies putting out on someone’s boundary right beside their house. There’d still be plenty of sites if that was the rule
Which one of those would you rather live near? And why do they get held to different standards?
A lot of our coal power plants are just a hundred metres from suburbs full of homes. We also have rules that allow The coal plant below was across the highway from an entire town (thankfully, shut down and did so ahead of schedule because it was too expensive to be financially viable).
The smoke coming out of the coal power plants is known to be toxic and kills an estimated 8 million people per year globally. Australia allows coal plants to emit those toxins at 10x higher levels than other countries and we regularly fine coal power stations for exceeding the limits placed on them.
The second one is well within 2km (NSW’s new limit) of some farm houses which protested their construction, supposedly because they’d get cancer. There wouldn’t be many places in Australia that have suitable winds without being within 2km of a house. Realistically the only real potential problem is a power plant might fall over and land on a cow. One of them caught fire once… but all of the fire was at the top of the tower and it didn’t reach the ground. They do make a bit of noise, but less than, say, cars driving down a road.
Yeah the headline is a bit inflammatory and the guidelines themselves are still just draft. But wind projects already aren’t being developed at a high enough rate and more barriers will not help.
Not exactly as black and white as the headline puts it to be. I think it’s a well meaning guideline (requiring a certain distance between neighbouring buildings and windmills) but as they’re saying in the article it certainly opens up an avenue for abuse. However, these are infact just guidelines (I think, idk I live in the objectively superior state of QLD) so there is still an opening for discretion. But they will probably need to modify it to have certain accommodations to keep industry happy
They have a draft map of suitable locations for wind turbines and then filled the map with shades of green. Where green, for some reason, is a location where your application is likely to be denied.
They are supposedly using red for sites that are “desirable” for wind turbines… supposedly because that’s just according to the key on the map. There is literally no red on the map that I can see.
Keep in mind most of NSW doesn’t even have any reliable wind at all - probably the grey area of the map. To me it sends a clear message NSW just isn’t planning to allow wind power at all. They are going to keep burning fossil fuel as long as they possibly can.
Yeah, honestly if it was 1km, and just to existing dwellings or council approved dwelling plans I think it’d be reasonable. It stops the wind turbine companies putting out on someone’s boundary right beside their house. There’d still be plenty of sites if that was the rule
Which one of those would you rather live near? And why do they get held to different standards?
A lot of our coal power plants are just a hundred metres from suburbs full of homes. We also have rules that allow The coal plant below was across the highway from an entire town (thankfully, shut down and did so ahead of schedule because it was too expensive to be financially viable).
The smoke coming out of the coal power plants is known to be toxic and kills an estimated 8 million people per year globally. Australia allows coal plants to emit those toxins at 10x higher levels than other countries and we regularly fine coal power stations for exceeding the limits placed on them.
The second one is well within 2km (NSW’s new limit) of some farm houses which protested their construction, supposedly because they’d get cancer. There wouldn’t be many places in Australia that have suitable winds without being within 2km of a house. Realistically the only real potential problem is a power plant might fall over and land on a cow. One of them caught fire once… but all of the fire was at the top of the tower and it didn’t reach the ground. They do make a bit of noise, but less than, say, cars driving down a road.
Yeah the headline is a bit inflammatory and the guidelines themselves are still just draft. But wind projects already aren’t being developed at a high enough rate and more barriers will not help.