The South Australian state government has approved a $1.5 billion wind farm southwest of Ardrossan on Yorke Peninsula.
The Labor state government has thrown its support behind the 197-turbine plan, which it says will create 500 jobs and will be the biggest wind farm in the southern hemisphere.
ABC News reports the company involved has said it is working to allay community concerns over aerial fire-fighting access.
Chris Judd, managing director of Senvion Australia, the company behind the project, said he was confident that fire-fighting around the turbines will not be affected.
“The Country Fire Service don’t have any great issues with wind farms.
“If we’re talking about aerial means to address fires, water dumping and the like, they can continue to fly.
“They just need to recognise obviously that there is a physical structure there, and subject to flying conditions and visibility, they can work around that structure.”
The Heartland Farmers group said the wind farm would hurt agricultural land particularly given the area was more densely populated than other wind farm sites.
Its Chairperson Naomi Bittner said it ws not satisfied the project meets planning guidelines and was surprised it had been approved.
“It has impacts with shadow flicker on roads, it also didn’t meet planning principles regarding setbacks from homes along coastal communities.”
“There are concerns about fire fighting issues and practicalities like water supply.”
ABC News reports he said the group’s main concern was how it would impact prime agricultural land in the region.
“We reliably produce a quarter of the state’s grain harvest and the turbines will definitely have an impact on aerial agriculture which will in turn reduce our yields,”
“The 24 host families are far outweighed by the number of surrounding farmers that will be negatively impacted to a much greater financial amount.”
State Minister for Planning John Rau said the project had been approved subject to conditions that had been set after consultation with the community.
“It is estimated that the Ceres wind farm would be able to power the equivalent of 225,000 South Australian homes a year.
This would avoid the creation of up to 2.5 million tonnes of carbon pollution each year, or the equivalent of a 278,000 hectare tree plantation.
“It is envisaged that the development will also generate 500 direct jobs during construction, along with an expected 50 full time jobs over the 25 year operational life of the development,” Mr Rau added.
A number of the turbines will be built on the same land as Rex Minerals’ proposed copper and iron ore mine,
It’s CEO Mark Parry said he did not believe the turbines would impact its potential operations.
“Obviously there’s a fair amount of potential for synergy,” he said.
