Furious backlash over massive wind farm that could tower over a tourist hotspot: ‘You’re going to see from everywhere’
Dozens of local farmers and residents around the popular tourist destination Barossa Valley are rallying against a plan to build a towering wind farm.
Renewable energy company RES Australia has applied for government approval to build the Twin Creek Wind Farm between the townships of Kapunda, Eudunda, and Truro, near the Barossa Valley.
The application, launched on March 5, proposes the construction of 42 wind turbines, with blades as tall as 220metres.
‘This is absolutely the wrong place for a wind farm,’ third-generation farmer Mary Morris told Daily Mail Australia.
She warned that the towering turbines would harm the environment and encroach on Barossa Valley’s preservation district, an area protected under character preservation laws designed to maintain the region’s natural beauty and heritage.
‘You will see [turbines] all over the Barossa Valley, and I think it will really wreck their tourism,’ Ms Morris said.
‘These clowns have put that proposal right outside the edge of the Barossa because the base of the turbine is not in that preservation district.’
‘They’re so enormous and they’re on tops of hills 400 metres high… which you’re going to see from everywhere,’ Ms Morris told Daily Mail.
Third-generation farmer Mary Morris (pictured) said Barossa Valley is the wrong place for a wind farm
Renewable energy company RES Australia has proposed the construction of 42 wind turbines, with blades as tall as 220metres (stock image)
She also said residents are upset because the turbines are in the same area as endangered Pygmy Blue-tongue lizards.
‘We’re really hoping that the South Australian environment department says ‘No, you can’t just bulldoze [their burrows] and then pay a fine’,’ she said.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted RES Australia and the SA Environmental Protection Agency for comment.
Ms. Morris, who serves as secretary of the Hansborough and District Residents Group, said the group has been hosting public information sessions in the Barossa Valley to share their research with locals.
‘I’m energised at the moment because there’s so much community opposition to it,’ she said.
‘Everybody is really supporting each other to try and get the planning department to refuse this project.’
RES Australia said on its website that members of the public are invited to make a written representation on the project via the consultation on the state government planning portal.
Residents are upset because the turbines are in the same area as the endangered Pygmy Blue-Tongue Lizards (pictured)
RES Australia has submitted a planning application for 42 turbines that locals say will loom over the tourist-favourite Barossa Valley
On top of the turbines, the proposal includes a battery energy storage facility of 215MW capacity, a transmission line and substations.
RES Australia was granted development consent in 2019 for the wind farm but re-submitted a planning application for a revised plan in March due to ‘evolution in wind turbine technology’.
In the new application, RES has reduced the number of turbines from 51 to 42 with an increased blade tip height of up to 220m.
‘The reduction in number of turbines may have a positive impact on the visual impact of the project,’ the firm said.
The application summary acknowledges the presence of the endangered lizard, saying an environment protection and biodiversity conservation referral will be submitted for an optimised layout.
It also addresses the issue of character preservation of Barossa Valley.
‘The site of the proposed development is not located within the Significant Landscape Protection Overlay or the Character Preservation Area Overlay and therefore would not be a restricted form of development.
‘Twin Creek Wind Farm provides an efficient form of renewable energy facility that does not create unreasonable hazard, environmental impact or visual impact.’
