RESEARCH

ASSIGNMENT

Emma Swann
3171645

ENVS6545
Impact
Assessment and
Climate Change

Lecturer
Michael Osborne

Word Count: 3494

"Wind power could play an important part in climate

change mitigation in Victoria. What role could
23/11/2012 community-owned wind farms play in this future and
what policy changes need to be put in place for this
happen?"

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Why does Victoria need to decrease its greenhouse gas emissions?

Fossil fuels are a major contributor to the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, which are causing
global climate change (Pittock, 2009). While fossil fuels will continue to dominate the world’s
energy supplies for the next few decades, it is vital that the world quickly moves to zero and
low carbon energy sources as part of a global climate change mitigation response. Policy
interventions will be needed for this to happen as rapidly as required, because renewable
energy such as solar, wind, geothermal make up only about 1% of current world energy
sources (Dessler and Parson, 2010, Sims et al., 2007). Australia heavily relies on coal as an
energy source, with 80% of the eastern states’ energy sourced from coal, 11% from gas and
only 9% from renewable energy sources including wind and hydroelectric (Garnaut, 2011).

The IPCC is highly confident that Australia is already experiencing impacts from climate change
with increasing stress on water supplies, changing ecosystems and less winter snowfall
(Hennessy et al., 2007). With climate change Victoria is likely to experience hotter
temperatures, decreased rainfall, double the number of high fire danger days and rising sea
levels of between 0.5 – 1.1m by 2100 (Victorian Government, 2010, Victorian Government,
2012).

Victoria’s path to lower its greenhouse gas emissions is challenging, as the state’s heavy
dependence on brown coal makes its coal-fired power stations Australia’s most greenhouse gas
intensive (Victorian Government, 2010). In 2009 Victoria’s stationary energy industry
produced 68.7% of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions, most of which came from burning
brown coal. Victoria’s emissions from coal-fired power stations are increasing – between 2000
and 2009 emissions from electricity generation increased by about 2.6 million tonnes CO2-e,
an increase of approximately 4% (Victorian Government, 2012). Although Victoria has a state
target of 20% emissions reduction from 2000 levels by 2020, in 2009 it produced 122.13
million tonnes of CO2-e, which is around 25 million tonnes higher than the reduction target
(Victorian Government, 2012). Victoria’s energy sector requires significant transformation if
the state is to meet its own emissions targets and truly contribute to global climate change
mitigation.

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Wind energy in Australia

Australia has international commitments under the Kyoto protocol to reduce its greenhouse
gas emissions, and many states have their own emissions reduction targets. A key part of
fulfilling these commitments is to reduce the country’s dependency on coal energy and replace
this with energy from renewable sources and gas (Garnaut, 2011). Since the technology for
geothermal and solar is still developing and there are limited opportunities for hydroelectric,
wind energy is left as the main source to meet this growing demand for renewables
(Hindmarsh and Matthews, 2008:218).

Wind energy policy under the previous Victorian Government

Under the Bracks and Brumby Victorian governments, large-scale commercial wind farm
developments were given strong government backing as a strategy to reduce the state’s
dependency on emissions-intensive brown coal energy (Environment Defenders Office,
2011a). Between 2003 and 2008, all nine wind farm proposals were approved by the Minister,
regardless of the number of submissions for or against the development, and there was no
avenue for public appeal of the Minister’s decision (Hindmarsh and Matthews, 2008).

Planning schemes for wind farms have to deal with the dilemma between encouraging rapid
deployment of wind farms to meet renewable energy targets, and the views of the communities
in which these wind farms are situated. In their rush to welcome the wind industry into the
state, the previous government sacrificed community involvement in the planning process.
Reports on Victorian wind developments between 2003 and 2008 found that community
consultation from the developer were either non-existent or very poorly executed. Quality
information addressing residents’ concerns was lacking, which often directly caused
community backlash against the development. It was recommended that developers engage
much more with communities, but the previous state government did not address this
recommendation with any policy response (Hindmarsh and Matthews, 2008). The federal
government’s 2006 discussion paper on a national code for wind energy specifically noted that
the Victorian planning scheme’s disempowerment of local community input was the root cause
of bitter conflicts over wind farm location in the state (Hindmarsh and Matthews, 2008).

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Changes to wind energy policy under the current Victorian Government

As part of his 2010 election promise, Liberal leader Ted Baillieu sought to capitalise on
community unrest over large wind farms and promised to “restore fairness and certainty to the
planning system for wind farms (Victorian Liberal National Coalition Party, 2010:19).”

The Coalition won the 2010 election, and planning amendment VC78 has implemented
controversial policies regarding wind farms, including:
• wind turbines cannot be located within 2km of a house without that owners written consent;
• establishing ‘no go’ zones for wind farms which include the Macedon and Yarra ranges and
many coastal regions; and
•excluding wind farms in or near national or state parks, certain tourist areas and regional
population growth corridors (Environment Defenders Office, 2011a).

These policies have resulted in Victoria having some of the world’s most stringent wind farm
planning laws, even stricter than those applied to the state’s coal power stations and toxic
waste sites (Friends of the Earth, 2012). The buffer zone between a wind farm and a house
without requiring the resident’s consent is 2km, while for a coal mine it is 100m and there is no
prescribed distance for a toxic waste treatment plant. Extensive parts of the state are excluded
from wind farm development, while no exclusion zones for toxic waste treatment plants exist
(Environment Defenders Office, 2011b).

The 2km set back zone and the ‘no go’ zones were not science-based decisions and made
arbitrarily, without consulting the wind industry (Clean Energy Council, 2011). Many of the
exclusion zones include Victoria’s best sites for wind energy, causing large wind developers to
close their Victorian offices and look elsewhere for development opportunities. Ten wind farm
proposals totalling 204 turbines have been blocked or stalled due to these laws, including four
community projects (Friends of the Earth, 2012).

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Victorian Wind Atlas produced by Sustainability Victoria (Courtice, 2011).

The darker brown areas on the wind atlas show high wind levels, while blue and green parts
show low wind.

New wind farm policies and their application in Victoria (Courtice, 2011).

Produced by the Shadow Minister for Planning, this map shows where the new wind farm
planning restrictions apply. The areas in white are the only places where wind farms can be
built under normal planning restrictions. Most of the state’s high wind areas are now subject to
area-specific wind farm exclusion zones or the 2km set-back restriction.

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Overseas experiences with community participation in community-owned and
commercial wind farms

The UK has superior wind resources to Denmark and Germany yet produces much less
electricity from wind power. Therefore wind resource quality is not the only factor influencing
a country’s use of wind energy, with patterns of ownership and community participation being
important elements (Toke et al., 2008).

Large commercial enterprises dominate wind farm ownership in the UK, while Denmark and
Germany have a high percentage of community owned projects (Toke et al., 2008). In Germany,
50% of the country’s wind power capacity is owned by local farmers or cooperatives and in
Denmark the figure is closer to 70%. Approximately 20% of Denmark’s energy is sourced from
wind power, the highest percentage for any country (Toke et al., 2008). Thus there appears to
be a correlation between high rates of wind farm deployment and high rates of community or
local ownership.

Evidence from abroad also suggests that the increased community participation due to high
levels of community ownership and/or involvement in the planning process results in higher
rates of wind farm deployment. In Europe, local ownership is very important for local
acceptance of a wind farm, and can counteract some of the objections. Local farmers in favour
of a wind development can use their social network to advance the case, which is something
that no outside developer has (Toke, 2005). Denmark’s planning rules are unique in that
municipalities have to involve stakeholder groups like local NGO’s and utilities very early on in
the planning process.

The UK experience has been quite different, and similar to the previous Victorian government’s
approach. Although surveys suggest that around 80% of the UK public support wind power,
many proposed developments have faced staunch opposition from local communities. Like
Victoria, the UK wind farm industry is dominated by large commercial developers with high-
tier government backing, who have attempted to site wind farms without community
involvement. Many people have found this process to be unfair, which has built mistrust,
resentment and opposition (Toke et al., 2008).

On top of resentment due to lack of involvement, local people are often concerned about wind
farms’ visual impact on the landscape, the annoyance of turbine glint and flicker, its perceived
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effect on tourism, the noise, the danger to birds and voltage fluctuations due to wind speed
variation (Eltham et al., 2008). For local communities to accept a wind farm, these concerns
need to be discussed and dealt with.

Another feature of successful wind farm deployment in European countries has been
government-funded stable incentive regimes offering a substantial subsidy for wind power.
This has occurred in Germany, with the government actively defending their feed-in tariffs for
over a decade (Toke et al., 2008). The UK approach of allowing the market to set the price paid
for wind energy has met with many problems, which have also contributed to the poor uptake
of wind farms in the UK. Given that it’s a fledgling industry competing with the well-established
and heavily-subsidized coal power industry, stable fixed prices for wind power are preferable
because they offer investors reliable returns (Toke et al., 2008).

The Hepburn Community Wind Farm

Community ownership and community participation have been used with great success in
Australia’s first community wind farm, located in Hepburn Springs, Victoria. The two turbines
began operating in 2011, after a 6 year process of engaging and educating the community,
raising capital and obtaining planning permits. The turbines produce enough energy to power
2,300 neighbouring homes (Lane, 2012:4).

In 2005, a developer held a community consultation meeting for a proposed wind farm, and
was met with strong opposition. While that development was abandoned, a small group of pro-
wind residents worked on engaging the community in a community-owned wind farm (Wise,
2012). They held a forum to explain the idea and 95% of those present approved. With grass-
roots support growing, they formed an association and worked on an extensive campaign.
They made more than 80 personal home visits to residents, held 120 information stalls in the
main street, ran 7 bus tours for people to visit nearby wind farms, sent 40 e-newsletters to a
list of 6,500 people and extensively used social media tools (Wise, 2012).

The association raised enough capital to construct the two turbines, with $9.7 million coming
from 1,950 community investors, a $975,000 grant from the Victorian government and a $3.1
million loan from Bendigo Bank. The grant provided by the Victorian government was crucial,
as it reduced project risks at a critical time and gave community investors the security they
needed to support the project (Wise, 2012).

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Its cooperative structure allows members to receive dividends. Its run democratically, so each
member has a single vote regardless of the number of shares they have. Approximately
$30,000 per year from the wind farm’s profits goes to a community fund, which assists local
sustainability projects. This ensures that the whole community benefits (Wise, 2012).

What role could community-owned wind farms play in Victoria’s climate change
mitigation future?

The advantages of community-owned wind farms in rapidly increasing the deployment of wind
energy are many, largely because if organised effectively the whole community is involved in
key decisions, projects are often smaller-scale so impact less on the landscape and locals can
benefit from the project through ownership, dividends and community funds. These factors
combined work to significantly decrease opposition to wind farm developments and have been
very successfully used by the Hepburn Springs project, as well as in Denmark and Germany.
Community-owned wind farms should be strongly encouraged in Victoria as part of the state’s
climate change mitigation strategy.

However even in Denmark and Germany a substantial percentage of wind farms are
commercially owned, and if Victoria is to meet its own emissions targets by 2020 it will need
some large-scale developments. New policy is needed to ensure that commercial wind farms
appropriately include communities in order to decrease conflict.

What policy changes need to be implemented for community-owned and commercial

wind farms to contribute to Victoria’s climate change mitigation strategy?

The Baillieu government’s wind farm planning regulations need to be repealed. There should
be no set-back zone between wind farms and residential areas, in line with the regulations for
toxic waste sites. ‘No-go’ zones for wind farms should only be implemented if they are based on
detailed landscape assessments.

With these changes Victoria would revert to the policy position of the previous government.
While laudable in that they encouraged the growth of the wind industry, the predominance of
large scale corporate projects and poor community participation was a bad combination and
bred substantial hostility to wind energy in the state. For community-owned and commercial
wind farms to play a strong role in Victoria’s climate change mitigation strategy, policies need
to address the reasons why communities oppose wind farm developments.
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Some claim that most people silently support wind farms, but the planning process highlights
those who oppose them, because they are more likely to write submissions and vocally protest
(Bell et al., 2005). Engaging early with communities and collaboratively building a project
addresses this issue, because collaboration includes diverse stakeholders and looks at
consensus building, going beyond consultation. Consensus building would encourage more of
the ‘silent majority’s’ voices to be heard in the planning stage (Bell et al., 2005).

Some opposition to particular wind farms come from community members who are qualified
supporters of wind energy – they agree with the general idea of it but believe that there need to
be limits (Bell et al., 2005). The exact nature of their concerns needs to be understood first (is it
lack of knowledge of climate change and wind power’s role in mitigation? Or is it concern over
local bird populations or perceived effects on human health?) They need to be given
information addressing these different concerns from a trusted source that’s easily digestible.
Furthermore, direct involvement with the public and respect for their concerns builds
relationships and trust, which is invaluable if their concerns are to be allayed. A key issue for
many people is the impact of wind turbines on the landscape, and the only real way to address
this is to include the community in the site’s selection and design from the very beginning (Bell
et al., 2005).

Some opposition to wind farms comes from a NIMBY attitude, which is essentially one of self
interest (I’d be happy to use wind energy produced elsewhere but not from my
neighbourhood). Offering such people something that will personally benefit them, like shares
in the project and a community fund to finance other community projects can help to ease their
opposition, as can local control over site location and accommodating other local concerns
(Bell et al., 2005).

The highly successful Hepburn community project included elements that addressed all of
these issues and early stakeholder involvement is a feature of the Danish wind farm planning
system. Commercial wind farm developers in Victoria must radically transform the way in
which they engage local communities, and they need policy guidance and support to do this.
Those wishing to establish a community-owned wind farm would also benefit from such
guidance. The policy should provide clear guidelines on community involvement in wind
farms which include how to utilise collaboration and consensus building, the need to provide

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extensive information, the importance of addressing community concerns, being open and
inclusive with regard to site selection and providing tangible benefits for the community such
as shares in the project and a community fund.

Policy is also required to encourage community-owned wind farms, through providing

government financial assistance (such as that provided for the Hepburn project) along with
easily accessible information on how to tackle the many complex issues involved such as
raising capital and connecting to the grid (Walker, 2008).

In order to support both community-owned and commercial wind farms, the Victorian
government should keep a fixed price for wind energy similar to Germany, as this is more
reliable for investors.

Conclusion

For those aware of the urgency of climate change mitigation it is perhaps easy to regard the
previous Victorian Governments approach to wind farms as justified. However it backfired
terribly. Giving such a clear bias towards corporate developers who announced large-scale
projects with little or no information, education or regard for community concerns caused
strong resistance to wind energy in the state. The Baillieu government capitalised on this and
now the state has some of the most stringent wind farm planning laws in the world, leading to
the near collapse of the wind industry.

The communities where wind farms will be located cannot be ignored. The Hepburn wind farm
is a terrific example of community involvement, where the good-will and trust built over six
years of collaborative discussion paid off with strong community support and pride in the
project. Community ownership of wind farms can effectively address many people’s concerns
regarding wind farms; however large-scale commercial wind farms must also be involved if
Victoria is to meet its emission reduction targets. Developers need guidelines on how to truly
include the community early on in a planning application and ensure that they substantially
benefit from the project. Only with local community backing for wind farms will Victoria really
be able to shift from its reliance on brown coal to renewable energy sources, taking the strong
climate change mitigation action that is so desperately required.

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