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| My drone off to get some photos of a Mid-North South Australian wind farm |
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A number of Australian wind farms are not in Table 1 because they were not listed in the report, see
Table 2, below.
It is quite probable that some, or even most, of those that are not listed have very low or non-existent community funds.
I would like to be informed of any errors of any sort.
As might be expected, the operators of community owned wind farms are very generous.
Pacific Hydro and Goldwind are more generous than the average of the others.
The two wind farms being built in Queensland at the time of writing are good examples of the extremes: Goldwind at White Rock WF has promised $1000/MW/yr while AGL at Coopers Gap WF has promised $66/MW/yr.
AGL: Judging by the above table AGL do very poorly. I contacted them asking about this. Their reply is copied in full below. In their reply they stated that their total contribution to the community around the Hallett Group of wind farms from 2007/08 to 2017/18 (inclusive?) was $629,450; that is an average of $57,223/year for eleven years.
My own opinion is that some minimum level of community support should be mandated, perhaps something around $800 per megawatt of installed capacity per year, this is a little above the median of the values on Table 1 ($635), but below the average ($1160). As the cost of wind power declines in future, the mandatory payment to communities could increase. I believe that the amount paid by wind farms in council rates varies considerably from state to state. This would need to be taken into consideration in deciding any fixed minimum community payment. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Table 2 Larger wind farms with unknown community enhancement funds, or none at all | |
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| NSW | Taralga |
| SA | Canunda, Cathedral Rocks, Mount Millar, Starfish Hill |
| Tas | Musselroe, Woolnorth |
| Vic | Mount Gellibrand, Mount Mercer, Toora |
| WA | Albany, Mumbida |
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New Zealand company Meridian Energy owns both Mount Millar and Mount Mercer wind farms.
I emailed asking what community funds they provided on 2018/04/26 and received an automatic reply.
As of 2018/05/07 they have not answered my question.
I would guess that they give nothing in community development funds.
So far as I know nobody lives within 10 km or more of Cathedral Rocks WF, so it could be said that there is no community. Mount Millar, too, is in a sparsely settled area. |
| Hornsdale Wind Farm |
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AGL's reply to my inquiryIn Table 1 the community contributions from AGL seem particularly poor. I asked about this. AGL's full reply is given below:"Thanks for the question regarding community funding from AGL's wind farms.AGL's $629,450 for the Hallett group of wind farms over an eleven year period gives an average of $57,223 per year. This works out at $163 per installed megawatt per year instead of the $145 on Table 1 above. This is still only about a quarter of the median funding rate of all the wind farms on Table 1. The email address from which AGL's message came did not allow me to reply. |
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SummaryThere is a huge range of levels of community funding provided by Australian wind farms; from very generous to nothing.I live in the area near the Clements Gap, Waterloo, and proposed Crystal Brook Energy Park. I have seen the good that the community funding from Clements Gap and Waterloo wind farms have done, and look forward to more generous community funding from the Crystal Brook Energy Park when and if it is built. Pacific Hydro, who runs Clements Gap WF, is very generous; Palisades, who own Waterloo WF provide very useful funding, but are well below the median level of those listed in the Australian Wind Alliance report and shown on Table 1. Neoen, the proposers of the Crystal Brook Energy Park, are promising an amount around the median level. AGL does provide funding, but at a level near the bottom of the listed wind farms. Meridian Energy, it would seem, provide no community funding; several other wind farm operators either provide very little funding or none at all (of course they are not keen on admitting they don't provide financial support for the local communities). The wind farms that have little, an unknown level of community funding, or no funding are listed in Table 2. While there are many other advantages to a community in hosting a wind farm it seems to me that there should be a mandated minimum level of community funding as well. |
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